Question: During the big fight scene near the end, one of the henchman Will Smith fights lifts a wrench to strike, only to randomly die for seemingly no reason. He screams, some sparks shoot out of his ears, and he's dead. What killed him? I've seen some people say he electrocuted himself on the equipment around him, but that's not true - the wrench is nowhere near hitting anything. Did he just... randomly blow a fuse or something?
TedStixon
6th Jan 2019
Wild Wild West (1999)
Answer: In the original script, Jim West simply sidestepped the menacing MetalHead henchman, who plunged through the doorway, falling to his death. Apparently, this wasn't a spectacular enough way to end the brawl, so the scene was revised to add the huge machine wrench and electrical sparking effects. West intentionally hands the wrench to MetalHead, who grabs it with both hands and raises it to strike; he then shorts-out with electrical sparking effects before falling out the door. I believe the implication is that, when MetalHead grabbed the wrench with both hands, it completed an exposed electrical circuit that caused him to quickly short-out.
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Answer: He's some sort of robot or cyborg, and he's shorted out from the damage he received in the brawl.
Brian Katcher