10 Most Shocking Jump Cuts In Film History

3. Kate Winslet's Death - Contagion

Contagion Kate Winslet
Warner Bros.

Steven Soderbergh's Contagion is a frighteningly plausible look at how a pandemic might unfold in the modern world, taking a refreshingly unsentimental approach to depicting the ravaging effects of a seemingly unstoppable virus.

Dr. Erin Mears (Kate Winslet) is one of the scientists dispatched to try and stem the pandemic, but for her efforts she ends up infected herself.

In one agonising moment, we see a deeply ill Erin laying on a hospital gurney, and Soderbergh then jump cuts to her corpse wrapped in plastic, dumped in a mass grave.

It's completely ruthless and, considering that Winslet's such a huge star, absolutely jaw-dropping in its abruptness. There's no overwrought death scene where she gets a dignified final moment with a loved one: she goes from living to dead in a flash.

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Stay at home dad who spends as much time teaching his kids the merits of Martin Scorsese as possible (against the missus' wishes). General video game, TV and film nut. Occasional sports fan. Full time loon.