Well, tonight at dinner, we were sitting down and I was talking to my younger sister who is 12 about Harry Potter. She only watches the movies, and she was very confused. She asked me this question and asked me to post this on here for her.

In the movie, it shows harry as a baby and his mom being murdered by voldemort. now, even someone who only watches the movies knows that harry is an orphan. but my sister asked me, "how did harry's dad die? i mean i know his mom died by voldemort when he tried to kill harry, but what about his dad?" I thought about that, and i realized there is really no mention of Harry's father being murdered the same night at the same house by voldemort. for someone who only watches the movies, its could be confusing!

I think that Voldemort addresses this, minimally, at the end of SS movie. I'll have to pull it out and watch it again, now! How could you make me do that?! There's always a lot of movie-focus on Lily because it was her death that saved Harry. . . so naturally, though it doesn't make it less tragic, James' death gets side-stepped. Definately have to watch it again.

doesnt it say somewhere that James was trying to hold off Voldemort and then he yelled to Lily (who was in Harry's room with him)"take Harry and run" ...something along those lines? i dont know for sure but i think they say something like that somewhere... (im not very informative am i?)

Yeah Butter, it says that in the books, but not in the movies so that doesn't really help karsh's sis out too much . But I could have sworn that Hagrid, in SS/PS, says something to the effect of "your parents stood up to Voldemort and no one who stood up to him survives..." or something like that but the point is that he says "parents" so it's inclusive of his dad.

right you are. the movie does serve it`s key purposes though..

1. provides die-hard fans with an image of hot actors, and reenactment of some scenes, and the grounds of hogwarts.

2.here for the true die-hard fans to notice errors that the directors make between the books, and the movies. like a change of an event because they were limited to about 3 hours filming time..

however, they did show james in the last movie..

They don't really show it in the movie, but Hagrid says "your parents fought against him," then they go to clip of his mom shutting harry's bedroom, while james turns around (obviously to face voldy), but you can only see James waist and hands. Then the green flash from the avada kedavra curse blasts open the door, then they show his mom dying. So it was technically in the movie, and "karsh05" you should get your sister to read the books.

Well friend i agre with you because it is also confusing for me when i saw the film first time.They show both Harry and his mum at that night but they couldn't show James,i don't know why because he is also an important part of the film.they show great respect to Lily because she has some more powers than James,like love.

Perhaps there is more to james's death that we do not know. there probably was some battle between the two before voldemort killed james but maybe there is more to what happened that has not been told yet. after all jk likes to make us wonder about certain things so perhaps she did this for a reason. maybe later more information will be revealed as to what happened that night with james.

I agree with Potter1. From what Hagrid tells Harry, you can pretty much figure out what happened. I always knew that the waist and hands were James' so I never really thought about what others thought.

I suppose the book does go more in detail about his parent's death.For those only-movie fans it could be confusing.They should just read the books and stop asking real fans about every single thing in the movie.Seriously.The books are so awesome .Why not just read a book for a change?

I think in the movie they didnt want to emphasise on James Death so much as Lilys because we learnt that Lily gave her life for Harry and gave a shield of love so thats what they try to explain and only show Lily dying. As you all should remember in Prisoner of Azkaban when ever Harry fainted from being attacked by a dementor he always heard his mom screaming "Harryy!!!" and that was from the night she was murdered because Dementors always give you worst memories, as you can see where Im going with this that Lily's death was more important and thats why they dont show James only his dead body on the ground.

Huff Pufff, phew..

Lily is way more importeant in the movies than James is.Its true they never show how James died and if you didnt read the book it could be very confusing.They should have stated how he died in the movies even though it was not as important as Lilys death.

I think the reason why Lily is mentioned and not James is because it was Lily's self-sacrifice that saved Harry in the end. I also think that the time limit of the movie has a lot to do with it too. Dumbledore says when they are dropping Harry off at the Dursley's doorstep that the "Potters" died. Harry didn't die, and there were only 3 in the family. So for "Potters" plural, to be correct, they did mean James. But of course no one who just watches the movies is going to catch that....

They mentioned this somewhere. I forget where but they do mention how he died. It was like something about James holding off LV becuase he thought he could try and take him or slow him down or something or other.

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true, I agree with this...It was Lily's protection that had signaficance to his existence, but, yes the books have also mentioned james' death although not, in detail...

Thats true, I don't know why it doesn't show you , but I guess it is because it is the biggest part of the plot.

I don't think that they really need to put the death in it. I don't think it needs to be seen.

I'm kind of upset about that too, but I guess it wasn't as 'important' as Lily, considering how she died for him... I dunno. It just seems like they considered her more 'important', altough personnally I would of preferred it if they put both...