The Dog from A Boy And His Dog

This movie, based on a story by Harlan Ellison, contains a heartwarming relationship between 18-year-old Vic (Don Johnson) and his telepathic, super-intelligent dog Blood. It's just like Peabody the time-traveling professor dog in those cartoons — except that Blood helps Vic find women to rape and food to eat. At the end of the movie, Vic has to choose between the love of a (not terribly) nice woman and keeping Blood from starving — and a shot of meat roasting while Blood talks about how the woman didn't have such great taste gives you a hint of what Vic chooses.

Wall-E

Okay sure, you expect robots to survive the death of the planet — it's what robots do. But you might not expect there to be only one robot left on an otherwise desolate world — and for it to be a cute trash-compacting bot that befriends a cockroach and is obsessed with Barbra Streisand. Admit it — you didn't see that one coming.

Pets, generally

Check out this amazing clip from Exterminators: After The Year 3000, the film with the best title ever. Scroll forward to around 1:00 in — the cute kid in the convoy fleeing from the evil punk-rockers has his pet hamster with him! It's the amazing post-apocalyptic survival hamster. A lion survives in Twelve Monkeys. There's also a lion, as well as Kevin Costner's mule, in The Postman. And the tough post-apocalyptic hunter Harry in the movie Hard Knuckle has a little rat dog in his front pocket, sort of like a post-apocalyptic purse dog. (See awesome picture at the link.) Why is there always a lovable pet after a disaster has wiped out most of humanity?

Kids, generally.

As random dissheveled guy points out in this clip from the upcoming The Road, you don't really expect to see kids surviving a disaster that kills most of the adults. And yet, lots of them do somehow. Including the kid narrator in Mad Max, the gang of children in Mad Max: Beyond Thunderdome, Newt in Aliens, and Ed in Cowboy Bebop. Thanks to Madeline Ashby and JungleMonkey on Twitter for suggesting this one!

The mall girls in Night Of The Comet

The deadly radiation from the red comet passing over the Earth wipes out everybody — except for Sam and Regina, two valley girls, who just want to have fun. And go shopping, at the mall, even if it's full of zombies. (It's a well known fact that zombies love shopping malls.) Thanks to Misty S. and S.J. Edwards for suggesting this film!

The Book Of Dave by Will Self

Dave is an obnoxious, mentally ill cab driver in London, who scribbles in his notebook about the rules for surviving London traffic and his hatred of his ex-wife, who's keeping him from having custody of his son. He buries his book, and 500 years later, it's dug up after a flood destroys everything. And it becomes the foundation of a whole new misogynistic religion based on this crazy guy's ramblings. There have been plenty of other stories about bits of cultural flotsam surviving after everything else is gone — Mickey Mouse does it quite often — but this may be the weirdest.

Dinosaurs in Yor, The Hunter From The Future

You have to admit, you didn't expect dinosaurs to survive after the human race was all but wiped out, did you? Just like Planet of the Apes, Yor features a weird primitive world that appears to be the past at first, but which turns out to be our distant future. And somehow the dinosaurs have bounced back, maybe thanks to the radiation. They were only taking a siesta! There's also an android army, which makes a bit more sense.

Amazons in Warriors Of The Apocalypse

Nobody ever expects Amazon warriors to survive a global genocide. And even if you did, you wouldn't expect them to be amazons with eye-lasers, who get into an eye-laser-battle with some other dudes. Another runner up is the 1982 movie SHE, in which a giant in a tutu, a mummy in sunglasses, a Samurai, and bondage freaks all survive the end of the world.

Bob McKenzie in The Mutants of 2051 A.D., as featured in Strange Brew

Okay, so maybe you expected dinosaurs, purse dogs and Valley Girls to survive a planetary die-off. But Bob McKenzie? The co-host of Great White North, that recurring sketch on SCTV, eh? You really really didn't expect him to be the last human still alive. Check out his amazing technique for dealing with a post-apocalyptic mutant who's really not friendly. Thanks to Jeff Sparkman for suggesting this one! Another somewhat unlikely "last man" is Yorick in Y: The Last Man, who's just sort of a slacker escape artist — but he survives the disaster that kills all other men because he eats monkey poop.

Nuns

Nuns often seem to survive the death of humanity — maybe it's their religious faith, maybe it's the fact that they're sequestered from contagion and zombie outbreaks. Most awesomely, Donald G. Jackson's fantastic movie Rollerblade features a world where rollerblading nuns (with Nazi-esque emblems on their uniforms) keep the world safe from evil mutants — while rollerblading. (And they also use a switchblade to heal all wounds, causing a glowy smiley face to appear.) There are also some nuns holding out against the evil dolls-head-loving bikers in Survival Zone. And of course, who can forget Michelle Yeoh as a lone nun after the fall of civilization in Babylon A.D.? I'm sure Yeoh still has nightmares about it.

Thanks to S.J. Edwards, Madeline Ashby, Rory aka Cthul-who, Glamtasm, Jeff Sparkman, Luis Alberto Urrea and anyone else who helped.

Even as more women are becoming astronauts and getting to pilot the space shuttle, science fiction has shown tons of women taking the helm. Here are some of the most awesome, in no particular order:

Lady Sharrow in Against A Dark Background by Iain M. Banks

We don't get to see combat specialist Sharrow doing that much piloting in this book — but when she does take the controls, she makes it count. The one sequence where she does some fancy flying is one of the best moments in the book.

Carolyn Fry from Pitch Black.

I don't know how I managed to forget her — I actually had her on my list, and had grabbed this cool pic of her in advance. She manages to bring a dead ship down in spite of incredible odds — and sure, she tries to jettison her passengers. But she's just being sensible, after all.

Sue Parsons from Virtuality

As with Sharrow, Sue Parsons spends most of her screen time doing other things — mostly, like all the other characters on this show, bickering and freaking out about virtual reality nightmares. But when she does actually get to handle the Starship Phaeton's controls — watch out. She does an incredibly complex series of maneuvers while giant bombs are going off in her wake. Makes all the drama totally worth it.

Jenna, from Blake's 7.

This smuggler is the best pilot around — there's no competition, except maybe that arrogant twerp Del Tarrant. Jenna manages to take the controls of the Liberator, the most super-advanced ship in space, and master them almost immediately. And she's able to take it on manual and do some fancy flying, on occasion.

