Non-violent, off-screen action in films and TV

February 7, 2024 6:00 PM

I'm looking for any examples of off-screen scenes (the action happens to the side of where the camera is focusing) that aren't centered around a violent act, like the cliche murder scene where the blood splatters the wall but you don't see the actual murder.

I was sitting by an indoor pool watching my child and her cousins swim when they all got out of the pool and went to a hot tub just out of my sight, where the other adults were. I was looking at the pool in the early evening light, the water still moving with various colored pool toys bobbing up and down, all while the noise from the out of picture kids filled the air. I thought it would make a great off-screen scene. It reminded me of the ending scene from the horror film "Let the Right One In." It made me wonder if there are any great off-screen scenes that don't center around violent acts.

posted by perhapses to Media & Arts (17 answers total)

original Psycho shower scene is the lowest of low-hanging fruit here, obviously
posted by glonous keming at 6:22 PM on February 7

Another obvious one is the "Stuck In The Middle With You" scene from Reservoir Dogs. If that's not what you had in mind, please clarify what you mean by "aren't centered around a violent act" because I think others will misunderstand too.
posted by intermod at 6:32 PM on February 7 [1 favorite]

Best answer: I think the other common category of off-screen action is sex? Like the famous train shot from North by Northwest?
posted by kickingtheground at 6:34 PM on February 7 [1 favorite]

Best answer: 'The Limits of Control' (2009)
Kind of like a Jason Bourne movie, but with the action prepared for, shown it had happened, but it's not directly seen.
posted by many-things at 6:35 PM on February 7

In Pulp Fiction there was that scene where someone opens the mysterious briefcase up and we see the person's reaction to what's inside but not the thing itself.
posted by any portmanteau in a storm at 6:36 PM on February 7

I think you'll find a number of these under the "I Can't Look Gesture" trope (though they don't all fit).
posted by praemunire at 7:25 PM on February 7

Best answer: Sounds like a subcategory of DiscretionShot, or maybe even Relax-o-Vision. But I'm not finding exactly what you're looking for. The only thing I'm pulling up is the scene in Easy Rider where they pan around to the reactions of the spectators as you hear the sounds of a baby being birthed.
posted by credulous at 7:45 PM on February 7

Any Hollywood film made before 1967. From the IMDB Trivia section for 'Bonnie and Clyde':

In a television interview, director Arthur Penn pointed out that this film showed, for the first time, the firing of a gun, and the consequences in one single take. Before that, you would see a gun being fired, then cut, and the next clip shows the bleeding body. In this movie, you see a gun being fired into the face of a person without inter-cut. This was incredible at the time and would have been censored in the past. (Such a shot, however, had already been used in all three of Sergio Leone's "Dollars" trilogy.)

posted by Rash at 7:57 PM on February 7

Sorry, I mis-read, as your first example was violent, yet you're explicitly requesting non-violent.
posted by Rash at 9:19 PM on February 7

Best answer: Oh! I think I have one. The restaurant scene in Emperor’s New Groove where Pacha is eating a giant pill bug with a straw. You only see Kuzco’s disgusted llama face, about 1 minute into this clip.
posted by lesser weasel at 9:42 PM on February 7

Best answer: Don't know if this counts, but in Muppet Christmas Carol, you can have good fun watching out for the moments where a Muppet falls out of shot, into the snow, and a bunch of snow flies up into the shot to signify that they've hit the ground (though you don't see the moment they hit the ground). I assume they do it because it's hard to film a Muppet doing the whole thing, what with them having a hand up their behind, but it also works as a bit of fun.

There's a whole game you can play where you each sit with a stash of cotton balls, and every time that happens, everyone has to throw cotton balls in the air to replicate the effect. (Also: Drink a shot of Bells whisky every time one of the bells rings...)
posted by penguin pie at 2:20 AM on February 8

The ending scene of The Talented Mr Ripley?
posted by unicorn chaser at 4:39 AM on February 8

One of the most famous is in Rosemary's Baby.
posted by dobbs at 5:52 AM on February 8 [2 favorites]

You could make a case that the action in the air traffic control scene from Close Encounters of the Third Kind takes place far offscreen while we watch a group of people huddled around a radar display.
posted by theory at 6:01 AM on February 8 [2 favorites]

While there’s a few shots of the puppets, in The 400 Blows Truffaut mainly stays on reaction shots of the captivated kids watching the puppet show.
posted by chococat at 1:16 PM on February 8

There's a classic scene in Taxi Driver where the main character gets rejected offscreen. (Maybe even doubly offscreen-- we only hear his side of the conversation, AND the camera pans away from him.)
posted by yankeefog at 8:45 AM on February 9

I'm trying to think of the specific examples, but there are multiple times in Woody Allen's filmography where characters straight up walk out of the frame leaving the space empty for a bit but audibly continue the conversation off screen.

(I wrote up a whole other response before I realized I had glossed over the "non-violent" part of your question. Oof.)
posted by brundlefly at 5:18 AM on February 11