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Skeletons are often movie protagonists or in main casting roles, with many creative and sometimes even futuristic depictions of the typical human skeleton form. However, there are some movie skeletons undeniably more memorable and iconic than others.

9 Jack Skellington - The Nightmare Before Christmas

One of the most iconic and widely recognized characters that many viewers think of when it comes to on-screen skeletons has to be Jack Skellington from The Nightmare Before Christmas, who is one of the most celebrated and best Tim Burton characters. Jack sings many well-loved songs in this widely adored stop-motion animation movie, from “What’s this?” as he discovers the delights of Christmas Town or the moonlit “Jack’s Lament.”

The Nightmare Before Christmas is enjoyed by many throughout Halloween, Thanksgiving, or the Christmas Holidays. Although Jack the Pumpkin King makes some mistakes, he realizes the error of his ways and becomes thankful for all he has and is, showing that he’s also a skeleton with meat on his bones with a moral message about gratitude.

8 T-800 - The Terminator Movies

The T-800 is the terrifying sci-fi robot from the classic 1984 movie The Terminator, a metal skeleton underneath material designed to replicate living human tissue. The T-800, played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, is sent back in time to kill Sarah Connor, played by Linda Hamilton before she can give birth to John Connor, the future leader of the resistance against the Skynet machines.

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The T-800 is the ultimate, iconic, and relentless killing machine with an incredible on-screen presence as the cybernetic organism, in both endoskeleton and “human” form when played by Schwarzenegger.

7 Baron Samedi

Geoffrey Holder plays perhaps one of the most widely known portrayals of the iconic witch doctor Baron Samedi in the 1973 James Bond movie Live and Let Die, starring Sir Roger Moore as Bond. In Live and Let Die, Baron Samedi is a villainous character who wears the widely recognized skeleton face paint and a top hat, and has mystical powers.

The character of Baron Samedi has Haitian-Vodou origins and is represented in many different movies, TV series, and video games, including as a playable character in Smite and even appears in the Egyptian level in single-player and as a playable multiplayer character in Goldeneye 007.

6 Red Skull - Captain America: The First Avenger

Don’t be fooled by the jolly shade of Christmas red, Red Skull is still a formidable baddie, if not the strongest Marvel villain. In Captain America: The First Avenger, Johann Schmidt, who later becomes the Red Skull after injecting the super-solider serum, gets hold of the tesseract and plans to use its power to shape the future as a Nazi agent and a leader of HYDRA. He wears a mask to cover his red, skeletal face but later reveals his true face in the movie.

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A hooded Red Skull figure also appears in Avengers: Infinity War when Thanos obtains the soul stone.

5 Skeleton Pirates - Pirates Of The Caribbean Movies

The Pirates of the Caribbean movie franchise features many skeleton characters as well as other types of variants of the undead. However, probably the most memorable and iconic skeletons in the franchise are the cursed skeleton crew of The Black Pearl in arguably the best Pirates of the Caribbean movie, The Curse of the Black Pearl.

Audiences first see the gruesome, skeletal CGI curse when a couple of cursed pirates stumble across the infamous Captain Jack Sparrow in jail, when one suddenly grabs his throat and the curse is revealed by moonlight. Jack even briefly becomes cursed himself and many are big fans of Barbossa’s skeleton monkey.

4 Ghost Rider

The motorcycle stunt rider Johnny Blaze, a.k.a Ghost Rider, is played by Nicholas Cage in the 2007 movie Ghost Rider and the 2011 sequel. In the Marvel movie adaptation, Blaze sells his soul to the devil to save his father’s life and transforms into the cursed, burning skull-headed bounty hunter known as the Ghost Rider, complete with a flaming motorcycle and chain whip.

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Although the Cage movies had a mixed reception, a cult following grew, and there are some stand-out scenes, such as when Blaze transforms into the Rider for the first time. The portrayal of the comic book character was received better in the TV series Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D., with many calling for his own series. Fans of Marvel’s Midnight Suns can even unlock Ghost Rider as a playable character.

3 Scorpion - Mortal Kombat

Many fans of the iconic fighter Scorpion are likely to know him from the Mortal Kombat video games more than the largely underwhelming movies, except 2021’s Mortal Kombat reboot, which, although not perfect, portrayed the franchise more successfully.

In 2021’s Mortal Kombat, viewers see Scorpion as the memorable masked, black and yellow-garbed ninja fighting his arch-enemy Sub Zero. He also uses his iconic kunai spear weapon and one-line fighting goad, “Get over here!”. Although the character Kano stole much of the show, the portrayal of Scorpion was mainly faithful to the franchise, although viewers only got a hint of his flamed skull appearance with mostly fiery breath on show.

2 Skeletor - Masters Of The Universe

The 1987 Masters of the Universe movie, which later established a cult following, was based on the popular He-Man and the Masters of the Universe animated series. It features the skeleton sorcerer Skeletor as the villain and arch-nemesis to the hero He-Man. In the live-action movie, Skeletor is a hooded, cloaked skeletal character carrying a ram-skull-shaped magical staff and manages to obtain the golden-hued powers of Grayskull.

In the animated series, Skeletor has had some different designs but is typically portrayed as a muscular character with a skull head, wearing a purple robe. He-Man celebrated its 40th Anniversary in October 2022, and Netflix has an animated series called Masters of the Universe: Revelations.

1 The Skeleton Dance - Disney

Perhaps one of the most widely recognized and iconic portrayals of skeletons on screen is the four dancing skeletons seen in The Skeleton Dance, an animated short film by Walt Disney as part of the 1929 Silly Symphony series. The iconic dance scene takes place in a graveyard and also features two black cats fighting, who are spooked by one of the skeletons, and later, a skeleton even uses a cat’s tail as a violin string.

The Skeleton Dance is a Disney classic that is widely celebrated, with many humorous and iconic moments, and is dually iconic not just for its skeletons, but also as one of the most famous dance scenes on screen.

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