Saint-Emxin from Battle Beyond The Stars.

She's a mean Valkyrie fighter pilot, who more than holds her own in the movie's crucial Star Wars-inspired firefights. Han Solo not only couldn't pull off her headgear, he also couldn't outfly her. (I almost included Padme Amidala in this list, since she pilots a ship in Attack Of The Clones — but could Amidala really hold her own against Saint-Exmin? I think not.)

Tak from Invader Zim.

The "hideous new girl" shows up hoping to do a better job of invading Earth than Zim, and she has the ability to hypnotize humans into doing her bidding — but she also pilots her own ship.

Faye from Cowboy Bebop

Faye is an awesome fighter pilot, and even held her own in a dogfight with Spike. Runner-up status also goes to space trucker V.T., aka Victoria Terpsichore.

Carol "Foe Hammer" Rawley in Halo.

She does some pretty nifty flying as the pilot of Pelican transport Echo 419 on the UNSC Pillar of Autumn. She specializes in doing lots of missions involving hostile insertions and rescues, making her stand out from the rest.

Ana Khouri in Revelation Space by Alastair Reynolds.

This assassin joins the crew of the Nostalgia For Infinity, intent on killing one of the crewmembers, but then two different digital entities fight over control of her, and thus of the ship. Also a killer pilot is the ship's de facto captain, Illia Volyova.

Mary Raven from Ignition City.

This grounded space pilot journeys to Earth's last spaceport, Ignition City, to find out what happened to her dad, in this new comic by Warren Ellis and Gianluca Pagliarani. Space-jockey Mary Raven is determined to find out what happened to her dad, and she won't leave Ignition City until she gets some answers.

Lt. Shane Vansen from Space: Above And Beyond.

According to this site, she's "one of Earth's most celebrated pilots," piloting the SA-43 Hammerhead space fighter into battle.

Corp. Ferro in Aliens.

Okay, sure, she gets killed after speaking only a couple lines of dialogue. But she has cool sunglasses, and she manages to put the ship down through a lot of turbulence.

Carmen Ibanez in Starship Troopers.

Many of the badass pilots in this movie are women, and Carmen (Denise Richards) is the most memorable of them. She's a pilot in the SICON fleet, who pilots the drop ship, and even helps on the ground when things get rough.

Col. Wilma Deering in Buck Rogers In The 25th Century.

She doesn't just look good in a slinky jumpsuit, or boogieing next to Buck — Wilma's an ace fighter pilot in her own right, and a lot of episodes see her flying off solo to deal with the bikini-clad menace of the week.

Aeryn Sun in Farscape.

She's a formidable fighter generally, but she's also a former Peacekeeper pilot, and some of her best moments involve her taking the helm of a ship — like the season two finale, when Crichton is flying away with Scorpius' mind controlling him, and Aeryn chases after him in her own ship.

Yoninne Leg-Wot from The Witling by Vernor Vinge.

We don't actually get to see much of her piloting skills, since she and her companion Ajao Bjault get stranded on the planet full of telekinetic aliens early on. But she does turn out to be resourceful, and despite being unattractive by Earth standards, she helps win over the "witling" of the story's title, Prince Pelio.

River in Serenity.

Okay, so Serenity's real pilot is, and always will be, Wash. But you can tell, at the end of the movie, that River is gearing up to be a pretty great pilot in her own right. And in the series of movie sequels that unspool in my daydreams from time to time, she's piloting the ship all the time.

Manda in Burning The Ice by Laura J. Mixon.

Manda CarliPablo's stigmatized because she's the only colonist on a barren gas giant who's not a twin or triplet — her other clones died before they were "born" — but her isolation turns out to be a good thing, as she becomes the best pilot in the colony and explores the unexplored regions of this new world — discovering an alien race along the way.

Turanga Leela from Futurama.

Despite being captain, she's also always ready to take the helm of the Planet Express ship, and her lack of three-dimensional vision doesn't seem to interfere with her amazing piloting skills.

Jaina Solo from the Star Wars expanded universe.

The daughter of Han Solo and Princess Leia didn't just inherit her mom's Force powers — she also became a kick-ass pilot, like her dad. She flew the Millenium Falcon on a few occasions. When she got caught flying the Merry Miner, an unarmed mining ship, during the Yuuzhan Vong war, she managed to dodge the aliens' attacks until help arrived. And then she became one of the New Republic's most valued starfighter pilots.

Captain Beka Valentine from Andromeda.

Thanks to everyone who suggested adding her — Beka Valentine is, among other things, the Andromeda's first officer and pilot, taking advantage of her better-than-human reaction times and strength.

Tanni from Mutineer's Moon by David Weber

Here's the key sequence:

"And," MacMahan added gently, "Tanni will be your pilot."

"What?!"

"Tanni will be your pilot," MacMahan repeated mildly. "I'm speaking now as the commander of a military operation, and I don't have time to be diplomatic, so both of you just shut up and listen... we can't afford anything but our very best pilot behind those controls. You're good, Colin, and your reaction time is phenomenal even by Imperial standards, but good as you are, you have very little experience in an Imperial fighter.

Tanni, on the other hand, is a natural pilot and the youngest of our Imperials, with reaction time almost as good as yours but far, far more experience. The overall mission will be under your command, but she's your pilot and you're her electronics officer, or neither of you goes."

Kathryn Fairly in Space Camp.

A group of teenagers get to go aboard the Space Shuttle Atlantis during a test-firing of its engines. But the mean android named Jinx decides to — what else — jinx them by making the space shuttle blast off for real. They're stuck in orbit, without enough oxygen to get home. And Kathryn (Lea Thompson), who was struggling with the "multi-axis trainer" that's required for shuttle pilots, manages to ace the real-life situation that simulator creates: a flat spin after the shuttle's reorbit burn. She brings that bird down safe and proves she's an awesome pilot.

Starbuck from Battlestar Galactica.

As I said before, these are in no particular order — but if they were, Starbuck would be #1 in any list. She's clearly the best pilot among Battlestar's flyboys and -girls. Adama always refers to her as his best pilot, and she pushes herself harder than anyone else. Kat may have tried to challenge Starbuck's impressive kill rate, but she never really had a hope.

