--- title: 'American Sniper' Chris Kyle: Why Movie Doesn't Show His Death description: "We talked about putting it in," says screenwriter Jason Hall of Chris Kyle's death in 'American Sniper' canonical: https://time.com/3712785/american-sniper-chris-kyle-movie-death/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-02-18T00:25:12.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-05-11T05:05:35.084Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Here's Why 'American Sniper' Doesn't Show Chris Kyle's Death og:description: "We talked about putting it in," says screenwriter Jason Hall og:url: https://time.com/3712785/american-sniper-chris-kyle-movie-death/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc72d7c844f514807/69877fac5f570f18dab15519/as-fp-0141.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: AMERICAN SNIPER og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's Why 'American Sniper' Doesn't Show Chris Kyle's Death twitter:description: "We talked about putting it in," says screenwriter Jason Hall twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltc72d7c844f514807/69877fac5f570f18dab15519/as-fp-0141.jpg?branch=production&width=3840&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's Why _American Sniper_ Doesn't Show Chris Kyle's Death > Sponsored content. 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Baker / People Contributor Feb 18, 2015 12:25 AM UTC The filmmakers behind _American Sniper_ left out [Chris Kyle](http://www.people.com/article/american-sniper-chris-kyle-story-behind-bradley-cooper-role)‘s violent murder at the end of the [blockbuster movie](http://www.people.com/article/american-sniper-wife-taya-kyle-overwhelmed-with-gratitude) for the sake of his two kids, says screenwriter Jason Hall. “A lot of people have asked me, ‘Why don’t we see Chris get killed?'” Hall told PEOPLE while promoting the film last month. “It’s a fair question, but this was about Chris’s life, and it was also a movie that involves his kids.” Still, he and the film’s other collaborators – including director Clint Eastwood and star [Bradley Cooper](http://www.people.com/article/bradley-cooper-american-sniper-chris-kyle-life-changing) – did consider including Chris’s murder in the final cut, Hall [told the _New York Daily News_](http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/american-sniper-ending-adjusted-behest-seal-widow-article-1.2116319). “We talked about putting it in,” Hall said. “I certainly wrote it. We went around and around and I wrote it five different ways and talked about how we would shoot it.” Recalling a conversation Hall had with Chris’s widow [Taya](http://www.people.com/article/american-sniper-chris-kyle-widow-taya-kyle-coping) a few days after Kyle’s funeral, he says she told him, “If you guys are going to do this, you’re going to need to get it right. This is going to play a part, for better or worse, in how my kids remember their dad.” Hall met Chris, known as the most lethal sniper in U.S. history, when he was working on bringing the Navy SEAL’s 2012 bestselling autobiography to the big screen. On Feb. 2, 2013, the day after Hall handed in the first draft of the screenplay, Chris was fatally shot on a Texas gun range at age 38 while trying to help [Eddie Ray Routh](http://www.people.com/article/american-sniper-chris-kyle-trial-confession-video), a fellow veteran who was allegedly suffering from PTSD. Routh, 27, is currently standing trial in Stephenville, Texas, for the [murders](http://www.people.com/article/chris-kyle-murder-trial-former-deputy-overheard-killer-motive) of Chris and his friend, Chad Littlefield. He has pleaded not guilty [by reason of insanity](http://www.people.com/article/american-sniper-trial-eddie-routh-insanity-defense). Ultimately, Eastwood had the final word on the film’s ending, says Hall. But being a father of two himself made Hall think about how the death scene would affect Chris’s children when he penned the final script. “For me, I didn’t want this movie hanging over \[Taya’s\] kids’ heads for the rest of their lives,” he told PEOPLE. “And I didn’t want to glorify \[Routh\],” he added. The film ends with Taya ([Sienna Miller](http://www.people.com/people/sienna%5Fmiller)) looking anxious as she peers out the front door of their home while Chris (Cooper) heads to the Rough Creek Lodge with Routh. “The way in which it was done onscreen – Clint does it is so brilliantly that you don’t even realize it’s happening,” says Hall. “There are two points of view in the movie: Taya’s and Chris’s. For her, this is how it happened, in a moment where it was just another day and then he was gone.” In an earlier interview with PEOPLE, Taya shared her thoughts on the film’s final scene. “The look and the caution that you see in Sienna’s face is a constant,” said Taya. “It’s like, ‘You’re going to do this and I hope this guy is okay.'” [_This article originally appeared on People.com_](http://www.people.com/article/american-sniper-chris-kyle-final-scene) ### Biopic Actors and Their Real-Life Counterparts  Meryl Streep plays Emmeline Pankhurst in Suffragette Focus; Topical Press Agency/Getty Images  Michael Fassbender plays Steve Jobs in Steve Jobs Universal; Bob Riha Jr—Getty Images  Ellen Page plays Stacie Andree in Freeheld Lionsgate; Tom Spader—AP  Joseph Gordon Levitt plays Philippe Petit in The Walk Sony Pictures; Dave Pickoff—AP  Johnny Depp plays James 'Whitey' Bulger in Black Mass Warner Brothers; AP  André Benjamin plays Jimi Hendrix in All Is By My Side Patrick Redmond—XLrator Media; Photoshot/Getty Images  Adrien Brody plays Harry Houdini in Houdini. History Channel; Hulton Archive/Getty Images  Chadwick Boseman plays James Brown in Get On Up. Universal Pictures; Gilles Petard—Redferns/Getty Images  Ashton Kutcher plays Steven Jobs in Jobs. Open Road Films; Tom Munnecke/Getty Images  Cate Blanchett plays Bob Dylan in I'm Not There. Weinstein Co.; Michael Ochs Archives/Getty Images  James Franco plays James Dean in James Dean. Getty Images (2)  Meryl Streep plays Margaret Thatcher in The Iron Lady. Weinstein Co.; Hulton Archive/Getty Images  Benedict Cumberbatch plays Julian Assange in The Fifth Estate. Disney; Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images  Anthony Hopkins plays Alfred Hitchcock in Hitchcock. Fox Searchlight; NBC/Getty Images  Salma Hayek plays Frida Kahlo in Frida. Miramax; Popperfoto/Getty Images  Gary Oldman plays Sid Vicious in Sid and Nancy. MGM; Richard E. Aaron—Redferns/Getty Images  Denzel Washington plays Malcolm X in Malcolm X. Warner Bros.; Truman Moore—The LIFE Images Collection/Getty Images  Leonardo DiCaprio plays J. Edgar Hoover in J. Edgar. Warner Bros.; Bachrach/Getty Images  Ben Kingsley plays Gandhi in Gandhi. Columbia; Gamma-Keystone/Getty Images  Michelle Williams plays Marilyn Monroe in My Week With Marilyn. Weinstein Co.; NBC/Getty Images  Joaquin Phoenix plays Johnny Cash in Walk the Line. 20th Century Fox; David Gahr/Getty Images  Daniel Day-Lewis plays President Abraham Lincoln in Lincoln. 20th Century Fox; Culture Club/Getty Images  Don Cheadle plays Miles Davis in Miles Ahead. Brian Douglas, Ton Pouw—AP  Demetrius Shipp Jr. plays Tupac Shakur in All Eyez on Me. 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