- 5/2/2025
From heartbreaking sacrifices to shocking executions, the Marvel Cinematic Universe doesn't shy away from disturbing deaths. Join us as we count down the most gut-wrenching demises that left audiences stunned and horrified. From beloved heroes to vicious villains, these departures weren't just plot points—they were traumatic moments that changed the MCU forever.
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00:00What could we have done differently? Good question. We took too long.
00:09Welcome to WatchMojo and today we're paying tribute to the characters who suffered some
00:14of the most gruesome unsettling demises in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This includes both
00:19movies and TV shows. Expect major spoilers ahead and a content warning for certain death scenes.
00:25We're going to be okay. You can rest now.
00:3320. Foggy Nelson – Daredevil Born Again
00:46Foggy Nelson was Matt Murdock's best friend and business partner in the original Daredevil.
00:50While they didn't always see eye to eye, Foggy stood by his friend's side and did
00:55what he could in the name of justice. Of course, he made a welcome return in Daredevil Born Again,
01:01but with a major price. In the series premiere episode,
01:04Nelson unwillingly finds himself in bullseye's crosshairs and is suddenly shot down.
01:17Tragically, he does not survive his wounds. The only thing more shocking than the death
01:22is the impact it has on Matt. He loses control nearly killing bullseye. Afterwards, he vows to
01:28hang up the cowl as Daredevil. Or try to, anyway.
01:4119. Obadiah Stain aka Iron Monger – Iron Man
01:45It's only fitting that the MCU's first major supervillain would suffer one of the most brutal
02:03demises. Obadiah Stain is so jealous of Tony Stark's success that he tries to have Tony assassinated,
02:09stealing the one device that was keeping him alive. He created his armor to throw down with Tony,
02:14hoping to kill him with his own tech. However, Stain's death is even more ironic. He ends up
02:19electrocuted by his stolen tech before falling to a literal explosive death.
02:36While MCU deaths would only get more brutal from here, Stain's end set the bar for how grisly these
02:42films could get when killing a villain. 18. Jackson Bryce aka Shocker – Spider-Man Homecoming
03:12Adrien Toomes aka The Vulture and his crew have been experimenting with salvaged alien weapons.
03:22One of his flunkies calling himself the Shocker gets a little too cocky for Toomes' liking. Toomes
03:27tries to teach him a lesson with an anti-gravity gun but grabs the wrong blaster. Instead,
03:32the gun vaporizes Shocker into a pile of burning ashes.
03:42I can't afford that. This is why you should always label your weapons of mass destruction,
03:53even if Shocker was too big for his britches. He was the only notable death in Homecoming,
03:58but he served as a grim example of what happens when you cross the Vulture,
04:02even if it was an accident. Fortunately, the next Shocker doesn't share the same gruesome faith.
04:06She'll never know. Nice shot!
04:2017. Happy Hogan – What If? That sort of seems like overkill.
04:2618. The Marvel Zombies comics are a treasure trove of gore and carnage as our favorite heroes fall
04:41victim to a zombifying outbreak. One episode of What If? gives us a small taste of what happens when
04:46the virus comes to the MCU. Among the many victims is Happy Hogan, one of Tony's most trusted employees.
04:53He managed to survive using Tony's repulsor glove but his luck sadly runs out when he gets snagged by
04:58an undead Hawkeye and then infected. To put him out of his misery, Sharon Carter turns Happy's blaster
05:19towards his face. While we thankfully don't see the explosion, the sound alone is enough to churn our
05:25stomachs.
05:3416. Dr. Heinrich Schaefer – The Avengers
05:36Loki needs a rare element to further his plans for the upcoming invasion. Unfortunately for Loki,
05:53it's locked behind a vault that can only be opened using the eye of one Heinrich Schaefer. Rather than
05:58just kidnap Schaefer and force him to unlock the vault, Loki takes it 12 steps forward. He uses the
06:04device to forcibly extract Schaefer's eye from its socket to use it as a key.
