How To Dispatch A Villain in Six Easy Shots

Mortal Kombat: Annihilation wrote an extended fight scene for Sheeva, but when it became clear they couldn't animate all four arms on their budget (we talk about it on Rating Descending starting at 58:40) they killed her off with this 'dropping chandelier' move.

If your movie is over budget and you gotta kill a villain quick, here’s your shotlist:

1. a shot of your villain, preferably moving out of frame

2. a medium shot of someone propelling a knife / rock / bullet

3. a closeup of a rope or chain which holds a cage or other large chandelier-like object (CLO) which gets hit by that object

4. a wide-as-you-can shot of the CLO dropping towards the villain

   

5. a low-angle shot of the CLO

   1. this only needs to last about 24 frames

   2. you could make this a POV to avoid having to shoot the villain and her four arms at all, but then you lose the exquisite moment where Sheeva barrels the camera and screams as she is smooshed face-first towards it)

6. a shot of your heroes / the villain's targets looking 'backwards' (preferably looking the opposite direction the villain was moving in shot #1) and sighing in relief

And here’s all that in context:

Voila! A villain dispatched in six easy shots.