The Punisher: One Last Kill hasn’t even been out for a full day yet, but the Internet has found its meme to dunk on. During the special, which stars and was co-written by Jon Bernthal, Frank Castle (aka The Punisher) fights an onslaught of bad guys who are trying to kill him. At one point, he’s thrown off a roof to a lower ledge and, well, now you have to watch it.
The shot in context happens about 32:30 into the special, but, of course, it has been clipped and reproduced online. Here’s one of those.
They really left an unfinished VFX shot in #Punisher LOL😭😭😭 pic.twitter.com/ISMmbhFeeY
— RobatsWrld.mp3 (@RealRobat) May 13, 2026
Now, obviously, that doesn’t look great. In the words of our sister site Kotaku, it “looks like a PS3 game.” But fans have speculated and run with the fact that it’s some kind of animatic or unfinished visual effects shot, and that’s not true.
io9 did some digging, and a source close to the production told us that the shot isn’t unfinished. It’s based on a practical, in-camera stunt. Bernthal did the beginning of it, and a stunt double actually landed on the (what looks like) metal contraption. There was then a face replacement to make the stunt double look like Bernthal, which is what we see here.
Now, does that mean the face replacement looks perfect? Of course not. Anyone can see that. And the Internet has every right to point out that a shot was left in the show that clearly doesn’t live up to the high standard of Marvel Studios. But it’s not an unfinished VFX shot. It’s just a bad VFX shot, and it’s unclear if the shot will be changed or improved.
Personally, I noticed this shot as I was watching, but quickly forgot about it because so much else was happening. Ultimately, I feel like dunking on one second in 48 minutes is fun, but it also does a bit of a disservice to the rest of it. Does the one mistake ruin the rest of it? I’d argue it does not.
Did you notice the shot when you watched One Last Kill? What did you think of the rest of it? Let us know below.
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