06:23There are fates worse than death. Schaefer was forced to experience it firsthand before being left to die.
06:29While we don't see the eye being gouged out, the implication alone is enough to leave us squirming in our seats.
06:4515. Phil Coulson – The Avengers
06:48Even though he wasn't a superhero, Phil Coulson managed to capture our hearts with his heroic nature.
07:05He stood his ground against the all-powerful god of Mischief to protect his heroes. Unfortunately,
07:11he fell for one of Loki's tricks and was literally stabbed in the back, leaving us gasping in horror
07:16as he succumbed to his wounds. If any good came from his death, it's that it gave the Avengers the
07:21drive to band together and put an end to Loki's invasion.
07:2515. Phil Coulson – Come back, come back, come back, come back, come back.
07:3315. Miraculously, Phil was resurrected in Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., only to later die peacefully in his sleep.
07:38Along the way, many Coulson duplicates would die as well, because once is never enough.
07:4314. Karina – Guardians of the Galaxy
07:53These carriers can use this stone to mow down entire civilizations like wheat in a field.
08:04There's a little pee coming out of me right now.
08:06The Guardians of the Galaxy have just brought the Power Stone to the Collector,
08:09who explains its devastating abilities. That's all Karina, one of the Collector's servants,
08:14needs to hear. She tries to grab the stone, hoping to use it to kill her master,
08:18but it's too much for her to handle. The stone's destructive power courses through her body,
08:23causing her to shriek in pain until she finally explodes from the inside.
08:2715. I will no longer be your slave!
08:2915. No!
08:3016. No!
08:3016. No!
08:3217. No!
08:3617. No!
08:3817. No!
08:40Even if the Collector was a lousy employer,
08:42was trying to end him worth this agonizing body horror? Probably not, but it definitely proved that
08:48only a select few can handle the Power Stone. One of those few, unfortunately, is Thanos.
08:5317. Destiny arrives all the same, and now it's here. Or should I say, I am.
09:0317. No!
09:0617. No!
09:0617. No!
09:0717. No!
09:0717. No!
09:0917. No!
09:1017. No!
09:1117. No!
09:1217. No!
09:1317. No!
09:1517. No!
09:1818. Even for you…
09:21It says a lot when a ghastly red skull isn't the most disturbing part of this scene.
09:2518. Thanos has taken his daughter Gamora to another dimension to acquire the Soul Stone.
09:30However, they discover that a sacrifice is required to obtain the stone. With tears in his eyes,
09:36Thanos reluctantly tosses the struggling Gamora over the cliff, where she falls to her death.
09:41he continues to mourn for gamora afterward showing that he did care for his adoptive daughter but
09:56his obsession with the mission means he has to stay the course he got what he wanted and
10:01all it cost him was the only person he cared for besides himself
10:05number 12 johnny storm aka the human torch deadpool and wolverine you know where we are start talking
10:21you're in the void think of it as purgatory reed called it a metaphysical junkyard where anything
10:29useless goes before it gets annihilated forever it was a huge shock seeing chris evans human
10:34torch make a comeback in deadpool and wolverine but don't get used to seeing him again he along
10:40with our titular duo is brought to cassandra nova an all-powerful mutant and matriarch of the void
10:45deadpool ever the mouthy one mentioned some brutal insults johnny allegedly made toward her but she
10:51doesn't get mad instead she makes johnny's skin disappear reducing him to a pile of bones and
10:57organs i don't even know what half of that means this my hat's off to you sir truly i didn't he's
11:03that's i later we find out that johnny actually did say those things so maybe he deserved it a little
11:10but that doesn't make it any less gruesome it's even worse considering we may never see 20th century
11:16fox's fantastic four again i'm tired of these absolutely vile rumors that i got johnny killed
11:22let's look at the tape in the void you're either food for elias or you work for her
11:30go on johnny number 11 thanos avengers end game
11:37in the aftermath of the infamous snap the remaining avengers find and ambush thanos to retrieve the
11:54infinity stones unfortunately thanos already destroyed the stones having no use for them
11:59after succeeding in his goals he apologizes to nebula for how he treated her only to be suddenly
12:04decapitated by thor what what did you do
