Hitman – agents without heart. Hitman vs. Real Life Assassinations

We opened the list with the reconstruction of Eric Soders' mission from the 70s, and we will finish with his actual assassination in the Japanese hospital on the island of Hokkaido. I always found this mission particularly odd and cruel – the target here is a harmless old man, permanently stuck in a hospital bed. Aside from several different ways to kill him, including using a faulty defibrillator, the weirdest one can be done away from the victim. Agent 47 can get into the room with organ and destroy the heart that's supposed to be transplanted. Hitman just throws it in the garbage can... Soders thus has no hear, and so does 47, in a sense.

And so you can kill the victim with your bare hands, without even getting colse to him.

History – the lady with a handkerchief

The list of true explosions ends with the newest example making it all the more evident that secret assassinations still take place – not only in movies and games. On February 13, 2017, Kim Jong-Nam – the half-brother of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un – was poisoned in a crowd while waiting for a plane at the airport in Kuala Lumpur. Kim died within 20 minutes, on the way to the hospital. Traces of toxic VX gas were found on the body.

Two women were accused of the murder – an Indonesian and a Vietnamese, who were to spray Kim's face with poison and then press a handkerchief to his face. However, their lawyers argued that North Korean were the true perpetrators. They supposedly duped the girls into believing that they were filming an entertainment show, and the prank with the handkerchief was meant for candid camera. The implied agents vanished into thin air immediately after the action and were never identified. In March 2019, the Indonesian woman was acquitted and released. The Vietnamese was released in May this year, after changing the charge from murder to armed attack.

Heartless killer or honorable professional?

The final example of Agent 47 devastating the victim's transplant heart, quite clearly shows a dissonance of perception. We're all probably rather fond of him – after all, the guy with the bald head and a bar code tattoo is one of the most iconic characters in video games. Filmmakers romanticize the assassins even more, imagining people that you just have to sympathize with and admire. Nikita, Leon, John Wick, Jason Bourne, the Black Mamba, or Mr. and Mrs. Smith. Those are all positive characters that we support throughout the entire movie. Even those a bit more vile, like Tom Cruise's Vincent in Collateral doesn't cause any particular appal. Meanwhile, the real assassins are ruthless killers with no rules, taking lives in cold blood. Regardless of their methods and sophistication, you need to bear that in mind.