9 Movie Deaths You Hear Off-Screen That You Probably Missed The First Time
7. The Hitman - The Gentlemen
The opening scene in Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen begins in medias res - that is, in the middle of the story - with weed baron protagonist Mickey Pearson (Matthew McConaughey) sitting down for a pint and seemingly being shot in the back of the head by a silenced pistol.
We don't see Mickey die but we do see some blood splatter onto his pint, leaving the audience to ponder whether he died or got a last-minute save from somebody else.
Well, Ritchie has quite ingeniously hidden the answer in plain earshot right away - when the gun fires, it clearly isn't silenced, meaning it can't have belonged to the hitman standing behind him.
Furthermore, if you keep listening you can hear the dead person's body collapse to the hard floor of the pub, yet given that Mickey is sitting down, he would more likely slump forward or backwards without the same impact.
And so, near the end of the film this scene plays out and - surprise! - the hitman is indeed shot dead at the last minute by Mickey's right-hand man Ray (Charlie Hunnam).
Everything you needed to know was right there in those opening sounds, but it's also quick enough that you couldn't be blamed for missing it the first time.
On a second viewing you're far more likely to catch it, armed with the knowledge of what's really going on.