The Staggering Number Of Times Bender Actually Died In Futurama

When we first meet Bender in "Futurama," it seems like the robotic rabble-rouser isn't long for this world. Mistaking a public suicide booth for an ordinary 20th-century phone booth, the freshly un-frozen Fry runs into Bender as the two wait in line for their inevitable death. Luckily, both characters survive when Bender urges them to enter the machine together, and a frightened Fry knocks them out of the way of the booth's deadly instruments.

As a result, Bender lived to see another day. However, that certainly doesn't make him exempt from dying on-screen. In reality, Bender has died a number of times throughout "Futurama." Sometimes these deaths are canon, while other times they're simply forgotten about. The most surprising part about it, however, is the sheer staggering number of times Bender has died on the series. There's very little doubt that he, out of the entire Planet Express crew, has died more times than anybody else.

If you or anyone you know is having suicidal thoughts, please call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline​ by dialing 988 or by calling 1-800-273-TALK (8255)​.

The reason that we're pretty sure that Bender has the high score for on-screen death is because of 2007's "Bender's Big Score." The film, which focuses on the crew's discovery of a secret time travel code, features an untold number of Bender-copies created over numerous trips back to the past. Since these time-copies are mathematically doomed to die, each one of them spontaneously explodes after Bender marches out of the Planet Express basement with his legion of selves. Out of thousands of Benders, only the "original" survives.

That event alone puts Bender's death count far and above anybody else. Outside of that, Bender has only really died about seven times. For instance, a similar time travel-related incident occurs in "Rebirth," where Bender and Fry take a ride on the Professor's forward-only time machine, riding it until the universe ends and begins again, before accidentally parking the machine on top of the new versions of themselves.

He also manages to die three times across both non-canon "Anthology of Interest" episodes, once in a battle with a giant Dr. Zoidberg, again after an impulsive Leela murders him, and one final time after becoming human and dying of obesity. We also see him canonically die in the episode "Ghost in the Machines," where he is killed by his suicide booth ex-girlfriend, but eventually resurrects himself after meeting Robot God. Finally, Bender dies at least twice throughout the events of the "Futurama" video game.

Up until now, we've only discussed situations where "real" Benders die, canonically or not. However, that doesn't count all of the times that false copies and representations of the robot push up daisies. In the episode "Benderama," Bender uses the Professor's new duplicating machine to create millions of copies of himself. At one point, they all combine into one massive Bender that "dies" in a battle against a giant, insecure ugly man. Though the many small Benders survive, the big one takes a tragic tumble.

A similar event occurs in "Forty Percent Leadbelly," where Bender uses a massive 3D printer to print a copy of himself to be murdered by a vengeful railroad robot (who was also created by the 3D printer. It's a long story). After that, there's very little death left to spare for Bender. He also dies in a virtual reality video game during the Season 2 episode "A Bicyclops Built For Two" and has his remote-controlled miniature-self hacked to death by Leela in "Parasites Lost." Of course, beyond all of that, he mostly remains alive and well. Or rather, at least as "alive" and well as a fictional robot can be.