Additional reporting by Alexis Brown. Special thanks to Pete Gofton, Brian Williams, Erin Souza, Ira Wile, Jordan Hoffman, Austin Grossman, Ekaterina Sedia, and @soapboxx on Twitter.

Scott Pilgrim:

Director Edgar Wright posted another video diary during the filming, involving a rock concert. [Scott Pilgrim The Movie]

And Wright also posted a couple cryptic set pics. [Edgar Wright Here]

Cowboy Bebop:

A slight update on this live-action adaptation, starring Keanu Reeves as Spike. Writer Peter Craig is a huge fan of the original animated series, and he spent some quality time with the original studio, Sunrise, talking about their take on the show and how it might convert to live-action. He mentions that he's a fan of many of the minor characters from the original episodes, namechecks a lot of story elements he loves:

I've probably watched every episode at least three or four times now - and I really adore what a complete world Watanabe and Nobumoto created. I was also extremely drawn to all of the characters' backstories: Faye's amnesia after being taken out of cryogenic freeze, and the con played on her; Spike's history in the Syndicate and with Julia; Jet's days as a cop on Ganymede, and his run-in with Udai Taxim.

[AnimeVice News via Sci Fi Squad]

Lensman:

Remember this in-development movie adaptation? Writer J. Michael Straczynski says he's finished his second draft, and producer Ron Howard and Universal are happy with it. He says it'll be very character-based, typical of Howard's work, and yet the special effects will be cutting edge. And it'll keep the massive scale of the original novels, as much as possible:

I think it really does create that world and what's cool about it is all the character stuff that's in there now. It's just the sheer scope and scale of it, which is what the Doc Smith books were always about to me to a large extent; the scale was insane. We found ways to really dramatize that.

And he describes one crucial sequence:

Case in point, this is a very small example from the script, take this as being emblematic of the scale of the whole thing: you've got these two fleets battling it out, you've seen it a hundred times before. But now, within that massive fleet battle you have two ships locked on with gravity (lances?) firing at each other, they're linked together like scorpions in a bottle tied with a string, by the gravity beams. Inside that, you have the crew of one ship in EVA suits with armor coming out to try and board the other ship. They send their people out to stop them, so we have hand-to-hand combat.

[Babylon Podcast via Cinemablend]

Doctor Who:

David Tennant talks his final three "specials" as the Doctor, "The Waters Of Mars" and the final two-parter:

I think inevitably, because we all know the Tenth Doctor's days are numbered, the storm clouds hang over the last stories. "Planet of the Dead" [the special that airs July 26] is in some ways, the Doctor's last hurrah. He's clearly in a death-defying situation, but he's enjoying himself and having a blast.

By the time we come to "Waters of Mars," things start to happen that mean things can never be quite be the same again. Stuff occurs in "Waters of Mars" which leads directly into the final story, where the Doctor really is on the run from the inevitable, I think it's fair to say.

Mostly stuff Tennant has said before... except for the "on the run from the inevitable" part, which is intriguing.[Chicago Tribune]

Fringe:

Judging from a new casting call, season two episode two, "Night Of Desirable Objects," will be about a series of disappearances in Vermont, which our heroes arrive to investigate. There's a local sheriff, the fifty-something Sheriff Golightly, who meets a male and female FBI agent (Olivia and someone else?). And Golightly warms to the male agent — especially after they bond over fishing lures, but stays stand-offish towards the female agent. The chief suspect in the series of disappearances is the fiftyish Anton Hughes, a former doctor — who shoots himself in the head as soon as the agents come knocking on his door to interview him. [SpoilerTV]

Virtuality:

You're staying in and watching this TV movie tonight on Fox, right? In any case, Wired's review includes some details. It's six months into the ten-year mission, and the crew has already started bickering, much to the delight of the ship's reality TV producer. And after reality-TV host Billie has an especially nasty encounter in the virtual reality, it colors her real-world interactions with the crew, during a mission-critical crisis. The movie/pilot throws a lot of balls in the air, and most of them are still hovering at the end of the two hours — leaving you wishing for a continuation. [Wired]

Impact:

Are you stoked to see the final part of this two-part miniseries on Sunday? Of course you are. Here are some pics to help get you even more stoked.[Daemon's TV]

True Blood:

Here are some season two promo photos you may not have seen before. Not sure how many of these are new. [True Blood.net]

BEST:

Spot, Data's Orange Tabby Cat from Star Trek: The Next Generation
Who: Data's number 1 friend that didn't wear a Devo-esque visor on his face.
Why he's awesome: He's probably one of the only cats in the universe that has an infinitely advanced AI at his beck and call.
Bonus points: Anything that pisses Riker off is a big plus in my book.

Willis the Bouncer from Robert Heinlein's Red Planet
Who: A sound mimicking furry ball that every kid should have as a friend.
Why he's awesome: In a 1960's era future, when a dog just won't cut it, the only way to really impress the kids at school is with an alien that doubles as a soccer ball. And here's a clip from the Fox miniseries adaptation.

R2D2, Star Wars
Who: The yin to C3PO's (annoying) yang that brings logic and light to any situation through a series of flickering lights and bleeps.
Why he's awesome: He's a moving trashcan that manages to be more likeable than most of the Star Wars palz extended cast.

Porthos, Captain Archer's Beagle from Enterprise
Who: Easily one of the more tolerable characters on Enterprise. Mostly because he didn't talk.
Why he's awesome: He's a beagle! How can beagles not be cute? Also, I feel like after the unfortunate Scotty related transporter incident, he deserves a nice memorial.

Ampersand, Y the Last man
Who: The world's ending, every man is dead, you're an aspiring escape artist pining away for your lost girlfriend and you're all alone. What do you do? Have crazy monkey antics with your favorite jungle friend with a punctuation mark as a name.
Why he's awesome: Not to spoil too much, but he may or may not be humanity's key to getting the XY's back in action.

Lockjaw
Who: Marvel's own alien bulldog and member of the non-human branch of the Avengers.
Why he's awesome: He's super strong, can eat anything and once latched onto the Thing.

Dog the Robot from Half Life 2
Who: Alyx Vance's No.1 go to robotic buddy who helps when your path is blocked by other dimensional beings or just wants to play fetch with your grav gun.
Why he's awesome: He's a giant robot with the personality of a dog. Do you need more?

