Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson has grown into one of the biggest stars in the world, but here's every time his character didn't survive a movie. At this juncture in his acting career, Johnson has appeared in over 40 films, playing parts ranging from leading men to supporting players to small cameos. Considering his current status as one of the most bankable and highly paid actors out there, it seems likely he'll be up over the 100 mark by the time he decides to retire from the screen.
What may be surprising for some to learn is that of all the movies he's been in, Johnson's character has died only a handful of times. This is likely due to the same reasoning that keeps Arnold Schwarzenegger's characters from dying too much: audiences just like Johnson too much that they don't like to buy a ticket and see him die onscreen. They'd much rather see The Rock whipping the butts of bad guys than see their favorite musclebound, charming action hero get offed.
With that in mind, the times Dwayne Johnson has been killed in movies happened in quite the odd hodgepodge of projects, ranging from sci-fi/horror movies all the way to straight-up comedies. Here are all the instances of The Rock appearing in a film, only to face a film-based demise.
The Mummy Returns (2001)
Playing the legendary Akkadian warrior Mathayus, aka The Scorpion King, in 2001 sequel The Mummy Returns was actually Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson's first movie role ever, although not his first acting role, as he'd done a few TV guest appearances by then. Mathayus actually dies twice in The Mummy Returns, the first coming after a prologue sequence in which he's shown trading his soul to the god Anubis in exchange for the power to defeat his enemies. 5000 years later, Imhotep uses the Bracelet of Anubis to resurrect The Scorpion King, now mutated into a hideous CGI monster. This version dies when hero Rick O'Connell (Brendan Fraser) stabs the creature with a mystical spear. Johnson would later star in a Scorpion King prequel, but survived the film, despite a brief death fakeout.
Doom (2005)
2005's Doom has gone on to become a bit of a punchline for The Rock's early career, with even Johnson himself making fun of it several times. In the loose adaptation of the popular first-person shooter video game franchise, Johnson plays Asher "Sarge" Mahonin the leader of a group of marines sent in to investigate a distress call at a top secret research facility. He at first appears to be a possible heroic protagonist, but before long is shown to be far from a good guy. By the end of Doom, Sarge has become infected by an alien virus, and begun to turn into a monster. He's killed when actual protagonist John "Reaper" Grimm (future Judge Dredd Karl Urban) sends him through a portal back to the Mars facility where the outbreak began, followed by a grenade.
Southland Tales (2007)
Southland Tales is Donnie Darko director Richard Kelly's most infamous effort, although it's developed a bit of a cult fanbase since its initial flop release in theaters. Johnson plays Boxer Santaros, an action movie star with amnesia, also known as Jericho Cane. Southland Tales' plot - set in a dystopian future Los Angeles - is notoriously strange, and at times hard to follow, but suffice to say, Johnson's character actually gets killed twice, thanks to time travel shenanigans. The first sees him blown up alongside the rest of the people aboard a giant zeppelin aircraft, and the second sees him offed with a car bomb.
Reno 911! Miami (2007)
Still relatively early in his career, Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson appeared in a side-splitting cameo role as part of Reno 911: Miami. Released in 2007, Reno 911: Miami was a movie spinoff of the popular Comedy Central program - which briefly returned as a Quibi original show - and functioned as a parody of Cops and reality shows in general. The cast was full of master improv comedians, and the show was almost entirely unscripted, outside of the story points needing to be conveyed. Johnson shows up as SWAT agent Rick "The Condor" Smith, and proceeds to attempt the usual motivational speech to encourage the Reno 911 team to succeed. During this speech, Smith pulls the pin on a grenade, seemingly to prove a point, arguing he knows what he's doing. However, things go horribly wrong, Smith follows the rolling grenade into a decontamination tent, and blows up in hilarious fashion, as a rain of blood splatter is all that's left.
Get Smart (2008)
2008's Get Smart cast Steve "Michael Scott" Carell as bumbling secret agent Maxwell Smart in a reboot of the classic TV show, alongside Anne Hathaway's actually competent Agent 99. Johnson plays Agent 23, one of the shining stars of the organization, and Smart's idol. However, it turns out Agent 23 was in fact a mole working for the evil terrorist organization known as KAOS all along, and is revealed to be the villain of the film. Fitting his duplicity though, Agent 23 gets a rather harsh death, albeit one played for comedic effect. During a struggle with Smart and Agent 99, Agent 23's car ends up on fire, and the vehicle is then hit by a train.
The Other Guys (2010)
Directed by Anchorman's Adam McKay, The Other Guys is a buddy cop action movie spoof starring Will Ferrell and Mark Wahlberg as two New York City detectives that want to escape the rut they're in and become stars on the force. The current stars of the NYPD are brash detectives Chris Danson (Johnson) and P.K. Highsmith (Samuel L. Jackson) - right until Danson and Highsmith somewhat inexplicably kill themselves by jumping off a building while trying to catch a suspect, under the pretense that they were "aiming for the bushes." It's an absolutely hilarious sequence, one of many in the critically acclaimed comedy, and also one of several times where Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson dying was made funny. This leaves the door open for Ferrell and Wahlberg's characters to try and step into the spotlight that Danson and Highsmith left behind.