“In this universe, little can be said to be certain, except death and Adam Sandler movies,” wrote Benjamin Franklin. These two phenomena sometimes collide when the stars align and a very special birthday wish is made.
Adam Sandler is a “SNL” alum, the first guy to rhyme “harmonica” with anything else for the sake of a seasonal ditty, and legally, Rob Schneider’s legal guardian. He is, above all, a movie star who does impersonations for a living. He’s claimed to death on many occasions — not as often as, say, Sean Bean or Danny Trejo, but often enough.
We’ve assembled a list of every time the once-and-future heir to the Madison family fortune has passed away for the entertainment of an audience.
Take a minute to reflect on Sandler’s many character deaths and ask that none of them were saved for the psychotic character he played in “50 First Dates.”
In Little Nicky, Adam Sandler dies a lot.
Few films, if any, have had such a proclivity for slaughtering Adam Sandler as 2000’s “Little Nicky.”
The assertion: Sandler plays Nicky, one of Satan’s three sons, the dark lord of the underworld, who, all things considered and thinking you’re not Hitler or a pineapple, comes off as a pretty nice man.
When Nicky’s brothers have a temper tantrum and plan to build a new Hell on Earth, he is plunged into demonic antics.
The good news is that Nicky is still the mumble-mouthed hero that Sandler fans have become used to. The bad news is that he has no survival experience, since he has never visited Earth or “have slept over another dude’s bed.” His time with mortals is marked by brutal ends — he’s struck by an express train ten seconds into his first visit and forced to take a mulligan. We’ve both had those days.
At the end of the film, Nicky has been run over by a truck, killed by a polar bear, and struck by another train. It’s impossible to hold a decent guy down.
In Deuce Bigalow 2, Sandler survives and dies briefly.
Is this one valid? It’s difficult to determine. In “Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo,” Sandler technically dies offscreen. If someone had ever watched the movie, it’s the kind of specificity that would elicit a deluge of corrections from the public.
Isn’t “Deuce Bigalow: European Gigolo,” the critically panned sequel to “Deuce Bigalow: Male Gigolo,” an unapologetic raunchfest about a deranged serial killer hunting down and killing male sex workers? Really, it is. Is it true that Roger Ebert called the film a “modern giga-low” and said, “The great thing about it is that it just lasts for 75 minutes?”
Without a doubt. Much of that is besides the point. What’s important is that Adam Sandler stars in a short, uncredited appearance as one of the main character’s doomed sex workers. He passes away before the film begins. Critics and paid listeners could only wish for such good fortune.
In Click, Adam Sandler is turned off.
In 2006’s “Click,” Adam Sandler played Dad Who Works Too Much Before Magic Happens, a beloved character who has appeared in family films such as “Hook,” “Liar Liar,” “A Thousand Words,” and a slew of other films in which a middle-aged man is transformed into an animal. It’s the Jack Ryan of PG comedies: any and all good Hollywood actors get a role at any stage.
Here, Dad Who Works Too Hard Before Magic Occurs (aka Michael Newman) is working too hard before the magic happens one day. He’s given a remote control with the ability to manipulate time, and he takes advantage of his newfound ability to perform even further.
Unfortunately, in any mystical situation, juggling one’s work and personal lives is a must, and he’s taught a hasty lesson as he unintentionally fast-forwards to the end of his ill-spent days.
He yoinks his life support device off of his body whilst confined to a hospital bed and runs out into the street to reconnect with his estranged family and express regret for working so hard.
Then, by a miracle, he awakens in the good old days, just in time to stop working too hard. The all-powerful remote control is a fickle mistress.