12:13in all fairness he once told thor that he should have aimed for the head but we just didn't expect
12:22him to commit to it even though the mad titan has been slain it's a bittersweet end it won't undo the
12:28damage he's done and thor still has to live with the guilt of failing to save half the universe
12:33number 10 frank ant-man i'm sorry you have such deep concerns about the yellow jacket frank
12:46yeah well uh unfortunately we can't just do whatever we want
12:53nobody likes a quitter darren cross certainly doesn't when one employee frank has his doubts
12:58about the yellow jacket suit while frank tries to politely voice his concerns cross pulls a shrink
13:03ray on him however instead of shrinking him it reduces frank to a blob of protein what laws of man
13:09the laws of nature transcend the laws of man and i've transcended the laws of nature
13:14darren i don't think you understand
13:20while we're all horrified at what just happened cross just casually wipes frank off the floor and
13:30flushes him down the toilet no blood or body horror yet the tense build up in frank's swift
13:35groupification left us shaking in our boots if you ever have concerns with your workplace be careful when
13:41confronting your boss or your whole life may literally go down the drain goodbye frank
13:46number nine hulk what if
13:56we all know hank pym would do anything for his family but would he be willing to kill for them
14:06one grim episode of what if answers this as we see pym become the yellow jacket and slaughter the
14:12avengers one by one before the team can properly form you just left out how'd she die the same way
14:18her mother did doing shields dirty work and that gave you permission to murder them anthony stark
14:27clint barton bruce banner arguably the one that makes us all queasy is the hulk where hank uses his
14:33pim particles on the green brute's heart we winced as poor bruce's heart outgrows his entire body until
14:39he explodes into a green cloud of smoke
14:42bruce
14:43we should count our blessings that our hank never reached this low but we're too busy shuddering
14:58after witnessing the hulk's literal growing pains number eight loki avengers infinity war if i might
15:06interject if you're going to earth you might want to guide do you have a bit of experience in that
15:13arena the opening scene of infinity war was a testament to thanos's might he slayed countless
15:18as guardians and even put the hulk to shame loki schemes to get close enough to strike him down but
15:24thanos isn't so easy to trick he simply picks the god of mischief up by the throat and finishes him
15:30off you should choose your words more carefully
15:41thanos choking someone to death is gut-wrenching enough but the fact that it was our favorite
15:46villain turned anti-hero is nothing short of mortifying however a time traveling heist from the
15:51avengers ensured that loki wasn't done yet in another timeline anyway it's confusing we know
15:56but at least this loki was spared from the mad titan's grasp
16:05number seven lila guardians of the galaxy volume three
16:09okay this one was tough before he became a guardian of the galaxy rocket was one of
16:24several captive animals experimented on by the high evolutionary he befriended his fellow inmates
16:29including an otter named lila and tried to help them escape he managed to free lila from her cage
16:34only for her to be suddenly gunned down by a high evolutionary
16:43yes i imagined you'd do something like this back in the cage p13 to the sadistic scientist it's just
16:50another day at the office but to rocket in the audience it's him losing one of his closest friends
16:56and it happened in a matter of seconds before he leaves rocket leaves high evolutionary a parting gift
17:02by mauling his face he deserved much worse in all honesty
17:15number six pietro maximoff aka quicksilver avengers age of ultron come back for me when everyone else is
17:21off not before you understand you know i'm 12 minutes older than you go it's the final battle against
17:31ultron and sokovia ultron has hawkeye and a child in his crosshairs hawkeye prepares to be gunned down
17:37only to see that quicksilver took the shots for him our time with quicksilver was tragically short
17:42starting as one of ultron's minions only to join the avengers alongside his sister wanda
17:47with one last throwback to his introductory line he dies a true hero and wanda is left to grieve
17:54he didn't see that it's coming sadly this wouldn't be the last major loss wanda has to suffer but it's
