Being the main character of a movie is no guarantee that they're going to survive the entire thing. Death is a dramatic concept, both in real life and in the world of film, and sometimes, there's no better way to surprise the audience than by having a main character die. This will often happen at the very end of a movie, to conclude things dramatically.
However, some movies like to take this concept one step further and knock off their main characters within the opening scenes. This is often achieved through having a flashback structure that allows dead characters to show up again, with the narrative thereby showing how and why they ended up dying. The following movies all dispose of their protagonists very early on. Thankfully, given these all happen within the first few minutes, none can truly be described as spoilers.
1 'Sunset Boulevard' (1950)
Arguably the great film noir of all time, Sunset Boulevard also stands as a perfect example of how to kill off a protagonist instantly. The movie opens with the film's main character (and narrator) lying dead in a pool. He seems to be speaking to the audience from the afterlife, and begins to explain how he ended up dead in someone's pool.
It turns out the man in the pool is an aspiring screenwriter named Joe Gillis, whose life took a fatal turn when he began living at the very unusual house of an actress who used to be a star of the silent era. It's a dark, clever, and satirical movie about the darkness at the heart of the Hollywood film industry, with the knowledge that the main character's death is imminent providing a consistent source of tension.
2 'American Beauty' (1999)
One of the ultimate midlife crisis movies, American Beauty centers on a man named Lester Burnham. He's become fed up with just about every aspect of his life in a quaint - yet dull - American suburb. He quits his job, pursues things selfishly, and stops caring about what other people (and society as a whole) think about him.
Of course, viewers know the feeling of liberation isn't going to last, as Lester is also the film's narrator, and he tells viewers right at the start that "In less than a year, I'll be dead." It serves as a great hook, because it's not clear how he's going to meet his end throughout the movie, adding an extra layer of suspense and intrigue to this Oscar-winning dramedy.
3 'Lawrence of Arabia' (1962)
While Lawrence of Arabia isn't the only historical biopic that begins with its main subject's death before flashing back, it is one of the best biopics to have such a structure. In the film's opening scene set in 1935, T. E. Lawrence gets into a fatal motorcycle crash, and from that point, the film flashes back a couple of decades to depict key moments in Lawrence's life.
Much of this involves the part he played in World War One, making Lawrence of Arabia one of the most famous films to deal with the 20th century's first world war. It's a long but rewarding epic, beginning with death before going back in time to show the thrillingly dramatic life of the man viewers just saw die.
4 'The Killers' (1946)
The Killers demonstrates that even though Sunset Boulevard might be the most famous film noir movie with a posthumous protagonist, it's far from the only one. The Killers does indeed kill its top-billed actor - Burt Lancaster as Ole "The Swede" Anderson - in its opening scene, with the plot then being about a private investigator trying to piece together who ordered The Swede's murder, and why.
Thanks to plenty of flashbacks, the character whose murder kicks off the plot does ultimately emerge as its protagonist. Having the person investigating the murder being a supporting character is an odd way to frame a murder mystery, but it ends up working very well, ensuring The Killers earns its place as one of the most iconic classic film noir movies of all time.
5 'The Lovely Bones' (2009)
Peter Jackson made a couple of big-budget movies between his two trilogies set in Middle Earth, with The Lovely Bones being one of them. It's a dark cross between fantasy and drama, being about a teenage girl who is murdered but able to continue observing life on Earth, only without being able to interact with any of her grieving loved ones.
Even if the death doesn't happen straight away, it happens early enough to be what sets the main plot of the film off. The Lovely Bones isn't necessarily a great film (and there's an argument to be made that it's Jackson's least well-made movie), though it does provide a good example of a central character passing away early, yet remaining as a strong presence for the rest of the movie.
6 'Watchmen' (2009)
Watchmen establishes itself as a dark and violent take on the superhero genre right from its opening scene, where one of the members of the titular squad is murdered before the opening credits. He went by the name "The Comedian," and due to the film's non-chronological order, still emerges as one of its most prominent characters despite his early death.
He's not necessarily the main character, but given Watchmen has an ensemble cast and focuses on numerous vigilantes/superheroes, he's certainly one of the most important characters. It's a bold and memorable way to commence an interesting - and divisive - comic book movie, and certainly leaves an impact.
7 'The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter' (1984)
The Eight Diagram Pole Fighter is without a doubt one of the greatest martial arts movies of all time. It's packed to the brim with fantastic fights (especially the one that concludes the film), and has a solid storyline to boot, with a compelling tale of revenge that's likely to get most viewers reasonably invested.
In its opening scene, it introduces a whole family of skilled fighters, only to have almost all of them killed instantly. There's little indication at first who's going to emerge as the main character, with things ultimately centering on the two members of the family who survive the massacre in the opening scenes. It's a striking way to kick off a movie about revenge, and gets the ball rolling in a bloody and impressive manner.
8 'Black Panther: Wakanda Forever' (2022)
Due to the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman in 2020, the sequel to 2018's Black Panther had to be drastically rewritten. Black Panther's follow-up, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever, opens with a scene of T'Challa's sister, Shuri, trying desperately to save her brother from an unspecified illness, only for him to pass away in the very same scene.
Because Boseman passed away before Wakanda Forever was filmed, he's admittedly not technically the film's main character. However, he did play the main character of Black Panther, and was to be in the sequel before his passing, making Wakanda Forever an example of a movie that has a vitally important character pass away immediately. The presence of both Boseman and T'Challa looms large over the sequel, making it a powerful film about dealing with grief both in-universe and in reality, through the film's subtext.
9 'The Crow' (1994)
Brandon Lee's death inevitably looms large over The Crow, making the film's story even more heartbreaking. He was able to film the vast majority of his scenes before an accident on-set claimed his life, and gives a great performance as Eric Draven, a man who comes back to life after he and his fiancée are murdered, so he can avenge both the love of his life and himself.
The real-life story makes it harder to watch Draven gunned down near the start of the movie, with Lee's character essentially being "returned" from the dead for most of the movie. But it immortalizes Lee as a great actor who was taken from the world too soon, with The Crow being the film he'll always be remembered fondly for.
10 'Citizen Kane' (1941)
Even though it's not the only great film made by Orson Welles, Citizen Kane is ultimately the one he's best known for. It's a legendary movie that tells the story of a reporter trying to find out the meaning behind a newspaper tycoon's mysterious final words.
Right before his death, Charles Foster Kane simply says: "Rosebud." Naturally, it makes for a better mystery to have this happen right at the start, and then discover why he said such a thing through flashbacks. It was a groundbreaking way to structure a story at the time, and the approach still holds up to this very day.