One way to make us despise a character is to have them murder a dog. It’s how we first encounter evil political villains like House of Cards’ Frank Underwood and The Dead Zone’s Greg Stillson (at least in the book), how we realize that John Wick’s rich brat villain has gone too far, and how we comprehend Mark Wahlberg’s level of madness in Fear. Watch People die in movies all the time, so why is the death of a dog so upsetting? Cranks who just don’t get it have responded, (admittedly logically), that scenes like those could serve as potential deal breakers for some sentimental consumers (this writer included).
Since dog-on-dog combat is at least a little more digestible than human combat, this has a lot to do with the fact that humans and dogs are not equal combatants. Additionally, dogs are simple creatures whose aggression results from self-defense and paranoia (which are invariably brought on by humans), giving them an innate purity. Even Cujo had rabies. People are born flawed; animals are not.
This subject is covered in a recent article in MEL Magazine, which responds specifically to a publicity stunt for the recently released movie The Mountain Between Us, in which it was revealed that the dog actually does exist. Advertisement.
The study by Northeastern University, a 2013 Hollywood Reporter roundtable with some TV showrunners, and a variety of other sources are used by author Tim Grierson to hone his position. The thing that interests him the most is how “Hollywood has taught us not to value those lives as much.” ”G/O Media may get a commission.
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He continues, “In a sense, we’ve been trained to see random human deaths as just a plot point — a cold, efficient story beat that doesn’t actually register as emotional.
And it’s true; Grierson points to the tendency in high-budget action movies like Man of Steel and the Transformers movies to obliterate cities during the films’ decisive battles, resulting in a scale of destruction that would undoubtedly cause numerous deaths. Another recent example is a film like American Assassin, in which uninvited bystanders are frequently shot dead to intensify the action. The same is true of any number of pre-9/11 action films; Face/Off is infamous for having an astronomically high number of unnecessary deaths. Advertisement.
Perhaps the rarity of dog deaths makes them more devastating because of this, but, oh, dear Lord, please never kill a dog in a movie ever again.
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Dog Day is officially declared by The Ringer for this Wednesday, August 19, 2020. We don’t really know why, other than the fact that dogs are wonderful and should be honored. We hope you agree.
The fourth and (likely) fifth films in the John Wick film series will be filmed by director Chad Stahelski in 2019. And when John Wick 4 is set to premiere on May 27, 2022, I’ll be at war with myself once more. A part of me will want to watch it right away because I enjoy Keanu Reeves, intricately choreographed action movies, and I work for a website that has an insatiable appetite for John Wick content. Another part of me might steer clear of it for the same reason I haven’t seen the first three John Wick movies: About 15 minutes into the first John Wick, a dog perishes.
I’m well aware that this decision was difficult for the filmmakers, and that the rest of the movie is about violently avenging that adorable dog’s death. I’m also aware that I could skip to the 17-minute mark and not have to see the dog die. And I know that neither of the sequels depicts a dog dying, which means I’m depriving myself of almost six hours of quality, dog-death-free entertainment for the sake of one scene. Yet every time I come close to watching John Wick, I reluctantly decide to delay another day.
Is it rational to dread the death of a fictional character? Is it logical to dread the death of a fictional dog while, if anything, eagerly anticipating the deaths of the 299 fictional people John Wick kills in the first three films, in ways almost too brutal to be believed? Probably not. But it’s not that unusual, either. John Whipple would know: He’s the founder of Does the Dog Die?, a site started for the specific purpose of sparing dog lovers the sight of man’s best fictional friend expiring on screen. Thanks to Whipple’s work, I know exactly when dogs do and don’t die in John Wick without having seen any suffer.
“As soon as somebody sees a dog on the screen, they’re going to pause it and come check the website,” Whipple says, although the most vigilant dog-death avoiders may consult the crowdsourced site even before they choose what to watch. No movie in the Does the Dog Die? database has drawn more “yes” votes for dog death than the one I haven’t quite convinced myself to see. “John Wick has been on the trending list for a very long time,” Whipple says.
Does the Dog Die? is one of a few internet institutions devoted to cataloguing the presence and role of fictional dogs in entertainment media. While Does the Dog Die? provides PSAs for dog-death avoiders across many media—from movies, TV shows, and video games to books, podcasts, and comic books—the Tumblr-based Dogs in Movies Database (DIMDb) simply documents every dog its creator has discovered while watching thousands of films. A third dog-related endeavor, the Twitter account Can You Pet the Dog?, identifies video games in which it’s possible for the player to pet pixelated canines. Taken together, these three online labors of love epitomize the almost mystifyingly deep attachment humans have to dogs, which expresses itself just as strongly when the dogs don’t exist.
“If you’re watching fiction, then you take the death of people for granted, whereas the death of an animal somehow breaks through that fictional lightness,” says behavioral scientist Clive Wynne, founding director of the Canine Science Collaboratory at Arizona State University. That especially painful quality is responsible for the genesis of Does the Dog Die?
Whipple, a professional software developer, birthed Does the Dog Die? in 2010 at the request of his sister, who had become increasingly bothered by emotionally manipulative dog-death tropes in movies after reading a bestselling book about screenwriting, Save the Cat! Killing a dog, Whipple says, may be “great for dramatic effect” and for motivating retired contract killers to embark on murderous rampages against Russian crime syndicates. But it isn’t much fun for people who find dog deaths more distasteful than other forms of fictional violence.