18:04the one that we're still recovering from no pietro we didn't see it coming at all
18:20that's what we're saying
18:24number five vision avengers infinity war look at me you have the power to destroy the stone you must do
18:30it on please
18:34we are out of time thanos is on the hunt for infinity stones one of them the mind stone is the source of
18:41vision's life to prevent thanos from getting the stone vision forces his beloved wanda to destroy the
18:47stone willingly sacrificing himself for the sake of the universe wanda reluctantly does so and the
18:52universe is saved right wrong as thanos just uses the time stone to undo visions death then violently
19:05rips the mind stone out of his head it's no wonder wanda went off the deep end watching a loved one
19:10die by your hands is horrible enough but seeing them die twice is too much for anyone what happened
19:16to brave men only die once
19:36number four victor timely loki get down the gateway as fast as you can load the multiplier launch it
19:42and get back got it okay okay okay time to be brave
19:53can you imagine a worse fate than being crushed to death while miss minutes smiles at your demise
19:58victor timely definitely can when he's recruited by loki to fix the malfunctioning temporal loom
20:04luckily his hazmat suit should protect them right sadly no the minute he steps close to the loom he
20:10is spaghettified right before our eyes
20:23fortunately loki manages to travel back to before his death to try and fix things unfortunately for us
20:29this means we're forced to see victor disintegrate again and again until loki can get it right the first
20:35time was horrifying but having to re-watch it over and over it's even more stomach churning
20:40again again again come on come on come on come on come on come on
20:56again number three nico the falcon and the winter soldier
21:00let's be honest john walker had some enormous shoes to fill but he was never going to be our
21:12captain america while he tried to live up to the legacy he blew it big time during a brawl with the
21:17flag smashers his partner battle star was killed during the fight enraged john attacked one of the
21:23smashers nico nico begged him to stop but walker was having none of that and used cap's shield to
21:29murder him in front of countless witnesses
21:40if walker's unhinged actions don't show you to the bone
21:43seeing the blood-stained shield will leave you just as speechless as the crowd
21:55number two half the universe avengers infinity war not every death has to be super gory or
22:01detailed to give us the heebie-jeebies for example near the end of infinity war thanos
22:06succeeds in gathering all the infinity stones and snaps his fingers once he does half of all life in
22:12the universe disintegrates into dust you should have gone for the head
22:25among the victims are falcon black panther wanda most of the guardians and even spider-man who begs
22:31for help before fading away i don't want to go i don't want to go sir please please i don't want to go
22:43i'm sorry
22:49while there are more painful ways to die seeing most of our favorite heroes dissolve like this is
22:54heartbreaking and unnerving it's also a symbol of how earth's mightiest heroes majorly lost and have to
23:00live with their failure until they can find a miracle
23:07oh god
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23:241. the illuminati dr estrange in the multiverse of madness
23:30wanda black bolt could destroy you with one whisper from his mouth
23:36what mouth
23:44wanda has snapped and is hopping from universe to universe to find her children smiting anyone in her way
23:50unfortunately the next victims in her path are the illuminati a small team of superheroes what
23:56happens next is an unsettling bloodshed black bolt's mouth is erased causing his skull to implode mr
24:03fantastic is shredded out of existence
24:15captain marvel is crushed to death captain carter gets sliced in half by her shield
24:19finally professor x's neck is snapped after entering wanda's mind
24:23we knew it was going to be gruesome with sam raimi directing but seeing the carnage unfold
24:28still left us gasping in horror at the scarlet witch's ruthlessness
24:43which mcu death made you shield your eyes let us know in the comments down below you know i wish
24:48there was a way that i could let her know
24:51i wish there was a way that i could let her know in the comments down below you know
24:54but we won
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