'Breaking Dawn - Part 2' Twist Ending: Jackson Rathbone, Peter Facinelli Recall Their Reactions

Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen "The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn - Part 2."

Twilighters have been speculating for weeks over the specifics of the film franchise's finale, but few probably imagined heads would roll — literally.

Eschewing the peaceful resolution reached by the Cullen clan and the villainous Volturi in Stephenie Meyer's best-selling novel, screenwriter Melissa Rosenberg and director Bill Condon instead take audiences on a wild "what if" ride, presenting Alice's vision of a blood-soaked battle — that includes a couple gut-wrenching Cullen fatalities — before revealing that it is, indeed, all just an illusion. But it was a close call, especially for Jasper Hale and Carlisle Cullen, who were among the dead bodies strewn across the forest of Forks.

When we caught up with the character's real-life alter egos, Jackson Rathbone and Peter Facinelli, we had to ask what their reactions were to their almost-demises.

"I thought it was awesome, are you kidding me?" Rathbone enthused. "It's one thing to portray a character that can never die, and then to have that exact thing happen is exciting. It really kind of shows a lot of family dynamic and how it raises the stakes of the conflict. 'Cause a lot of times, you watch a movie, and you know the good guy is not gonna die. You're gonna see that he's gonna shoot his way out of the warehouse. He's going to somehow find another gun. You know in the back of your head. You're never really worried, so I think this raises the stakes in a grand way."

In fact, the stakes were so high, at least one "Twilight" actress had a hard time remembering it wasn't real.

"I had legit moments when we were on set and they were like, 'We're going to shoot the Carlisle death scene,' and I had moments like, 'Wait, what do you mean?" Nikki Reed recalled. "Also, remember that there was a tremendous lack of sleep and food, and we were shooting two movies at the same time, and you never really know where you were, so I had moments where I had to be reassured everything was going to be okay. No one was dying for real."

Facinelli was equally dismayed by his own gristly death, but for a completely different reason.

"I was like, 'Wow, I don't get to do any action stuff!'" he said. "There's like all this fun action happening, and I was like, my character gets killed, so I was kind of bummed I didn't get to be part of the action. But then I thought that was kind of cool, and I thought that's kind of exciting. I want to see the fans' reactions when Carlisle gets taken out."

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