Pen Pen, from Neon Genesis Evangelion
Who: A genetically altered super smart penguin that lives with Misato Katsuragi during the Angel apocalypse.
Why he's awesome: While the series has moments of intense despair and darkness, you can always count on jerky, anime humor involving naked people and penguins to brighten your day.

K-9 from Doctor Who
Who: Dr Who's multi-generational robotic canine companion.
Why he's awesome: He's gotten a series of spinoff stories and was even parodied on South Park.

Nibbler from Futurama
Who: Nibbler is part of an ancient race of Nibblonians who protect the universe from giant glowing brains that make everyone stupid. Er, Stupid-er.
Why he's awesome: He can eat about 1,000 times his body mass to, uh, produce dark matter.

Gaspode, from Terry Prachett's Discworld series
Who: A talking dog with human intelligence that attempts to bring "Hollywood" to Discworld.
Why he's awesome: He's an endless source of snarky remarks and regularly uses his speech to manipulate humans when he needs food.

CJ-7
Who: A puff ball with a body that guaranteed to produce family friendly fun times.
Why he's awesome: CJ-7 can help you repair torn relationships with certain parental figures and bring people back from the dead.

Einstein, Doc Brown's dog from Back to the Future
Who: You might be under the impression that a certain Family Ties alum might be the Doc's best time traveling friend in this series, but you'd be wrong. This adorable little terrier follows Doc whenever her goes.
Why he's awesome: As long as you ignore the craptacular animated television series, Einstein is always cute, helpful and never obnoxious.

Ein, Cowboy Bebop
Who: A super brained corgie that gets stranded on the Bebop.
Why he's awesome: Although they never really get into it in the series, Ein is a "data dog" that possesses super intelligence that allows him to answer phones and steer cars.

Bubastis, Ozymandias' lynx from Watchmen
Who: When you're a super genius David Bowie impersonator with the world at your fingertips what do you do next? You create a genetically engineered psychedelic colored lynx as a companion.
Why he's awesome: He takes one for the team for the sake of furthering an evil plan for his master.

Gizmo, Gremlins
Who: The main furry faced protagonist of the Gremlins series.
Why he's awesome: While I'm pretty much a fan of all the gremlins, I can't deny the greatness that is Gizmo channeling his inner Rambo.

Seymour from Futurama
Who: Seymour is a part of one of the most tear jerking episodes of Futurama involving Fry recounting the story of the most loyal dog that ever lived.
Why he's awesome: Did you see the last scene? He's the most loyal dog that ever lived! Also, we can rest easy knowing that alternate timeline Fry gave Seymour a great life.

Bronx from Gargoyles
Who: Bronx is the dog version of the Manhattan gargoyle clan. During the whole series you only see one other gargoyle beast, but unlike Budeka, Bronx gets a whole episode devoted to him befriending an Amish kid.
Why he's awesome: Gargoyles are already pretty high on the cool supercreatures scale, but add a dog personality to the mix, and you've got gold.

Roach from WALL-E
Who: They weren't lying when they said that after the world ended there would be nothing left but cockroaches. Fortunately, the end of the world also gave them charming personalities!
Why he's awesome: Making me want a roach as a pet is an epic win in my book.

Kevin and Dug from Up
Who: Kevin is a rare, brilliantly colored giant bird that Carl and Russell accidentally find in Paradise Falls. Dug is sweet golden retriever with a collar that allows him to talk.
Why they're awesome: It takes a lot to make slapstick giant birds funny, but Pixar does a magnificent job. And Dug? He's exactly what I imagine an actual talking dog to sound like. SQUIRREL!

WORST:

Tribbles from Star Trek
Who: Fuzzy, purring little meat pets that take over the original Enterprise.
Why they suck: Pets rocks were bad enough, why would they think that a massively multiplying furry pet rock would be better?

ALF
Who: Alien puppet that takes over a really lame sitcom in the 80's. If ever you want to torture someone without the use of waterboarding, show them and episode of ALF… or Small Wonder.
Why he sucks: Look me straight in the eye and tell me you didn't scream in horror when you saw that clip.

Snarf, Thundercats
Who: A fat alien cat that ends every sentence with an annoying "snarf!" sound.
Why he sucks: Is he a lizard or a cat? I'm going to go with meth induced demonic lovechild.

Teddy from A.I.
Who: An animatronic intelligent Teddy Rucksbin from the future that accompanies David in a search for the Blue Fairy.
Why he sucks: Ok, now I understand that some people might take issue with Teddy's position on the worst list but he's a toy that's alive. That's pretty much the worst nightmare of most 8-year-old kids. And me.

Slimer from Ghostbusters
Who: A green ghost that terrorizes the Ghostbusters team by covering everything in slime.
Why he sucks: For those of us born in the mid 80's and watched the Ghostbusters cartoon first, we expected to see cool ghost antics when we finally saw the movie. Instead, we were greeted with a grotesque blob that was pretty evil.

Div-x from Penny Arcade
Who: You might remember the Sony Dix-X player, an ahead of its time technical marvel.
Why he sucks: According to Penny Arcade Comics, he's a foul-mouthed drunk that's teetering on the edge of killing us all.

Pets from Children of Men
Who: When the world's gone infertile, people turn to animals to provide comfort in the end of humanity.
Why they suck: I have nothing against the animals in Children of Men, personally, but seeing all the dogs, cats and birds cluttering people's homes can be an ominous image.

Selacious Crumb from Star Wars
Who: He's a little fox-lizard thing that hangs out with Jabba the Hut and laughs at all his lame jokes.
Why he sucks: Everybody hates the skinny jerk in the corner with the stupid laugh.

Gleek from Superfriends
Who: The alien monkey pet of the Wondertwins.
Why he sucks: Usually if he was featured in Superfriends, you could count on him popping out to end the episode on a lame joke.

Independence Day Dog from Independence Day
Who: If you're like me then you probably laughed at the idea of a ball of flame chasing a golden retriever down a tunnel.
Why he sucks: Was it really necessary to have a slow motion explosion behind a dog? And wouldn't all that heat ultimately cook them all in that storage locker?
Then Again:...he's immune to explosions. And that's pretty cool. Dodging fire like that, he's like a canine Neo. Maybe he should have been best?

