Death and Survival, or when Characters achieve Immortality.

Everyone dies, but that's not necessarily true in stories is it? What I find interesting is that in most movies the viewer has no fear that the main character(s) will die. Of course, that's party due to the fact that people generally like having the hero survive. At the same time though, it makes the tension of death less visceral and makes the trials of the story seem less personal. I'm a big fan of never letting the audience off the hook, and letting them know in no uncertain terms that the main character is up for elimination like everyone else.

Literature tends to be a bit harsher on characters than movies, but maybe it's because the audience tends to spend a lot more time with the characters and so are more capable of absorbing character death than someone watching a 2 hour movie. Look at the death of Gandolf in The Lord of the Rings. In the book the reader had already spent a considerable amount of time with the character, and his death was a huge shock, but the story itself plowed on. In the recent movie version, it occurs at somewhere around the 2 hour mark. That gives the viewer only 2 hours to form an attachment and then it is savagly sliced away. I imagine it stunned many people, especially the ones who haven't read the books.

There are genres where character death is expected (horror for instance). In those, the audience is actually looking forward with eagerness, only waiting for the actual event. But, the "hero" is still not expected to die, thus is granted immortality and is untouchable.

The question is, when is it okay for the story to cross the imaginary line and wipe out the untouchables?

- M