Actor: Elsa Kikoïne
Elsa plays a Cultural Liaison and for a General in the French military who’s been selling weapons to Pakistan. Something went wrong during a recent exchange, so the General recruited a former combat pilot, who went blind after a crash, to serve as a Hitman to take out everyone involved. Elsa was his first contract.
Her murder is the opening scene in the movie. It starts with her and her bodyguard arriving at her apartment on a rainy night. After getting out of the car, she asks him to come up because she’s afraid. He reluctantly agrees. When they enter, he casually examines the first floor, and then goes upstairs where he checks the closet. He notices the light won’t come on, but thinks nothing of it, and goes back downstairs. He then tells her there’s no one in the apartment. She offers him a drink, and he politely declines. A brief pause later, and he leaves. She locks the door behind him. As she proceeds back into her living room, she’s lassoed from above with a wire, and lifted a few inches off the floor.
During the struggle, the movie cuts between her, and the bodyguard waiting for the elevator outside the door. He hears glass shatter inside her apartment the moment she’s attacked, and returns to the door to listen for any other commotion, but can’t hear anything above the din of the elevator. We’re treated to several terrific shots of her stiletto-clad feet kicking, and equally impressive headshots as she gasps for air, trying in vain to get her fingers between the wire and her neck. Her death ends with one last kick of her feet as they come to rest. The bodyguard is then shown leaving the building. The clip ends with a nice shot of Elsa’s death stare and the wire used to hang her with now draped loosely over her head and laying on the ground next to her.
Comments
This scene is something I’ve fantasized about for as long as I can remember. It has everything I’ve ever imagined about this type of scenario:
- Well-dressed, professional woman
- Surprise attack from above by unseen killer
- Thin wire used so she can’t pull herself up
- Reaction shot right before she’s pulled up off the floor
- Hands clawing at the wire around her neck throughout the attack.
- Plenty of heel-clad foot shots
It’s as if the filmmakers read my mind and shot exactly the kind hanging I’ve dreamed of all my life.
Edits
After Elsa’s attacked, there are a few cuts to her bodyguard waiting for the service elevator to come back up. I removed all of them after the point where she locks her door.