Space Buddies
Why they suck: I'll just point you in the direction of this.

Queequeg, X-files
Who: A Pomeranian adopted by Dana Scully and eaten shortly after by the legendary Big Blue.
Why he sucks: He was found snacking on his previous owner.

Krypto
Who: Superman's dog. Enough said.
Why he sucks: I hate pet versions of superheroes. Also, why does he need a cape?

Muffit from the original Battlestar Gallactica
Who: Caprica used to have a variety of tracker dogs but sadly, none of them survived the Cylon attack. Instead a group robotic dogs are created to replace them.
Why he sucks: Is he an ewok? A fuzzy, metallic gremlin on meth? You decide.

MAD Cat from Inspector Gadget
Who: Dr. Claw's chortling fat feline.
Why he sucks: He's the quintessential evil cat meant to taunt the hero. Plus Dr. Claw regularly beat the crap out of him and he seemed to be ok with that.

Frank the Dog from Men in Black
Who: An alien stool pigeon using the guise of a small pug.
Why he sucks: He made me remember "Who Let the Dogs Out" existed.

Gir, Invader Zim
Who: Invader Zim's mentally disturbed robot helper that was given to him as either a joke or sabotage. Probably both.
Why he sucks: Yeah, yeah Gir is really cute, but he's amoral, evil and would gladly watch you die a fiery death while bursting into a fit of giggles.

Astro, The Jetsons
Who: The Scooby Doo knockoff of the 21st century.
Why he sucks: It might have worked with the Scooby Gang, but there's only room for one charismatic dog with a speech impediment ‘round these parts.

Lamar, Half Life 2
Who: The neutered headcrab that resides in Dr. Isaac Kleiner's laboratory.
Why he sucks: Crabs are rarely a good thing. Head crabs are a double whammy of bad.

Joshua from Dark Angel
Who: A transgenic dog-man with an affinity for painting and crappy comedic timing.
Why he sucks: There was only one good thing that came out of season two of Dark Angel and that rhymes with Smensen Shackles.

Honorable Mention: Blarp from the Lost in Space remake.

Avatar (2009)

Admittedly, it's a bit of a tall order to make a trailer for a movie whose premise is still far from clear. The first half is kinda cool, but it doesn't really have much to do with what little is known of Avatar's story, which I think is set a couple centuries in the future. The second half is just sort of so-so. Not terrible, but there's definitely better out there.

Bioshock (2010)

And this is one of them. This probably impresses me more than it necessarily should because I've seen so few of the movies used to construct the trailer, which according to its maker include City of Lost Children, Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow, Casshern, Dark City, Cast Away, Aliens of the Deep, I, Robot, Silent Hill, and AI: Artificial Intelligence. Of those, I'm somewhat ashamed to say I only recognized Laurence Olivier from Sky Captain (though I have seen Dark City). Part of the reason this trailer works fairly well is its creator chose movies that are reasonably similar stylistically, making it more difficult to figure out what does and doesn't fit together if you haven't seen the source material (we'll soon deal with a trailer that just throws together a bunch of famous contemporary movies).

Captain America (2010)

This one is a bit different from the rest, as it's a completely original trailer instead of a fan mash-up. It's surprisingly intense for what is ultimately a bunch of dudes running around on a beach, some of whom are very clearly wearing sneakers. Still, the pounding music and washed-out look do have their charms, and remembering to throw in a shot of Nick Fury is a definite plus.

Cowboy Bebop (TBD)

This one has to get points for sheer insanity. This combines one of the Matrix sequels, The Phantom Menace, Wanted, Live Free or Die Hard, Firefly, Constantine, and Deep Impact, and those are just the ones I can easily identify. There's some definite overuse of Angelina Jolie here (should you really include the curving of the bullet when that's so closely identified with Wanted?), but it's certainly never boring. Cutting all the dialogue was also a good call, as forcing the characters to say things that aren't immediately recognizable from previous movies is usually the biggest pitfall of fake trailers. From what I've seen, there's just no good way to do it, and unless you've got something to distract the viewer (like Brad Pitt in full Thundercat makeup, for example), it can be fatally distracting.

Ghostbusters 3 (TBD)

Wow, five minutes is a long time for a fake trailer. Still pretty good though. Here, as the creator puts it, is the "recipe" for this trailer:

Ghostbusters, Ghostbusters 2, Predator, Independence Day, Casper, Nightwatch, Gremlins 2, Lost in Translation, End of Days, Haunted Mansion, Hellboy, Earth vs the Spider, Orange County, Blues Brothers 2000, Miss Congeniality 2, Christmas with the Kranks, Miss Congeniality, Sleepy Hollow, X-Men, The Blob, Spider-man 3, High Spirits, Frighteners, Constantine, Mars Attacks, Charlie's Angels, Be Kind Rewind, Honey, We Shrunk Ourselves, Dan in Real Life

Makes that Cowboy Bebop trailer look positively unambitious. At least this one manages to be somewhat deft about including clips from Lost in Translation. One of the less impressive trailers I saw just came right out and explicitly made Dr. Venkman an actor now...and that's just nutty. Although after spending so much time with the original cast was there really any reason to throw in a bunch of new Ghostbusters at the end?

Green Lantern (2010)

I'm a bit torn about this one. There's something a bit perverse about using quite so much footage from a Marvel movie for a DC trailer, and it was probably an overstep to actually use some of Johnny Storm's dialogue from Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer. Still, I'm being more than a little nitpicky, as this trailer features some truly awesome digital trickery to actually create some footage of Green Lanterns flying, and the casting choices of Tim Curry as Sinestro and Warwick Davies as a Guardian are inspired. Although if Denzel Washington is supposed to be John Stewart, I'm sorry, but I'm just not buying it, at least not on the strength of two random clips.

Iron Man 2 (2010)

I'll assume this was made before Terrence Howard was mysteriously removed from the sequel in favor of Don Cheadle. Cutting in footage from the Iron Man video game was, to put it mildly, a mistake, because it just doesn't gel properly with the rest of what's in there. I will give it credit for some clever cuts that sort of do make it look like Iron Man and War Machine are sharing the screen, but using "Iron Man" as the trailer's main song? I feel as though the end credits to the first movie pretty much retired the use of that song.

