According to a top 10 list by Go Compare, Marvel’s Guardians of the Galaxy has the most on-screen deaths of any film ever.
A whopping 83, 871 people died in Guardians of the Galaxy. In a not-so-close second is Dracula Untold with 5, 687. Also on the list, comprised of the top 10 films with the most on-screen deaths, are the second two Lord of the Rings films, and the first Avengers. But the rest of the movies on the list have death counts in the thousands, nowhere near that of Marvel’s comedic space opera.
The little known comic series was adapted for the big screen in 2013. It follows Peter Quill, also known as Star Lord, as he gets embroiled in a plot to destroy the world of Xandar with one of the devastatingly powerful Infinity Stones. He teams up with Racket Racoon and Groot, a tree-like humanoid that acts as Rockets muscle and bodyguard; Drax the Destroyer, a powerful warrior who has a grudge against the villain of the tale, Ronan; and Gamora, an assassin who serves the tyrannical Thanos.
The ragtag group of outlaws has to work together to stop Ronan from taking over the world while simultaneously putting their differences aside to work together. All this sounds great but plenty of bodies end up six feet under by the end of the film’s 122-minute runtime. But they take on hordes of enemies and engage in a massive ship-based battle, with plenty of crafts plummeting from the sky.
You certainly wouldn’t think that a Marvel movie would feature the most on-screen deaths, but characters in the 616 are much more violent than those in the DC universe. Whereas heroes like Batman and Superman refrain from killing unless absolutely necessary, Iron Man, Captain America, and Hawkeye have no qualms about ending a life. They take down nameless henchmen left and right. While Marvel movies never outright address their heroes tendencies to kill, many deaths have filled entire scenes of Marvel films.
Guardians of the Galaxy Volume 2 is set to release May 5, 2017. Maybe it will take the throne away from its predecessor. And with The Avengers Infinity War on the horizon and plenty of rumors pointing to the deaths of many of the heroes currently populating the Marvel universe, the MCU is only going to get darker from here on out.
