The film characters we didn't expect to die

Whatever you think of 'Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close', out this week, it's a brave move to kill off the most famous actor  - in this case Tom Hanks - early on (and don't moan to us about spoilers, it's in the trailer!).

When done well, doing away with a main character is a great way of wrong-footing your audience. Just when you think you've honed in on your protagonist, they're unceremoniously dispatched leaving you speechless and a bit baffled as to how the story is possibly going to continue.

Let's raise a glass to those who checked out early...

[Related story: The craziest movie twist endings]
[Related feature: Hollywood's most mysterious deaths]

Marion Crane (Janet Leigh) in 'Psycho'

This is the quintessential example of despatching your lead early, done in one of the most iconic – and shocking – scenes in cinema history. It takes you utterly by surprise when Marion Crane, played by Janet Leigh, is murdered in her bathroom at the Bates Motel by its creepy proprietor Norman Bates. As 'Jaws' made people fear the water, Hitchcock's classic did much the same for shower curtains.

Apollo Creed (Carl Weathers) in 'Rocky IV'
The brotherly friendship between Apollo Creed and Rocky Balboa is played up the the hilt quite purposely at the beginning of Rocky IV, and it's only after he's walloped to death in the ring by the robotic spectre of creeping communism Ivan Drago that we realise why. A pivotal character in all the Rocky films, he appears a bit too invincible to be true, and his hubris gets him punished just after James Brown sings 'Livin' In America'. It's as subtle as a boot to the privates.

Marie (Franka Potente) in 'The Bourne Supremacy'
'But she's the flipping love interest!', we all howled. Silently. It was in the cinema, after all.  Despite being Jason Bourne's girlfriend from 'The Bourne Identity' - the girl he escaped the clutches of Operation Treadstone and fled with to Goa - her passage through to the second film in the series, The Bourne Supremacy, was shockingly brief. It set the furious vengeance angle up perfectly, however, creating an even angrier Jason Bourne from the get-go. Dramatically, it was a slick move.

Casey (Drew Barrymore) in 'Scream'

Drew Barrymore was by far the biggest draw to 'Scream'. Neve Campbell was only really known for starring in 'Party of Five', while Courtney Cox had not quite reached superstardom in 'Friends'. So it was devious (and rather clever) of Wes Craven to despatch the infinitely more famous Barrymore in the first 10 minutes of 'Scream', a shock which was to prove the first of many. It was a move that set the audience brilliantly off-balance from the start.

Goose (Anthony Edwards) in 'Top Gun'
Noooooo!! Not Goose!! The spikey-barneted family guy, Maverick's silver-tongued wingman, and, lest we forget, erstwhile Jerry Lee Lewis impersonator was not destined to make it out of the Top Gun training school in one piece. Though it's more like the middle of the film when he checks out (thanks to a dicky cockpit lid) it remains a crushing blow to Maverick as he spirals into a crisis of self-confidence, before shaking himself free and giving Val Kilmer a big cuddle. Bless.

Lt Col Austin Travis (Steven Seagal) in 'Executive Decision'
An odd choice to dispose of action star Seagal so early on in the cornball (but remarkably star-studded) 1996 actioner 'Executive Decision'. He was, after all, at the height of his powers as a punching/kicking/meditating action hero. Kurt Russell's army intelligence Poindexter takes up the slack, but he's no Seagal when it comes to taking out terrorists after Steve perishes in a dubiously feasible mid-air transfer with a 747.

Sgt Matt Thompson (Guy Pearce) in 'The Hurt Locker'

Guy Pearce has proved time and again that he's a leading man. So when he's the first on the scene to diffuse a bomb, the quite thumpingly obvious peril of the situation is entirely negated by the fact that we believe we're in safe hands. Guy Pearce can't die, because, well, because he's the film star, right? Wrong. This disposal goes catastrophically wrong, leaving the superb Jeremy Renner to take the reigns in one of the most stomach-churningly tense thrillers in many, many years.

Kate Miller (Angie Dickinson) in 'Dressed to Kill'
All action is based around Angie Dickinson's sexually frustrated housewife Kate Miller in Brian De Palma's saucy 1980 thriller. Or so we think. Interminably randy as she is, she has a clinch with a man she meets in the Metropolitan Museum, but is then quickly cut to ribbons in a lift by a mystery blonde.

Jack (Kevin Bacon) in 'Friday the 13th'
Never trust a man whose surname is a meat. Or something like that. That aside, paid-up bratpacker Kevin Bacon shuffled of this mortal coil in rather speedy (and blankly violent) fashion in Friday The 13th. After Bacon's character Jack and his squeeze Marcie get involved in some summer camp nookie (unbeknownst to them just underneath the bunk where their pal Ned lies murdered), he soon meets an equally bloody end. But then, getting done in was par for the course in this classic teen slasher.

Ellie in 'Up'
This masterpiece from Pixar features one of the most heartbreaking opening 15 minutes of any film in decades. Carl Fredricksen and his childhood sweetheart Ellie grow up together, he utterly in awe of her. We are lulled into thinking that this beautiful relationship is the solid cornerstone of the film, but it is not to be. There's not a dry eye in the house when Carl returns to the home they built together alone. For what was ostensibly a children's film, to deal with mortality in such a sensitive manner was both brave and brilliant.

Can you think of any more examples? Or did you spot these movie fatalities a mile off? Let us know below...