Spider-Man 4 (TBD)

Some terrible music choices shouldn't necessarily take away from the technical merit on display in this trailer. It's certainly a lot more interesting to try to spotlight the Lizard as the Spider-Man 4 villain instead of, say, Venom again, which pretty much involves remixing a Spider-Man 3 trailer. Or you can use Carnage, which is basically the same process, except you slap a red filter on it to make it look a bit different (though this trailer includes him through clips from Resident Evil: Apocalypse). I don't know whether I would have relied quite so much on Jurassic Park, but I guess where else are you going to find so many shots lizard-like things in laboratory settings?

Overall, I'm not sure any of these are mindblowingly awesome in quite the same way that the Thundercats trailer was, but credit where credit is due - some of these are pretty cool, assuming your suspension of disbelief is ready to work overtime.

* In the film, Goku is a semi-normal high school student, rather than a childish monkey-boy with a tail who lives in the woods. However, even in the anime and manga, Goku does eventually grow up from a three-foot-tall Peanuts character into a normal-sized, perhaps Chatwin-sized adult.
* Piccolo's skin isn't a very bright green, and he doesn't seem to have antennae
* Master Roshi, who in the manga is a dirty old man who asks to look at Bulma's panties in return for a Dragon Ball, doesn't commit any acts of sexual harassment
* a bunch of characters have been removed, including Kuririn (Goku's fellow student under Master Roshi), the talking animals Pu'ar and Oolong, and Master Roshi's pet turtle
* plenty of plots and subplots have been removed, leaving the movie as kind of a mixture of Dragon Ball volumes 1-2 (the introduction of Goku and Bulma) and 13-16 (the introduction of Piccolo, and the big fight).

There's plenty more. A more serious complaint, however, is that "the script is an absolute, unmitigated disaster," to quote Zach Berlatsky of anime news network. What does the creator, Akira Toriyama himself, think about the Dragonball adaptation? Here's a translation of his words in a text announcement preceding a February 2009 promotional video:

"As the original creator, I had a feeling of "Huh?" upon seeing the screenplay and the character designs, but the director, all the actors, the staff, and the rest are nothing but "ultra" high-caliber people. Maybe the right way for me and all the fans to appreciate it is as a New Dragonball of a different dimension. Perhaps, this might become a great masterpiece of power! Hey, I look forward to it!!"

Toriyama is more charitable to Hollywood than Alan Moore-but then again, Toriyama, like most manga artists, has always had no illusions about producing mass entertainment. (Incidentally, it's worth mentioning that Dragonball: Evolution is not the first Dragon Ball film; that honor goes to 1989's Dragon Ball: The Magic Begins, an unlicensed Chinese live-action adaptation.)

The best thing going for Dragonball: Evolution is that, beneath all the spiky hair and shouting, Akira Toriyama's Dragon Ball is a good story. (Particularly if you're a 14-year-old boy.) The fights and cliffhangers are exciting, the villains are reprehensible and the heroes are noble (and sometimes the villains are noble too, deep down), and the mixture of sci-fi, fantasy and comedy is entertaining and imaginative.

But there are other elements of Dragon Ball which may be difficult to make the transition to live action. One of these is the quirky, simple art style which gives Toriyama's work so much of its appeal. Toriyama's stories may be intense by the standards of American children's animation, but the appeal of his art is the cartooniness, which, when Dragon Ball started in the '80s, stood out among more square-jawed macho manga like City Hunter and Fist of the North Star. (Today, on the other hand, the influence of Dragon Ball has made the big-eyed, spiky-haired angular look the default manga style.) Putting simple, cartoony characters in dramatic situations is one of the trademark elements of manga and anime, and a more interesting way to adapt Dragon Ball might have been with film-quality animation or CGI, like the upcoming Astro Boy live-action movie. Although Keanu Reeves may not look entirely like Spike Spiegel in Cowboy Bebop, no real human being can look quite like a Toriyama character.

To use another example, Akira is set in a recognizably real urban sci-fi environment, but Dragon Ball is set in a primary-colored, fairytale world. The Wachowski Bros.' Speed Racer tried the "live-action cartoon" approach, with mixed success, but will Dragonball: Evolution go the grim-and-gritty route and turn out like the live-action Super Mario Bros.? Manga and anime fans cringe at the word "cartoon," but it's a good word to describe Toriyama's creations: a world which combines aliens and magic dragons, comedy and drama, absurdity and sincerity, a world of sweat and blood and winking unrealism.

Here's just a sampling of the responses that Friday's post got:

edosan: "Dear God, no."

Aleksandr Kalininskiy: "No please please don't do this! Bebop was for me what Star Wars is for folks who were teens in the 70's. So don't ruin my childhood! Damn it all...I will have to watch this movie but..grahhhh"

Mazda Eric wants to make sexy time: "NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO this story isn't here! I am not reading this, ((cover ears)) LALALALALALALALALALALA....."

Efflux: "No...No....no,no,no,no,no,no,no. NOOOO!!!!!"

Evil Tortie's Mom: "to chime in with everyone else: NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO...!!!!!!!!"

br4nd0n: "NO! NO! NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!"

Apparently, the consensus to this news was "No." Although some felt slightly more strongly than that:

johnnyichiban: "ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!
ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!"

snowcrash: "ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!
ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!

ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!
ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!ARRRRGGGGGHHHHH!!!!"

Yes, that's right; snowcrash feels exactly twice as strongly about this as johnnyichiban.

Thank God for RossFenelon and his reasoned thinking:

Alright *exhale*... Now that my co-workers have talked me down off that ledge, I have had a chance to look at this rationally. I understand why he did this. This is just a self indulgent fanboy fantasy being fulfilled by someone with more clout than taste. I have nothing against his appreciation for Shinichiro Watanabe's masterpiece. But if he would take an honest look at his acting "style" and the demands for this role he would see that it would be better for him to step down and let a relatively unknown actor take this role. These are the reasons; 1) He's too old. He has the height and build for the character and also the martial arts background. But at his age, he would be hard pressed to convey Spike's boyish devil-may-care attitude. Maybe in his Bill & Ted days or even Devil's Advocate. Not now though. This brings me to my next point 2) He's too famous; Spike is a subtle and complex character. Outwardly aloof but deceptively deep and introspective. This is his main appeal. Reeve's fame will undoubtedly over shadow those complexities and this film will most likely devolve into a run of the mill Sci-fi action vehicle for the star. Average movie goers, uninitiated into the Bebop world, will miss out on the depth this character has to offer. the only thing that could give me any hope that this movie will be a quality effort is if they announce that Yoko Kanno is going to do the score along with the Seatbelts and the other artists who made the unforgettable music of Cowboy Bebop. Lastly, if Reeve's ABSOLUTELY had to be in the movie in a leading capacity, the only role I could see him filling is maybe that of Vicious. With his deadpan acting style he might be able to pull that off... maybe... possibly... Oh who am I kidding we're screwed.

