Fridging in film occurs when a character is killed off, usually early in the film, only to help further the storyline of the main character. In many cases, and traditionally, we have unfortunately seen women in movies getting fridged in order to help build up a male character who is often portrayed as a hero of some sort. It's not always a woman getting fridged of course, but more often than not it sure seems to be.

Sometimes the fridging technique plays a useful element to help further a storyline's arc. Other times it has been considered a lazy and sexist way of taking shortcuts in filmmaking and storytelling. We often find the technique used in the case of superhero movies where a death spurs the character on to fight injustice or enact revenge. See if you can determine for yourself in the following films whether the fridging of a character was actually a necessary part of the film or whether it was just a lazy shortcut.

10 Final Destination

Final Destination, released in 2000 and directed by James Wong, is about a group of high school students who are taking a field trip to Paris. But when one of them, Alex, has a premonition about the plane exploding in mid-air and killing everyone it creates a panic, a fight, and Alex and a few of his friends are left behind.

When the survivors witness the plane explode and then members of their group start dying by freak accidents, they realize you might be able to cheat death for a time but when it's your time to go, there's not a damn thing you can do about it. The whole Final Destination movie, along with its four sequels are literally built around fridging. It doesn't get any colder than this.

Related: Here's Every Final Destination Movie, Ranked

9 Gladiator

Gladiator, also released in 2000, stars Russell Crowe as Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius. Maximus is favored by Emperor Marcus Aurelius to succeed him. But when the emperor's son Commodus learns of his father's plans he murders him and puts Maximus in prison. Maximus escapes prison but when he arrives home he finds his wife and son have been crucified as part of his punishment.

After burying them he is captured and sold to a gladiator trainer. As a former general, Maximus advances quickly and uses his capabilities to win and gain fame in the gladiator arena. He ultimately confronts and battles Commodus inside the arena and gets his revenge. Marcus Aurelius as well as Maximus's family all got put in the fridge in this one.

8 Batman Begins

The 2005 film Batman Begins stars Christian Bale as Bruce Wayne and his superhero alter ego Batman. Batman's whole origin story is based off the fridging of his parents. As a young boy Bruce attends the opera in Gotham City with his parents but as they are leaving the venue a mugger kills his mom and dad right in front of him. Now orphaned, Bruce is raised by the family butler Alfred. When he gets a little older Bruce travels to foreign lands where he trains in the art of combat and familiarizes himself with the criminal underworld.

Eventually he returns to Gotham where he takes an interest in his late father's ultra lucrative Wayne Enterprises business, helps develop a state of the art bat suit and delivers out vigilante justice to try and keep the streets that took the life of his parents clean. If it weren't for Bruce Wayne's parents getting the fridging treatment, there never would have been a Batman. Think about that.

7 The Crow

The Crow is a 1994 film starring the late Brandon Lee. Lee plays musician Eric Draven who plans to wed his fiancé Shelly on Halloween day in Detroit. However, the night before the couple are attacked on the streets and Eric is shot, killed, and thrown out a window, while Shelly is beaten badly, raped, and later dies in the hospital. A crow lands on Eric's grave a year later where he is resurrected, and the crow helps guide him to find the gang that killed he and his fiancée.

Eric as The Crow gets his vengeance and is ultimately reunited with Shelly. It's fridging at its best when you're one of the ones who gets fridged only to resurrect and deliver vengeance upon those who knocked you off. Epic movie.

6 Ghost

Ghost is a 1990 film starring Patrick Swayze, Demi Moore, and Whoopi Goldberg. This film is unique among the list because it is the only one where just the man gets the fridging treatment. Swayze and Moore play Sam and Molly, a couple who have just moved into a new apartment in Manhattan. The couple are attacked by a mugger and Sam is murdered.

Molly is the one who survives and she soon discovers Sam is now a ghost and he can communicate with her. Whoopi plays a fake medium who to her great surprise actually starts having psychic experiences with Sam. Similar to The Crow, the one who got fridged in this movie came back in a different form.

Related: Memento Has a Tenet Easter Egg Reveals Christopher Nolan

5 The Vanishing

The Vanishing is a creepy 1993 psychological thriller starring Jeff Bridges, Keifer Sutherland, and Sandra Bullock. Sutherland and Bullock play Jeff and Diane, a couple who go on vacation, but Diane is kidnapped at a gas station early in the film by Bridges' character, chemistry professor Barney Cousins. Not knowing how or why Diane disappeared, Jeff becomes obsessed with finding answers to what happened and searches for years.

Some time later upon Jeff finding a new girlfriend and Barney eventually thinking he had given up the search for Diane, Barney confronts Jeff and admits he was the kidnapper. Jeff attacks him but Barney insists that if he really wants to find out the truth of what Diane went through he must endure the exact same thing she did. Eerily Jeff agrees and the tension reaches a boiling point. The whole plot of the movie deals with the fridging of Bullock's character Diane and it's not until the end of the movie do we find out what actually happened to her.

4 Deadpool 2

Deadpool 2 is a 2018 sequel starring Ryan Reynolds as the Marvel superhero Deadpool (aka Wade Wilson). In the film Wade and his girlfriend Vanessa are celebrating their anniversary when she is killed as a result of a former target of Deadpool's who got away. Deadpool kills the attacker in revenge but holds himself responsible for Vanessa's death. He even tries to take his own life but his healing abilities prevent it and he eventually aligns with the X-Men. Make no mistake though, Vanessa's death is what drives the character of Deadpool forward in this movie.

3 The Bourne Supremacy

In the 2004 action thriller The Bourne Supremacy Matt Damon's character Jason Bourne is a former CIA assassin still battling amnesia. He and former agent Marie (played by Julia Stiles) are trying to remain undercover in India but get sucked into a $20 million theft scandal by a Russian oligarch in which Bourne is framed. The oligarch sends his goons to hunt Bourne down and Marie is killed.

This furthers Bourne's character as he has to navigate the covert world of espionage alone, still suffering from amnesia in foreign lands where he is the target. Things get a lot tougher for Bourne after Marie's death. Sadly she was given the fridge treatment to further the story and action of what is the second film in the five-part Jason Bourne series.

2 John Wick

The 2014 action film John Wick stars Keanu Reeves as former hitman John Wick, and Bridget Moynahan as his wife Helen. Helen's early death by illness drives the film. Upon her death John bonds with a new puppy that was the last gift Helen ever gave him. While at a gas station Russian gangsters insist upon buying John's 1969 Ford Mustang but he refuses their offer. Determined to get what they want, they track him down, break into his home, kill the puppy and steal the car!

The puppy even got fridged in this one! Not cool! Wick is forced to take matters into his own hands and his old hitman ways come back as he hunts the gangsters down in sweet revenge. There have been three sequels to this movie so far, but it all started with the fridging of Helen Wick and a puppy.

1 Memento

The 2000 thriller Memento stars Guy Pearce as Leonard Shelby, a man who cannot form new memories due to suffering from anterograde amnesia. The amnesia began as a result of injuries he incurred one night when he and his wife Catherine were attacked and she was killed. All we know is the last thing Leonard remembers is her death and his mission in life becomes to track down her killer. To do that he ingeniously uses tattoos to record important clues on his skin and he uses Polaroid pictures to capture images of people important to his investigation. It really is a brilliant movie and cleverly done. It's too bad Leonard's wife Catherine had to be sacrificed in the process to drive the story.