MovieChat Forums > General Discussion > Why do people hang themselves or worse?

Why do people hang themselves or worse?

posted 9 months ago by KLPE (525)
21 replies | jump to latest

A lot of movies features characters hanging themselves, swallowing pills, slitting their wrists to commit suicide. Or even cutting their own throats.

Most movies takes place where firearms are readily available.

Hanging - potentially slow suffocation
Pills - potentially painful side effects
Wrists - painful cutting, painful bleed out
Throat - painful cutting, painful bleed out

Taste of Cherry (1997) - pills
Better Off Dead... (1985) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jJJiQFr7dG8
The Rules of Attraction (2002) - wrists, hanging
The Sea of Trees (2016) - pills
Knock at the Cabin (2023) - throat
Just Before I Go (2014) - drowning

[–] samoanjoes (52760) 9 months ago

Because when they're dead, they're still able to hang around.

[–] KLPE (525) 9 months ago

We need a joke for every method.

[–] samoanjoes (52760) 9 months ago

Honestly, I wouldn't have made the joke if you weren't talking about suicide in films.

[–] jriley555 (7192) 9 months ago

Yeah - it all seems pretty ghastly, unappealing. I knew a fellow years back who tried to shoot himself square in the head, but at the last second moved off center, so he was left mumbling & shuffling. A sad case indeed.

[–] KLPE (525) 9 months ago

That's why sucking the pipe is essential.

[–] Stratego (29474) 9 months ago

Why didn't he make a second attempt?

[–] jriley555 (7192) 9 months ago

Who knows ? He may have been out He was kind of a crabby fucker, I tried to do what I could for the guy, but he wasn't exactly great company.

[–] Stratego (29474) 9 months ago

I rather mean, why didn't he want to die after the injuries he suffered from his suicide attempt? I never get how these people very often don't make a second attempt after becoming severely disfigured or impaired. Seems like even more of a reason to kill yourself.

[–] jriley555 (7192) 9 months ago

I'll never forget the story of a man who went over Niagra Falls on purpose, and lived. As he was plummeting down, he became immediately infused with a renewed will to life.

People are strange.

I expect the man I was speaking about earlier did his attempt in an alcoholic funk. When I knew him, he'd gone on the wagon. A whole lot of awful/irrational behavior occurs among inebriated folks. They may not be saints or even wholly sane, sober, but they're generally not nearly as nutty.

[–] Stratego (29474) 9 months ago

It's sad that that's what it takes.

[–] KLPE (525) 9 months ago

For the Niagara Falls guy it was a good thing.

[–] KLPE (525) 9 months ago

As he was plummeting down, he became immediately infused with a renewed will to life.

The danger and excitement woke him up, from the locked state.

[–] CarterBlunt (1031) 9 months ago

If I ever felt I needed to kill myself, I would wait for a slow moving train and let a wheel decapitate me.

[–] KLPE (525) 9 months ago

Sounds mediaeval and kind of scary.

[–] Otter (24464) 9 months ago

FYI I know of local cases where an attempt at suicide through hanging didn't kill the person outright, but left them brain dead and their organs were donated.

[–] Stratego (29474) 9 months ago

Because that's what happens in real life.

[–] KLPE (525) 9 months ago

In all age groups, 55% of men and 30% of women used firearms; 28% of men and 29% of women hanging/suffocation; 9% of men and 32% of women poisoning, and 8% of men and 9% of women “other” methods. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9712777/

The most common method of suicide in England and Wales for both males and females continued to be hanging, strangulation and suffocation (all grouped together). This method accounted for 58.4% of all suicides in 2021 (3,258 out of 5,583 registered deaths). The second most common method continued to be poisoning and accounted for 20.5% of all suicides in 2021 (1,147 out of 5,583 deaths). https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/birthsdeathsandmarriages/deaths/bulletins/suicidesintheunitedkingdom/2021registrations#suicide-methods

Not many people cut their wrists and definitely not their throats.

[–] BillHicksFan (10228) 9 months ago

"Taste of Cherry" is a great movie

[–] KLPE (525) 9 months ago

The ending was annoying.

[–] BillHicksFan (10228) 9 months ago

The disclosure that it was just a movie?

(I wonder if that was done because the director didn't want to glorify suicide?)

[–] KLPE (525) 9 months ago

Kind of spoiled the mood.

Maybe, but it's also a big no no where it was filmed.