Credit where it's due to the incredible talent of Sean Bean, who has died so many times on screen for our amusement. Fans of the star tend to argue over which of these on-screen endings was the most shocking, visceral, or dramatic, but one of the best overall was Boromir in The Lord of the Rings.
Boromir has some fame as one of the more conflicted members of the Fellowship. He's smart enough to understand the power and peril of the Ring but too proud to admit it's too powerful for himself or his kin to use. The book has a lot more information about Boromir that movie fans have never seen, and props to Bean for making the character even more relatable.
6 Followed A Dream To Rivendell...
In extended editions of the movies, Boromir resists his father's order to go to Rivendell, but in the books, this wasn't the case. There's the issue of Denethor being a completely different character in the books, but that's another subject.
During the Council of Elrond in the film, Boromir references a dream but leaves out a lot of the best details. It was a dream both he and his brother experienced, and it included a stanza of poetry that told him to go to Imladris, the names the Elves give to Rivendell, and "seek out the sword that was broken." This is the reference to the shards of Narsil, the blade that Aragorn's ancestor Isildur used to cut the Ring from Sauron's hand.
5 ...And It Took More Than 100 Days To Get There
The epic journey that Boromir took from Minas Tirith to Rivendell could be its own novel. He fought numerous enemies, not the least of which was Mother Nature as he moved through the wilds, even losing his horse at one point near the forests of Tharbad and having to continue on foot. He was the last to arrive, getting there just as the Council was preparing to get started.
The loss of his mount is part of why it took about six months for Boromir to reach his destination. That's close to as long as Bilbo was on the road with the Dwarves and how much time it took Sam and Frodo to reach Mount Doom.
4 The Horn Of Gondor
Boromir didn't just come to Imladris to sit in on a weekend workshop about how to destroy a magical ring. He also intended to take private council with Elrond, even though he wasn't as trusting of the Elves as Aragorn or Gandalf were. Elrond was the Half-elven and had mortal ancestors, which tempered Boromir's suspicions.
Elrond told him not to use the Horn of Gondor unless they were close to the borders of that country or if his need was dire. When Boromir was defending Merry and Pippin from the Uruk-hai, both of those boxes were checked off.
3 The Gifts Of Galadriel
After Gandalf left the Fellowship, Boromir and Aragorn took over, and they bickered. One of the things they fought about was whether to go to Lothlorien or head to Gondor and eventually Minas Tirith. Boromir was of the same mind as Gimli when it comes to the fear and suspicion of Elvish magic.
As in the movies, Boromir is angry and suspicious of Galadriel's power to look into his mind and test his heart. Despite his contrary attitude, he also received the gifts of the Fellowship, which includes the same gray cloak and golden belt.
2 Killed By Uglúk
The Uruk-hai who kills Boromir in the movies, known as Lurtz, is dispatched in short order by Aragorn. In the books, his name was Uglúk, and he was a recurring character who was also the leader of one of Saruman's earliest armies. He survives the skirmish with Boromir, making his escape before Aragorn arrives, and brags about it later on in The Two Towers. Although he can't name Boromir, he refers to him as a "mighty warrior" who was protecting the Hobbits.
Ironically, Uglúk was the reason that Merry and Pippin survived long enough to be rescued because he made sure the orcs and goblins under his command didn't eat them. Eomer killed him in a midnight raid only hours before Aragorn, Gimli, and Legolas caught up to them. Book readers who were hoping for some personal revenge might have been disappointed that the Riders of Rohan got to him first.
1 His Mother Was Finduilas Of Dol Amroth
Denethor was always a quiet and somber man, but one of the bright lights in his life was his wife, Finduilas. She was named after one of her ancestors, a Sindar elf. It's more explicit in the book that Denethor's countenance grew even darker after she died, and his loneliness is one of the reasons he turned to the Palantir.
Dol Amroth was in the southern part of Gondor and was a coastal region. When Finduilas married Denethor and moved inland, the setting was never to her liking, and she was always alarmed by the shadows in the east. She was always frail, but it was the birth of her second child that weakened her permanently, and she took ill and passed away only a few years after her father-in-law died and her husband inherited the Stewardship.