10 Movie Cliches Everybody Hates

5. The Gun Goes Off...But Who Got Shot?

The "gunshot fakeout" is a cliche almost as old as cinema itself, whereby the hero will typically get caught in a tussle with an enemy, after which a gunshot will ring out, with close camerawork making it unclear exactly who has been shot.

After a beat, one of the parties - usually the attacker - will drop down dead, in a trope so hilariously mouldy it's amazing modern movies are still using it at all.

But alas, Mission: Impossible - Rogue Nation boasts a comical scene where Ilsa Faust (Rebecca Ferguson) appears to get shot by villain Solomon Lane (Sean Harris), yet of course, he actually fired at one of his anonymous goons.

More recently in Widows, Viola Davis' protagonist ends up fighting over a gun with the movie's antagonist, only for a gunshot to blare out and, after a beat, it's revealed that the aggressor was the one to catch a bullet. That Steve McQueen of all filmmakers indulged such a rampant cliche with a straight face is utterly baffling.

It sure would be nice to see a filmmaker actually subvert this cliche and have the hero just drop down dead.