There are all sorts of ways to sustain damage, or die, in a movie, and crushing has to be one of the most brutal if only because it can be slow or fast, but most times it’s absolutely terrifying if one can see it coming. The truth of it is that not every single entry on this list is about a human being getting crushed, but you can get a pretty good idea of what’s going on since it goes with the theme of this piece. A death or injury by crushing, usually it’s a death, is savage given that unless it happens quickly it’s bound to be kind of graphic and one can imagine that a character would be in excruciating pain as they felt their own bodies crumpled into a red, spongy mass shot through with broken bits of bone. Yeah, it would get pretty graphic, which is why it’s probably a good idea that a lot of movies either cut away or hide the gruesome results once such a thing happens. With that in mind, here are ten movies that show great crushing scenes.
10. Avatar
It’s one thing to encounter a native species that is larger, more in tune with their surroundings, and fire arrows the size of short spears. But even with heavy artillery and the types of weapons that can reduce a landscape to ash, there’s not much that can be done when an entire forest decides to fight back and preserve itself from the devastating touch of invaders. The Hammerhead Titanothere that stomps on one of the mech-wearing soldiers after knocking him down is just a small bit of proof of that.
9. Sleepers
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xnGNyAMJLbk
This is when an idea goes from bad to absolutely horrible since stealing hot dogs from a hardworking individual is bad enough, but stealing the entire cart is even worse since like it or not, the prank that was supposed to be funny ended up ruining more than one person’s day. What happened as a result of this prank would go on to shape the young lives of the boys that did this in a very profound and negative manner.
8. 13 Ghosts
Trusting someone in a horror movie is a touchy kind of thing since if you know they have a record of betraying people then there’s no reason to think that they won’t do this to anyone they’re associated with. This is why F. Murray Abrahama plays such a perfect villain, he comes off as the type of guy that can turn on pretty much anyone as his act is so convincing. It does make one wonder if this woman’s ghost would have been vengeful enough to help ruin the spell that summoned the other ghosts.
7. Lethal Weapon 2
Usually there’s nothing funny about crushing someone with a huge container as happened in this movie, but there are facts to review before condemning Riggs’ satisfaction at this moment. One, the South Africans in this story hid behind their diplomatic immunity when it came to everything from reckless driving to murder. Second, the guy he squashed admitted to killing Riggs’ wife years before, so it’s easy to think that he had at least some justification. Plus, the guy had already aided in or been responsible for the deaths of several other cops.
6. The Terminator
How in the world do you stop something that won’t be stopped by anything short of complete destruction? That’s a good question really, since even after losing its meat shell, and then being blown up by Reese, the terminator was still coming on strong. But finally it appears that being crushed in a hydraulic press, after all, was enough.
5. Deadpool
Heroes aren’t able to get away from controversy unfortunately since their actions do get rather violent at times, and Negasonic Teenage Warhead doesn’t appear to share Colossus’s desire to keep the villains alive to stand trial. But let’s back up a moment, since Colossus did toss a huge tire at the enemies which could have easily caused heavy, if not fatal, damage. But yeah, he didn’t exactly pancake two of them with a van.
4. Aliens
It’s tough to feel sorry for the xenomorphs, so I won’t, since they’re nasty bits of work that don’t stop unless someone stops them. One could argue that they’re following their own nature, but then they’d have to argue that Ripley is making sure that she and the others can follow their own basic need to survive as well. Getting squashed beneath a heavy metal wheel is a bad way to go, but as some might ask, the blood from the squashed xenomorph might allow it to get revenge in a way, if enough of it was picked up and carried on.
3. Very Bad Things
This movie was all kinds of messed up since first, the guys travel to Las Vegas for a fun bachelor party, one of them has sex with a hooker and unfortunately kills her when he slams her against the wall hard enough to drive a towel hanger into the back of her head. Then, they kill the security guard that comes to check on them, and then, one of them runs down his brother when all he meant to do was smash his minivan. And if you think it stops there you’d be wrong, since the craziness doesn’t end until the credits start to roll.
2. Happy Gilmore
There are definitely moments of humor when it comes to crushing people in the movies since to keep it all serious would be kind of depressing. But if anyone wants to argue the physics and reality of this scene, go ahead. The point is Happy Gilmore was meant to be a completely comical movie, as this scene proves. The fact that the woman is still alive after the AC falls on her is hilarious thanks to how the scene plays out.
1. Con Air
There really wasn’t any other way to end this movie in terms of what to do with Cyrus. It feels as though people would have been calling for a sequel had he survived, so killing him, Diamond Dog, and Swamp Thing was about the only way to go. And taking Cyrus out in a way that was guaranteed to kill was kind of perfect since cracking his head like an egg would be about the only way to do it. It’s brutal, but a crushing death in a movie is final most times at least.
Happy Gilmore