In the early years, Does the Dog Die? was nothing more than a list of movies and dog-death verdicts curated by Whipple, his sister, and a few friends. But as the site’s audience grew and more movie requests came in, the small contingent couldn’t keep up. “People expect movies coming out in the theater to be on the site, and there’s no way we can see them all,” Whipple says. So Whipple coded a crowdsourcing interface that allowed the audience to add movies manually and vote to decide democratically whether a dog had died.
“Back then, it was still just dogs dying,” Whipple says, in a sentence that would sound strange out of context. But soon, he continues, “we realized that the one category of dogs wasn’t going to cut it anymore.” Users wanted Does the Dog Die? to be a one-stop shop for unsettling attributes in many modes of entertainment, and Whipple was willing to oblige. The site now sports more than 80 user-suggested categories, or “triggers,” ranging from violence toward humans and other animals to aspects of the cinematography or the story, such as “shaky cam is used” and “the ending is sad.” When a user-submitted prospective category receives a certain number of upvotes, Whipple adds it to the site. (The most popular current request is “cannibalism,” which was evidently less in demand than the existing category of “Santa is spoiled.”) “It may not be dogs dying or fingers being smashed, but there is something for everyone,” Whipple says.
Does the Dog Die?’s founder claims that despite being refreshingly free of spammers, trolls, and others with bad intentions, its users occasionally disagree, even over something that may seem as simple as whether a dog died. The categories with less than a 20% difference between “yes” and “no” vote counts are included in the following table, which ranks them by the number of comments received and is based on data provided by Whipple. Users may dispute whether a dog passed away if, for example, its passing happened off-screen or is only implied. Whipple, however, who believes in the wisdom of crowds, asserts that “over time, the right answer will come out.”
Most Contentious Categories on Does the Dog Die?
| Media | Category |
|---|---|
| Media | Category |
| The Gift | A dog dies |
| Kingsman: The Secret Service | A dog dies |
| Steven Universe | An animal dies |
| Togo | A dog dies |
| Shadow of the Colossus | A horse dies |
| The Incredibles 2 | A parent dies |
| The Office (U.S.) | Someone dies by suicide |
| Stranger Things | The ending is sad |
| The Mist | A dog dies |
| The Adventures of Milo and Otis | A dog dies |
Whipple says he’s surprised by the site’s audience’s dedication to voting on every category for each entry even though it takes time to go through all 82 (and counting), which consistently sits in the six figures for unique monthly users and occasionally spikes close to seven. Dog-death warnings continue to be the site’s main draw, despite its expansion beyond its original, dog- and movie-centric mission to include a variety of media and triggers. The table below, which displays the categories with the most combined votes as of last week, supports Whipple’s statement that “the one thing they still come back for is does the dog die?”
Humans have to individually earn our trust, but pets get our compassion when we first encounter them. “We have an instant connection,” says Jennifer Blough, founder of Deepwater Counseling and author of “To Save a Starfish: A Compassionate Fatigue Workbook for the Animal Welfare Warrior.” “We know a dog is pure and innocent. Humans are programmed to be caregivers and animals are helpless and rely on us so we don’t want to see them suffer.”
Jessica Wozinsky is a writer and editor based near Atlanta, Georgia.
The website’s creator, John Whipple, launched it eight years ago at his sister’s urging. He explains, “She loves animals and couldn’t bear to see a dog in danger.” Whipple and his sister initially included the movies themselves. Anyone can now sign up and inform others whether it is safe to watch. People have informed us that if a movie isn’t listed here, they won’t go because they’re worried about what they might see, says Whipple.
Many of us who care about animals don’t want to see harm come to dogs on or off-screen, but we don’t seem to have the same feelings about people dying in movies. Risso agrees. “On ‘Game of Thrones,’ people can have their heads cut off and I don’t care, but when the direwolves (mythical dogs) die, that’s what gets me upset,” said the viewer. ”.
It can be difficult to watch a dog die in a movie because it may bring back memories of a beloved animal we lost in the past. Pet loss is a form of disenfranchised grief that society doesn’t readily accept, according to Blough. The fact that we don’t always get to fully mourn our pets when we’re kids can serve as a reminder when we see this on screen. ”.
FAQ
Why is it so sad when dogs die in movies?
It can be difficult to watch a dog die in a movie because it may bring back memories of a beloved animal we lost in the past. Pet loss is a form of disenfranchised grief that society doesn’t readily accept, according to Blough.
Why are dogs killed in horror movies?
However, the majority of the time, the dogs’ on-screen deaths are minor, incidental elements that were merely written to symbolise the villain’s capacity for depravity rather than because anyone cared much about the dogs. In the movies, the dogs don’t have a significant dramatic role.
What movie has a dog that dies?
Turner and Hooch. Turner and Hooch stars Tom Hanks as a police detective who is partnered with a slobbery dog. Hooch perishes in the end after fending off a villain, but Turner makes a new puppy friend at the conclusion who resembles the dog he lost, just like in many of the other films on our list.
How do you know when a dog dies in the movie?
Well, if that’s you, then DoesTheDogDie. com is the website for you. Just enter the title of any movie into the search bar, and you’ll get three results: Dog Lives, Dog Is Injured But Lives, or Dog Dies.