Biggest ‘Oh Crap’ Moments in Book or Movie

[Grizzled]

Those ones which come out of nowhere, nail you between the eyes, and the work wouldn’t be the same without them. In no particular order:

“Luke, I am your father”
The death of Gandalf in Moria in LOTR
Michael Corleone’s handling of the other crime bosses in ‘The Godfather’
The Red Wedding in ‘Game of Thrones’
The death of Dumbledore in Harry Potter

[wab]

The Red Wedding was definitely one of those moments.

Leo getting shot in The Departed is up there.

[The Marshall Plan]

The end of Avengers End Game.
The end of The Mist.
Game Of Thrones had several of those moments.
The perfect ending to The Dark Knight Rises.
The whole thing of Mark Millar's Superman Red Son tradepaperback.
The Death Of Superman storyline in the comic books.
The Season 4 finale of Breaking Bad.
Pretty much the entire run of Garth Ennis' work in Preacher and The Punisher.

[Stormtrooper]

Jigsaw gets up at the end of 'Saw'

The ending of 'Ladder 47'

Basically any Hemingway book.

[Stormtrooper]

The Red Wedding was definitely one of those moments.

Leo getting shot in The Departed is up there.

I knew the Red Wedding was coming as I had read but the books but was still a jolt as you and Grizzled put,when it actually happened on screen.

[Grizzled]

The Red Wedding was definitely one of those moments.

Leo getting shot in The Departed is up there.

I knew the Red Wedding was coming as I had read but the books but was still a jolt as you and Grizzled put,when it actually happened on screen.

Read the LOTR, Godfather, and GOT long before the movies/TV show came out but very powerful in the books.

[karhu]

I don't expect that anything will top the end of The Usual Suspects.

Richard Powers' books have started to eerily mirror my life in some ways. Probably best to leave it at that, but it's unsettling almost to Oh Crap levels to open a new book by the greatest living novelist and just know that a handful of important elements are going to be seriously close to the bone. For what it's worth, I've never met the guy.

There's a subset of Oh Crap: endings that move toward two possible, opposing resolutions and just leave you there, hovering between the prospects of redemption and disaster. Limbo, the John Sayles movie, does this devastatingly well, and All for Nothing by Walter Kempowski does it even better. I can't recommend either of those highly enough.

[Grizzled]

I don't expect that anything will top the end of The Usual Suspects.

Definitely a great ending to one of my favorite movies.

[UOK]

I was gutted by the end of Life of Pi. The movie didn't do it justice at all, but was still a pretty good effort.

[Burl]

When the bear first locks eyes with Alec Baldwin in “The Edge” .

Also, the scene in Blood Meridian where they make gunpowder. If you’ve read it, you know what I’m talking about.

[UOK]

When the bear first locks eyes with Alec Baldwin in “The Edge” .

Also, the scene in Blood Meridian where they make gunpowder. If you’ve read it, you know what I’m talking about.

The Edge is such a manly, hair-on-your-ass movie. Alec Baldwin and Anthony Hopkins battling in nature against a giant bear. Rules. It's like a more nature-y, less fun version of Over The Top.

Blood Meridian was such a WEIRD book to read. I will definitely read it again, but the first time was like trying to parse a peyote fever dream on paper.

[Atkins&Rebel]

When William Munny walks into the saloon with his friend propped up outside

Joe Ambercrombie has a few books that I really like. The fascination with his material comes from the revelation of the "Bloody Nine":

“Something dug into the Bloody-Nine's back, but there was no pain. It was a sign. A message in a secret tongue, that only he could understand. It told him where the next dead man was standing”.

[spiepiealamode]

Game of Thrones definitely had more than one of those 'Oh Crap' moments lol

[karhu]

Here's an Oh Crap moment that never came. My second-grader is a holy terror in some respects, but he loves dogs. Loves our 75-pound Plott, loves the dog park, loves movies about dogs...that's his deal.

He just read Old Yeller for a book report at school. And for three days, we each kept an eye on him, waiting for him to get to the end. I was in the room with him when he got to the business part.

"Huh. They shot Old Yeller in the head."

"What do you think about that?"

"It's sad."

"Well, if you feel sad-"

"Dad, it's just a book. I feel sad for Old Yeller and Travis. I didn't have anything to do with it. I mean, I wasn't there."

[The Marshall Plan]

Here's an Oh Crap moment that never came. My second-grader is a holy terror in some respects, but he loves dogs. Loves our 75-pound Plott, loves the dog park, loves movies about dogs...that's his deal.

He just read Old Yeller for a book report at school. And for three days, we each kept an eye on him, waiting for him to get to the end. I was in the room with him when he got to the business part.

"Huh. They shot Old Yeller in the head."

"What do you think about that?"

"It's sad."

"Well, if you feel sad-"

"Dad, it's just a book. I feel sad for Old Yeller and Travis. I didn't have anything to do with it. I mean, I wasn't there."

Great kid! Love the story.

Have you guys checked out Call Of The Wild with Harrison Ford?

[UOK]

The Red Wedding was definitely one of those moments.

Leo getting shot in The Departed is up there.

That one got me bigtime. Love that movie.

The end of The Life of Pi book got me in a major way. The movie version didn't really do it justice at all.

[karhu]

Great kid! Love the story.

Have you guys checked out Call Of The Wild with Harrison Ford?

Thanks! I'll look for Call of the Wild. The animated version of White Fang was surprisingly good, and both my boys dug it.

For now, though, we're awaiting delivery of a box set of books I got to celebrate the little guy's first book report. Six books in the Stinkbomb and Ketchup-Face series. I wish I was making that up...but I've heard great things. Nailed the Bad Guys, the Uncle series, and The Phoenix Comic sight-unseen, so we'll see.