you think Mr Orange lives ??

There's one single shot, then a pause and then a salvo of shots coming from the police. White doesn't react to the shots until after the first shot. You also see his arm slightly move at the sound of that first shot.

If White didn't plan on shooting Orange, then why didn't he just drop the gun? He's not going to let them shoot him over nothing.

"It is not clear as to whether he shot Mr Orange or not."

And this, my friend, is a prime example of an implicit element in the story. It was actually quite obvious that White shot him. When directors do that they trust the audience and know that people will understand what happened without showing it.

The events that preceded the ending make it all clear: we know that White is a person who is ready to kill someone if he feels it's the right thing to do. He was ready to shoot Joe if he would had dared to kill Orange because he was convinced of Orange's innocence. That is the whole reason why he was ready to turn his back on people he knew for years if that meant that he would save the life of someone who didn't deserve to be mistrusted. And... because Orange lied about him not being the rat, they killed each others. So then, there was no way back, and at THAT moment, Orange admitted that he actually WAS the rat and so Joe was right. Everything went even more south than it was at the begging because of Orange's act. So clearly, there was no way that White would had simply let him get away with this and be free as a bird while he would rot in jail. He would rather kill him (a cop) in front of the other cops and be shot then to live the miserable life that was coming for him.

Plus, we clearly see him move his arm slightly and we hear the shot which was followed by a brief silence because hearing multiple shots after which White falls on the ground.

Another example of this approach in a more recent movie: (SPOILER ALERT!!!!) if you haven't seen the latest A star is born by Brandley Cooper, don't read what is written below.


The suicide in A star is born. It is not shown, but the way everything is set makes it quite obvious.

I actually love when movies do that, especially in a time when movies tend to show everything by fear that the audience wouldn't understand.