I think Carlos' death was the most disturbing.

Posted by poetcomic1

People love talking about the deaths of the couple that die in the fire with the woman jumping out like 9/11 or Lisolette's death falling out of the scenic elevator as being among the most tragic and emotional in The Towering Inferno and I agree they are but I actually have always found Carlos' death the most disturbing for some reason. In the water tank blast scene at the end of the movie his character is killed when a huge statue is toppled by explosions and rushing water and a large chunk of it breaks off and falls on his chest and he heaves over and dies in a matter of seconds.

The Towering Inferno is filled with disturbing and emotional death sequences of secondary characters but for some reason I found Carlos' death to be particularly disturbing. Maybe it was in part due to the fact that his character seemed like such a decent and helpful guy but also because he died when he was only minutes away from safety and he just happened to have the horrifically bad luck of being in the exact trajectory of the falling statue.

Most of the deaths in the water blast scene are of people flying out of windows from the water and there is a detachment among all the chaotic carnage but Carlos' death is the most up close and personal of this climactic scene. If you watch closely the scene you will see that Paul Newman's character is tied up very close to Carlos. After the statue is toppled the camera goes from showing the statue fall on Carlos and then he tries in vain to push the fatal chunk of concrete off his chest then it cuts to Paul Newman's face implying that he is looking helplessly at Carlos then it cuts to Carlos heaving over and dying and then it cuts to Newman again looking.

It is a very brief death scene, its all over in about 15 seconds and yet it is one of the most dramatic death sequences in cinema I have seen. I have always been a fan of the movie but I long dreaded watching that part, I don't know why but for some reason I always found it very disturbing because it is just such an incredibly *beep* way to die. In that sense it was incredibly shot by director Irwin Allen.

Does anyone else agree with me or any other thoughts about his death scene?

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giacomot54

It is even debatable if the statue topple as seen in the movie would have killed someone, the website moviemistakes.com says this: "Watch carefully as the statue falls on the bartender. It barely touches his chest and rests on his left thigh. As the bartender slumps dead you can see a wide open gap between his whole upper body and the statue. Even if it crushed his thigh it would not have killed him so quickly. When the bartender slumps down the statue rocks freely as he brushes against it; obviously a styrofoam replica." http://www.moviemistakes.com/film1316

That was probably another thing that made the scene disturbing, the chunk of statue that fell on Carlos was just barely big enough to be plausibly fatal, remember the main statue didn't hit him, the main part impacted and then a chunk broke off and only fell like three feet onto Carlos. Maybe Mythbusters should do an episode about The Towering Inferno and investigate Carlos' death with one of their ballistic dummies.

I was also annoyed that it was just some generic statue of Victorian female figures falling on Carlos of all people, nothing ironic like a statue of the Tower of Babel falling on Duncan or something.

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insoya87

Robert Vaughn's role was cut to bits durning filming he was very annoyed about it.

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Leonardus75

I completely agree with you. Especially this thought:

Maybe it was in part due to the fact that his character seemed like such a decent and helpful guy but also because he died when he was only minutes away from safety and he just happened to have the horrifically bad luck of being in the exact trajectory of the falling statue.

I think those two elements are the main reason we particularly feel Carlos's death. As you say, most of the victims are too remote, just bodies...apart from the stars, some of whom we know "have" to be killed off.

I don't know whether I'd call Carlos's death a "cheap shot" by Irwin Allen but considering that the top four stars all survive (which was not the case with Allen's The Poseidon Adventure), he may have felt the need to kill off a last few second-rank characters (Carlos, the Mayor, etc.) just to evoke a more personal reaction from the audience. But I agree, Carlos should have been spared. Let O.J. get squashed -- after he gets the cat to safety.

I don't know, maybe Carlos's death was a cheap shot. But a good post, chicago103.