Others, meanwhile, didn't see this as the This Is A Disaster that it so clearly is:

OlavRokne: "Keanu is a better actor than anyone gives him credit for. In fact, he may have been one of the only things *right* about the Day the Earth Stood Still (the other was John Cleese)."

DaltonKonowalchuk: "Keanu was one of the two good things in TDTESS, the other was John Gleese. The man was outstanding in Scanner Darkly and Matrix. He has a slate of good projects, give him some credit. And he has the looks, the vibe and the style of Spike, he will make it just right. Plus, they are bringing the original japanese team on board, what means they are serious about doing something good with it. As for Jet, bring Dwayne Johnson!"

Final: "I'll disent. I think he can pull it off. Spike wasn't that outwardly emotional. I'm more concerned about who will play Jet and Ed... Faye they're gonna screw up and get Megan Fox or some other eye candy that can't act."

SinsapaCassandra: "i love keanu reeves! u nerds are too sensitive over nothing.. dont kill my childhood!! blah blah stfu. look at transformers. he was great in constintine and the matrix. just stfu already"

Well, that's us told. From now on, we here at io9 will be stuhfooing on a regular basis. Or something.

Variety reports that Reeves will take the role of Spike Spiegel, one of the two leads in the series that followed the bounty hunter crew of the spaceship Bebop through space in the year 2071. The movie adaptation will be written by Peter Craig, and produced by Reeves' Day The Earth Stood Still producer Erwin Stoff for the same studio, 20th Century Fox.

Keanu Reeves set for 'Bebop' [Variety]

Right now, Reeves is working on bringing the classic Japanese series Cowboy Bebop to life with producer Erwin Stoff (who has the rights and the writer). Reeves wants to play the lead role Spike Spiegel, which is one of the coolest leads out there. Spiegel lives in a future that's more like a space western, where gangs slaughter the innocent and it's up to Spiegel to cowboy around, picking up the deadliest space criminals.

And Western is exactly the look Reeves wants. In an interview with MTV Reeves explains:

“It’s got a Western quality, a Western film noir aspect to it,” Reeves said of why he’s such a big fan of Shinichiro Watanabe and Keiko Nobumoto’s groundbreaking series. “It’s got so much style to it, and that’s part of its appeal. That kind of Old West, bordertown, low-tech science fiction aspect.”

All Reeves needs now is a production designer, and I'd love to get your thoughts on who should make Cowboy Bebop a reality.

I have to admit Keanu has the look, but Spiegel is a very complicated hero — way more complicated than, "Whoa, noodles." So I have my doubts about this casting, but still, Reeves gets big points for being a dedicated fan. Plus there's the fact that Reeves and company want to cram the whole series into one movie, which could be terribly disjointed and confusing.

“Yeah, it’s so episodic and so disconnected. We’re trying to figure out what pieces to put together to tell one story,” he explained. “Because it’s such a short form, to make a 2 hour version [will be tough]. And it’s got so much of an origin-story obligation; you’ve got to get people up to speed, but you don’t want to do much of that. There are a lot of things to take into consideration, but we think we can do something good.”

Which means should they make the entire movie, you'll get the operatic ending that we've all come to love, but can he pull this off?

[MTV]

12) Searle in Sunshine.

Okay, I may be the only person who really loved Danny Boyle's blazing space opera about a doomed crew trying to reignite the sun. That's okay, I can be right all on my own. I especially love the way the character of Searle, the ship's psychiatrist, surprises you in his final moments. He's kind of a prurient asshole for most of the movie, obsessed with looking into the sun with as little filter as possible. He's a pretty terrible therapist. But when the chips are down, he knows he's the most expendable crewmember. When four crewmembers from the Icarus II get trapped on the wrecked ship Icarus I, with the airlock damaged, Searle agrees to stay behind so the rest of the away team can get back to the Icarus II. He helps blast the others out the airlock, then exposes himself to the sun, dying the same way as the Icarus I's crew.
If you're going to be a creepy therapist, the least you can do is self-immolate to save the rest of us.

11) Woody in Mission To Mars.

This is a pretty terrible movie overall, but a fantastic death scene. Our heroes have to abandon their vessel. And then Woody, played by Tim Robbins, leaves the others and launches himself at the Resupply Module (REMO), but after he attaches the line from the other astronauts at the REMO, he keeps moving towards the planet. His wife, Terri, wants to go after him, but Woody knows she'll die in the rescue attempt. So he takes off his own helmet and dies of depressurization rather than let her die for him. (Thanks to Meredith for the suggestion!)

Runner up: Speaking of depressurization deaths, Graeme really wanted me to include Cally's death from Battlestar Galactica. But I didn't really think her death was awesome. Sorry, G.

10) Graham in "The Sleeper Wakes" by H.G. Wells.

One of Wells' weirdest stories involves a man known only as Graham, who sleeps for over 200 years and wakes to find that he's not just the richest man in the world, but actually the owner of the entire world. He eventually discovers that the White Council, which governs in his name, is oppressing everyone, and he helps a revolutionary named Ostrog to mount a revolution. But afterwards, Ostrog starts oppressing people just as badly as the White Council had. So finally Graham gets mad. This time, it's personal — he gets into an airplane and rams a whole bunch of Ostrog's air fleet. (Remember, this was written in 1910.) Finally, he rams his plane into Ostrog's, then spirals to Earth, knowing that the revolution will prevail at last.

Runner up: Someone suggested Hari Seldon from Forward The Foundation, but I haven't read that book and couldn't find much about it or track down a copy. Was his death truly awesome? Let me know.

