Commissioner Gallo’s gruesome death at the hands of Wilson Fisk in Marvel’sDaredevil: Born Againlooks extremely realistic due to the directors and actors' attention to detail.Daredevil: Born Againepisode 9sees Wilson Fisk fully take advantage of his political power. Fisk’s mask is off, and the Kingpin is officially back. Not only does Fisk send his police task force to perform social cleansing in New York, but he also murders Commissioner Gallo with his bare hands, crushing his whole head and removing his jaw clean off his face in one fell swoop.
In an interview withBrandon Davis,Daredevil: Born Againdirectors Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead explain how they created the scene where Wilson Fisk crushes Commissioner Gallo’s head in the series finale. According to theDaredevil: Born Againdirectors, Vincent D’Onofrio took an active role in the scene’s planning, as he proposed several different ways Wilson Fisk could kill Gallo.When Justin Benson, Aaron Moorhead, and Vincent D’Onofrio found the best way to perform the scene, the special effects team scanned Michael Gaston’s head and created a practical dummy full of blood, which D’Onofrio actually crushed with his hands. Read Benson and Moorhead’s comments below:
Aaron Moorhead:“There’s two takes. The only thing that went wrong in the first take was the way the blood splattered felt to us a little too heightened. It became a little too expressionistic.”
Justin Benson:“It’s such a big technical achievement by the special effects company, by Vincent D’Onofrio, by the whole team on set. When we say Vincent D’Onofrio, we mean it. He was like, team leader on this thing for months.”
Aaron Moorhead: “We thought we were excited about getting this thing done, but he was even more. We were in the middle of shooting other scenes and he’s like, ‘okay, so, what if I turn him around. What if I push him down to his knees first instead of just crushing it right in front?’ We had a moment where he grabbed my head and demonstrated how we’d do it, and that kinda told us how to build the dummy and what phase his face would be at, like screaming, or it would be braindead. Because we had to scan his face in advance so they could build the thing.”
Commissioner Gallo’s Death Is One Of The Most Violent And Realistic Deaths In The MCU Because It’s Practical
Image via Disney+
The Marvel Cinematic Universe has had its fair share of R-rated scenes, especially in recent times. Black Bolt’s death inDoctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, Loki’s death inAvengers: Infinity War, andVictor Timely’s countless deaths inLokiseason 2are particularly gruesome, but none of them come close to Gallo’s death inDaredevil: Born Againepisode 9. That’s partly because all the aforementioned MCU deaths were done digitally, whereas Gallo’s crushed head was almost completely practical.The actual effort Vincent D’Onofrio has to make in order to destroy the dummy’s head and the movement of the material are unrivaled by CGI.
Gallo’s Gruesome Death Epitomizes Wilson Fisk’s Power
Netflix’sDaredeviland Marvel Studios’Daredevil: Born Againtake a more subdued approach to Wilson Fisk’s appearance and strength, in comparison to the source material and adaptations such as Fox’s 2003Daredevilmovie and Sony’sSpider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse. Netflix’sDaredevilseason 1 featured Fisk’s infamous “car door” murder, which is a cruel but rather realistic murder.Hawkeyeemphasized Wilson Fisk’s size and strength, butDaredevil: Born Againepisode 1 presented a slimmer Fiskagain. Of course,Fisk’s weight loss was only part of his plan to become Mayor, and his weight and strength came back with a vengeance in the season finale.
Crushing a person’s head with one’s bare hands is next to impossible. Scientifically speaking, a peak-strength human being could do serious damage and even cause injuries that lead to death, but literally destroying a human skull is not feasible. In the MCU, however, Wilson Fisk is simply that strong. Vincent D’Onofrio, Justin Benson, and Aaron Moorhead understand how important it is to show the full extent of Wilson Fisk’s power accurately inDaredevil: Born Again, and a practical approach was definitely the correct way to achieve it.
