Powerful scene. Since the wounds were from behind, they were likely not self-inflicted. It's possible that he was playing with a friend who accidentally shot him.
But there's no mention of a friend - only a father. Since the ghosts in The Sixth Sense usually exist to clear a severe disturbing injustice, it's also possible that his father (drunk and abusive) shot him.
But there's no mention of a friend - only a father.
Since the ghosts in The Sixth Sense usually exist to clear a severe disturbing injustice, it's also possible that his father (drunk and abusive) shot him.
Ummm, it's implied that the father shot him.
CDEGFEDCC. (Shhh!)
Where?
shareno it's not. it's implied the kid said this to his friend at the time. the kid and his friend messed with the gun and somehow the boy was shot with it. the father has nothing to do with it except that it's his gun.
F.H.R.I.T.P.
yeah, um, no.
I would say my memory is not what it used to be. But I don't remember what my memory used to be.
[deleted]
Since the wounds were from behind, they were likely not self-inflicted
[deleted]
Exactly. Exit wounds are typical much, much larger than the tiny entry wounds. The kid was most likely just fooling around with his friend, putting the gun in his mouth while thinking it was unloaded when he pulled the trigger and accidentally blew his brains out.
Easily the most chilling moment in the film, especially thinks the musical accompaniment. Excellent.
La religion est fausse, mais vous êtes réel. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=bpq26sPbC_4
If the entry wound was the back of his head, then the exit wound would be the face. Clearly his face was blown off. The back was blown off. Most likely a suicide where he put the gun in his mouth as there is no entry wound in the front. Case closed.
shareThis makes the most sense, but seems unlikely.
A kid putting a gun in his mouth to blow his brains out is extremely dark by Hollywood standards - even if just implied.
I always laugh at that. The horror movie chord just makes it funnier.
Wildcattin'...Wildcattin'. Pow! I'm gonna go.
The whole episode seems quite clear and easily imaginable really. The boy took his friend to show his father's gun (the same way he asks Cole later in the movie). They then played with it and at some point the boy puts the gun in his mouth jokingly and pulls the trigger, not knowing the gun was loaded. Hence the exit wound at the back of his head. No foul play there, the boy just wanted a friend to play with or show how he died when talking to Cole.
shareThe boy was shot in the back of the head by his friend. That is why there is no entry wound in the front. The kid was facing away from his friend when the friend accidentally pulled the trigger blowing the back of the boy's head off.
shareRiiiight. So that explains why there was no exit wound on the boy's face I suppose?
shareYou do realize that an entry and exit wound can both be in the back of the head, right? If the boy was facing away from his friend in profile, and the friend accidentally shot him in the back of the head, the wound would be a portion of the back of the boy's head being blown off. It doesn't have to be through the back of the head and out the front, or through the front of the head and out the back. The entire wound could be at the back of the head if he was shot from the side. Gunshot wounds are not all neat and easy with entry and exit wounds. Sometimes the result is just a big chunk of flesh being blown off.
shareI would agree with you completely but the movie showed a big hole smack in the middle of the back of the boy's head, as far as I can recall. It was no side shot and him putting the gun in his mouth and accidentally shooting his head off seems more probable than your theory. Just admit it man.
shareTo me it just looked like a big chunk of the back of his head was blown off.
shareAs other posters have pointed out, the gaping wound squarely in the back of the head with no wound in the face is consistent with putting the muzzle of a gun in one's mouth and firing. You can see something similar in the Sherlock episode The Abominable Bride.
Everybody, let's consider this particular case closed. Personally, I'm learning a lot on this message board from people who got things I missed or who possess knowledge I lack. And I'm downright delighted to say I never saw the twist coming. What a thrill! Now it's fun to go back and recognize all the hints and the things that need to be understood differently.
I'm a sucker for movies like this. And please, don't anybody trouble yourself to reply, "No, dude, you're just a sucker." That's been done before.
It's just another Night example of the sickness of the American Beauty where a father is so irresponsible he keeps a loaded gun [badly] hidden at home.
Remember he applauds the brave move in Falling Down to expose MBP and is simply trying to make J Doe wake up - same as the whole of The Happening.
But J Doe maintains Eyes Wide Shut
http://www.kindleflippages.com/ablog/
[deleted]
*Spoiler ahead, so if you don't want to know how the horror in this film links into one of the main plot revelations, stop reading now.*
Good scene to pick up on, that; I was very intrigued by it too. I think the scene can be interpreted many different ways, but this is what I personally think happened to the boy:
I think the boy shot himself in the mouth, due to his - as you say, possibly drunk and abusive - father pushing him into insanity with his abuse. The reason I think the boy shot himself is because of the nature of the bullet wound in his head. If the boy had been shot from behind, the bullet would have left a small, clean impact hole in the back of his head and left its "exit crater" in the boy's face. But seeing as - what I would assume to be - the exit crater was in the back of the boy's skull, and no clean entry wound was visible on the boy's face, that very much implies that the boy shot himself in the mouth.
As for what the boy said, "I'll show you where my Dad keeps his gun", that was probably him trying to get Cole to discover what a shady character the father was, (after all, a father who keeps a firearm somewhere where a kid can easily find it OBVIOUSLY has issues!), and then perhaps - by extension - encourage Cole to work out what he did to himself as a result of his abusive father emotionally hurting him.
After all, the ghosts are out to get empathy and/or help from Cole, so that they can happily pass on, so Cole's finding out why the boy shot himself - if he did indeed shoot himself, as I suppose - may be the only reassurance that the boy needed to pass on.
I think you're reading too much into it. The kid was playing with the gun and accidently shot himself (and yes, that was an exit wound). A quick google search shows that about 1 child a day dies from accidental gun discharges.
shareYou could well be right, but the statistics for the number of people who die from accidental gun discharges don't automatically mean that that's what happened to the boy in the movie. All we see is the boy trying to usher Cole to the spot where the father keeps his gun, so the scene is rather vague and open to interpretation. That was intentional, I think; I reckon Shyamalan wanted to leave a little room for viewers' own thoughts, to make the film more intriguing. So basically, I don't think any definite conclusions can be drawn. I think that both our theories are equally feasible, such is the evidence we have to go on.
shareI agree. In the end, it's immaterial to the plot so there is no reason for him to spoonfeed the ghost's background to the audience. How he left it served its purpose (just to demonstrate the spooky crap Cole deals with).
share