9) The Controller in Doctor Who, "Day Of The Daleks"

"Day Of The Daleks" is probably not on my list of the 100 greatest Doctor Who stories of all time, but it has a few really amazing moments. The greatest of these is where the Controller finally stands up to his Dalek masters. All along, the 22nd century bureaucrat has been fooling himself that he can help the Daleks govern the human race and actually do some good along the way, helping people when the Daleks aren't looking. But after a few chats with the Doctor, he finally realizes you can't work within the Dalek system. He helps the Doctor escape, and when his coverup fails, the Daleks decide to exterminate him. "Who knows?" he says. "I may have helped to exterminate you." Awesome.

Runners up: Various people suggested the deaths of various Doctors, but none of them really jumped out at me as especially cool. One person suggested Adric, and I'll protect his/her identity, to save him/her from the inevitable scorn of the masses.

8) Lt. Paul Wang from Space: Above And Beyond.

"Everybody's favorite tortured bipolar guy," Lt. Wang, callsign "Joker," gives his life to hold off the aliens while everyone else gets away. "This is for you!" he shouts as he pours ammo into the enemy. Commenter oconnellmd suggested this scene, and I can see why.

7) Certain people in Blake's 7, "Blake"

I'm going to show an unusual degree of restraint and not say who dies in this episode. Let's just say it's an incredibly fitting end for the saga, one which makes all of the stuff that comes before seem cooler because it leads up to this. In my write-up on how to discover Blake's 7, I actually advocate watching the last episode first. At the very least, I think this is one spoiler that makes you appreciate the rest of the show more. But don't take my word for it: watch for yourself.

6) Pham Nuwen from A Fire Upon The Deep by Vernor Vinge.

Pham Nuwen is animated by the Old One, a super-powerful artificial intelligence, and he dies fighting the Blight, another super-A.I. First Pham downloads as much of the Old One into his brain as possible, overclocking his human brain by containing this massive superhuman intelligence, which will inevitably destroy him. And then he launches the Countermeasure, an advanced weapon which moves the boundaries of the Slow Zone far enough to enclose and destory the Blight. But the Countermeasure also has the effect of terminating Pham at the same time:

The Countermeasure's writhing had slowed. Its light flickered bright and then out. Bright and then out. She heard Pham's breath gasp with every darkness. Countermeasure, a savior that was going to kill a million civilizations. And was going to kill the man who triggered it.

Almost unthinking, she dodged past the thing, reaching for Pham. But razors upon razors blocked her, raking her arms.

Pham was looking up at her. He was trying to say something more.

Then the light went out for a final time. From the darkness all around came a hissing sound and a growling, bitter smell that Ravna would never forget.

(Thanks Annalee!)

5) The T-800 in Terminator II.

After Arnold Schwartzenegger's T-800 helps Sarah and John Connor defeat Robert Patrick's mean T-1000 by blowing it up and knocking it into molten metal, Arnie knows he has to go too. If there's anything left of the T-800, the technology could be used to reconstitute Skynet and bring the badness down on our heads. So Arnie gets Sarah Connor to lower him — slowly — into the molten metal. He gives a thumbs up as he descends to his robo-fondue doom. (Thanks, Annalee!)

4) Biggs from Star Wars.

I was seriously considering making Obi-Wan the coolest death from Star Wars, but really, screw that guy. First of all, as he points out himself, he comes back a thousand times more powerful afterwards. And secondly and more importantly, he's kind of a big martyr, as everyone points out in the awesome parody Hardware Wars. And Biggs doesn't have any super Force powers, or the ability to come back a thousand times more anything. All Biggs has is a X-ing, a can-do attitude, and an awesome porn-stache. And he's the greatest wingman ever, taking enemy fire and blowing up so that Luke can nuke the death star and get all the glory afterwards. And look how stoic Biggs is in this deleted scene from Episode IV, telling Luke he may never come home again because he's off to join the rebels:

When does baby Biggs get his own episode of the Clone Wars cartoon? Preferably with a little baby mustache?

3) Spike from Cowboy Bebop.

Martian bounty hunter Spike Spiegel gets into a duel with his former best friend, Vicious after Vicious' Red Dragon gang has killed Spike's girlfriend Julia. Spike finally decides to face the past with Vicious that he ran away from three years earlier, and he storms the Red Dragon headquarters, killing a bunch of its members as he climbs. Vicious manages to slash Spike with his katana, but then Spike shoots Vicious dead. Spike comes down the stairs, wounded and weakened, to face all the remaining members of the Red Dragon. Spike makes a gun with his fingers and says "Bang"... then collapses. Most people seem to assume Spike dies of his wounds, and it's not hard to find tons of people online listing this as one of the coolest death scenes in all anime, or all Asian films, let alone science fiction.

2) Someone from Anathem by Neal Stephenson.

Since this book just came out and it's a bit of a major spoiler, I won't say who dies and how — click here if you've already read the book and/or don't care about spoilers.

1) Spock from Star Trek II: The Wrath Of Khan.

I'm not putting the pointy-eared green blooded Vulcan first just because I know I'd get lynched otherwise. I'm not even including the death of Spock because I pretty much memorized all the dialog from that scene as a little kid. I'm including it because it's the template of how to do a memorable, important death in a science fiction epic. The movie isn't ABOUT Spock at all, but it still feels as though the whole film has been leading up to his death. A lesser film would have been more clumsy and obvious about giving Spock a bunch of cool moments leading up to his death, and trying to manipulate us into feeling the Spock love before he snuffs it. Instead, we do get plenty of cool Spock moments, including giving Kirk his present and mentoring Lt. Saavik. But it's woven into the rest of the movie, and the film's running theme of the "no-win situation" and the impossibility of cheating death every single time help to set up the death of Kirk's best friend way better than a scene where Spock talks about what he's going to do when he retires and goes back to Vulcan. The result is one of the most amazing moments in Trek history, one of those moments where you can really beleive Trek is a sweeping saga instead of just a zany adventure with green women and Saurian brandy.

Runner up: I can't believe I left out Roy Batty in Blade Runner, as various commenters have pointed out. Especially since I went on a whole tangent about Roy's amazing death scene in my rant about why there shouldn't be a BR sequel earlier in the day. Suffice to say the Roy Batty death scene is definitely one of the all-time classic, and easily up there with Spock's.