10 Movie Scenes That Unexpectedly Confused Audiences
8. Traeger's Death - The Predator
Shane Black's The Predator was a colossal disappointment for many reasons, yet there's one brief-but-vital moment which left viewers especially confused.
In the third act, government agent Will Traeger (Sterling K. Brown) is suddenly killed when he's shot by... something, yet it happens so fast and is edited so frantically that it's tough for viewers to realise what they've just seen.
What actually happens is that Traeger accidentally shoots himself in the head with one of the Predators' plasma cannons which he's placed on his shoulder.
Because when he suddenly turns his head the plasma cannon follows, causing it to target his own head and promptly blow it off.
Yet between the darkness of the scene, the clumsy editing, and generally poor staging of the sequence, audiences can't be remotely blamed for being confused by this.
It's no secret that The Predator's third act was cut to ribbons and heavily re-shot during post-production, so this wonky death scene could be a direct result of that. Either way, it's an oddly amateur moment coming from such a skilled filmmaker.
If the intent was to make Traeger's accidental death darkly hilarious, then Black categorically failed and simply left everyone wondering what the hell happened to him.