I can understand why Riff killed Frank and his creature, but what did Columbia ever do to him, except for screaming? If anything she's as much of a victim as Brad and Janet are. Does anyone else feel the same, or can justify why Riff would consider murdering her.
shareRiff Raff may have killed Columbia to show Frank that he meant business and as a show of power, just like someone who has kidnapped someone and he sends a loved one of the person he kidnapped a finger or ear, or a group of criminals who has a bunch of hostages who kills one and throws the corpse out the front door just for purpose.
Also, it showed Frank that if Riff Raff could kill an innocent, as Columbia certainly was (compared to what everyone else was doing in the film), and not think twice about it, Riff Raff could kill Frank and not feel remorse for committing a killing which Riff Raff felt was his duty.
Criminals:
The stupid ones get arrested,
The smart ones get re-elected.
I hated that part
shareI'm not sure if Riff-Raff would have killed her if she hadn't screamed. That seemed to be why he turned and shot her.
shareYeah, she may have just startled him. I was peeved that both her and Rocky were killed off. Columbia should have gone wth Riff-Raff and Magenta, and Rocky should have stayed on earth with Brad, Janet, and Dr. Scott.
shareOkay, this is weird. Having watched this movie for literally 40 years I watched again last night (to wash the remake out of my eyes) and one of the saddest scenes for me was killing Columbia. And up until last night I'd always leaned towards it was because she screamed and/or startled him but as people do with films, I had a second thought.
I believe Riff always meant to eliminate Columbia also. She was too involved unlike the other Earthlings. probably unstable anyway. Though one might argue that Sr. Scott was a liablity, a laser pointed at him seemed to sway him pretty easily!
When Columbia screamed after Frank's life was threatened, Riff Raff realized she was still loyal to Frank, and may have tried to interfere, thus he had to kill her.
I believe in one version of the screenplay, Columbia literally jumps in front of Frank as Riff Raff is firing the laser, killing her.
Also, I'm not sure Columbia was a true Transylvanian. Remember, she's the Groupie. While Janet, Brad and Dr. Scott weren't Transylvanians, they were truly innocents who were corrupted by Frank, so they were spared.
Columbia's loyalty to Frank, on top of not being an actual Transylvanian, sealed her doom.
It the stage show Columbia jumps in front of the laser to try save Frank.
It was written that way for the movie to but during shooting they decided to do what they did. The director did want to change it back but due to zero money left couldn't.
I've thought up a insane fan theory to explain this. Sometimes I like to joke that the Transylvanians are a lost legion that hijacked a crashed spaceship. Columbia and Rocky were killed for a similar reason to why, say, the family of Lucius Aelius Sejanus was killed during his downfall: they're family/allies of a tyrant of some sort that's being overthrown.
The natural thing for a Roman to do would avenge the overthrowing of a relative/ally so it's only reasonable, by that way of thinking, to kill the ally (Columbia) and "child" (that's basically what Rocky was) of the tyrant you're killing.
Or not. Honestly, I've watched "I, Claudius" too much lately...
In the original play he didn´t kill her on purpose. He wants to shoot Frank, but when he shots, Columbia is throwing herself in front of Frank to protect him and gets shot.
In the movie they changed that - I don´t think it does fit to the story. I mean, Columbia and Magenta seemed to be good friends (think of the Toucha toucha me scene). She even asks "You killed them. I thought you liked them. They liked you", which is also strange, because Rocky surely did not like Riff.
The movie has some plot holes that aren´t there in the play, so I always prefer the play.