Is the monkeys death graphic?

I totally know how you feel about animals being hurt or killed in movies, even though I know the animals themselves are not being harmed. It depends on how realistic the scene is. If I can tell that they've subbed in some kind of puppet or dummy or whathaveyou, it's okay... but I especially hate when they have horses in battle scenes, where they're falling or whatever. Animals are not actors, and they can't be expected to understand what's happening! There's a scene in The Patriot that makes me feel sick-- Mel Gibson kills a guy by sticking a sword or lance or whatever right up through a horse to kill its rider, and the horse falls face-forward. While of course the horse wasn't stabbed for real, he still fell and acted terrified. Poor horse. :(

The monkey scene in this movie wasn't too hard to watch, because he's shot off-screen, and it was obvious that they just painted on a bullet wound to the monkey's fur. And then it just looks like he falls asleep, and the characters move on. I think maybe they might have given him a sedative, at most.

I didn't catch that, but it's listed in the trivia section:

Darwin's monkey "Wallace" is a reference to the naturalist Alfred Russel Wallace who independently developed the idea of natural selection. Darwin and Wallace presented the theory together, but due to the publication of "On the Origin of Species" Darwin usually gets sole credit for the theory. The scene on Butterfly Island when Darwin closes Wallace in the sack and says " we.... I have an idea" alludes to him taking sole credit for ideas that were not completely his own.

I'm pretty sure most of the animals in Life of Pi were CGI. Some parts were real animals but most of the action scenes etc felt very... fake. You could especially see it in the movements, which didn't feel natural, and sometimes the "plastic" look of them. They were some of the best CGI animals I've ever seen though, but there's just something missing that makes you certain that they're not real. I have a hard time watching stressed or terrified animals myself, but in Life of Pi I never got any of those feelings, because the animals simply didn't feel real. When they got scared you subconsciously knew they weren't actually animals, so it didn't hurt that much. But, remember that it's a tiger, a hyena, a zebra and an orangutan stuck on a boat together (with a human)... and the predators get both angry and hungry. So I understand if you still don't wanna watch it, even if they're CGI.

Oh and I agree with you on the horse scene in The Fall, it affected me a lot more than the monkey's death. It reminded me of The Color of Paradise which I saw like a week ago, where a horse falls into a river. I could barely watch it because you could really sense the fear. I'm sure they picked the horse up as soon as they got their shot and calmed it down, but still... it's not okay just throwing a horse into a river and getting it all panicky just for a film, because it obviously has no idea what's going on. It's literally terrified, it's not just acting terrified like a human would.

I asked because I personally have a particular problem with seeing violence towards animals. This is a sore spot of mine and seeing such things can spoil a movie to me.
And I also avoid watching movies where animals have to go through distress or even get sedated or anything like that to tape the scene.
A human actor can decide whatever he wants to do and what not, but animals have no choice.
I'm not sure what movie it was, I believe it was "The Fountain", where a monkey got sedated 2 times for a scene, and such stuff is not alright with me.

I'm working with animals myself and there are things I'm simply not keen to see, because I can't take it, I get too emotional. I don't have a general problem with violence in movies, only if it involves animals.

But thanks for your input!

I asked because I personally have a particular problem with seeing violence towards animals. This is a sore spot of mine and seeing such things can spoil a movie to me.
And I also avoid watching movies where animals have to go through distress or even get sedated or anything like that to tape the scene.
A human actor can decide whatever he wants to do and what not, but animals have no choice.
I'm not sure what movie it was, I believe it was "The Fountain", where a monkey got sedated 2 times for a scene, and such stuff is not alright with me.

I'm working with animals myself and there are things I'm simply not keen to see, because I can't take it, I get too emotional. I don't have a general problem with violence in movies, only if it involves animals.

But thanks for your input!