10 Brutally Violent Movie Deaths That Came Out Of Nowhere

By Brogan Morris /

4. Death By Gosling - Drive (2011)

Nicolas Winding Refn has described Drive's now famous elevator head-stomp as the moment in which Ryan Gosling's Driver character turns from a decent human being into a werewolf, the gist being that this is the first time in the film we see the Driver get really, really angry. Granted, he's already slapped Christina Hendricks around - in a casually misogynistic sequence that had people straight on Refn's case - and shotgunned a man to death by this point, but neither of those incidents prepare you for the sight of the guy kicking a foe's head into mush. It's also not helped by the sudden shift from romance to snuff movie - in the scene in question, the Driver shares a passionate kiss with object of his affection, Irene (Carey Mulligan), before he moves into full-throttle predator mode, dropping the shifty-looking thug sharing the elevator with them to the floor then jumping on his head until it caves. The Driver is a criminal, granted, yet basically a good man, but rather than just incapacitating the man and leaving it at that, as we suspect he will, Driver instead pulverises the hired goon in squelchy detail.