MovieChat Forums > Nightcrawler (2014) Discussion > What did he do to that rent-a-cop in the...

What did he do to that rent-a-cop in the beginning?


Were we supposed to think he killed him, or just subdued him somehow and jacked his watch?

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Im think he just beat him up. Tho his sinister act of filming his partner die now makes me think he just killed the guard.

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He killed him.

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He probably just beat him up.

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It’s unclear whether he battered or killed him, but I think the film should have shown either way because we need to know if this guy is a petty criminal or a full-blown murderer at the start of the story. If the latter, his moral decay has less impact, as does the ‘media creates monsters’ theme.

It’s also a little implausible that weedy, skeletal Jake Gyllenhaal could take on a burly, armed rent-a-cop.

Another thing that needed clarifying was that he was indeed fucking Nina. She was clearly resistant to this freak’s threatening advances and then a throwaway line later on suggests she has been screwing him on the reg.

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I disagree, I thought the ambiguity of the beating/killing added to flavor of the film. That being said, I think he killed him.
And it’s not implausible that the “weedy, skeletal” Lou took on the rent-a-cop, the character was similar to that of a coyote or wolf who was hunting and hadn’t eaten in awhile. Notice how he cocks his head when the airplane flys above (one of the earlier scenes), just like a dog or wolf would do.
The rentacop underestimated him, let him get to close and paid the price.

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Definitely killed him. It lets you know that he is a pathological psychotic.

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You can't ~prove~ Louis killed the guard with what the movie gives you to work with. But as the story progresses and Louis's character is developed, it should seem more and more probable to anyone with at least two brain cells inside their skull. Why else would they zoom in on the watch at the very end of the movie?

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