Who really killed Mr Brown in Reservoir Dogs?

Question

(Spoiler Ahead)

In the movie Reservoir Dogs Mr Brown (played by Quentin Tarantino) is found dead after Mr White (Harvey Keitel) shoots down the cops. However before the brief shoot out he was talking to Mr Orange (Tim Roth) and complaining about blindness and blood in his eyes.

Although Brown was already injured, however his sudden death due to those injury looks a little vague to me. It is fairly possible that Orange would have shot Brown while White was shooting at the cops. Is there any pointers in the movie explaining his death in the movie?

Answer 1

Brown was shot by the police (possibly the officers that Mr. White later fires on). He crashes the car as a result of his soon-to-be-fatal injury. Mr. Orange does not harm Mr. Brown - his shell-shocked behavior after Brown's death is due to the violence that he is witnessing, and not yet any that he has committed. He has, after all, just seen his friend Mr. White gun down two of his fellow officers. (Source)

Answer 2

I personally don't believe he truly died. In the beginning of the 12 second flashback, you see their car crash, and it's sudden stop could've cause him to hit his head on the steering wheel, cutting him and start the bleeding. He doesn't get shot by the police Mr. White kills during the scene, because they didn't have time to reach for their guns, they we're shot up fairly fast.

Mr. Orange is distracted by the one-sided gun fight, and the anxiety of the heist, mixed with the fear of being blind and the pain from the hypothetical cut could've made Brown faint, as no one checks his pulse.

My backing up for this is Pulp Fiction. Jimmy is played by Quentin Tarantino, and they are in the same universe and city (Mr. Blonde is Vic Vega, Vincent Vega's brother, Los Angeles)so everyone but he and Mr. Pink die, which could've made Jimmy/Mr. Brown quit his life of crime and get married to Bonnie. It would explain why Jules knows Jimmy, and why Jimmy doesn't want anything to do with Marvin's dead body, because he doesn't want crime in his life anymore.

It would ALSO explain why Jimmy/Mr. Brown says Bonnie would divorce him rather than call the police, because Bonnie knows that he could be charge so much more than Aiding & Abetting, including Mafia Affiliation and Heist. She doesn't want Jimmy/Mr. Brown to be locked up for life, but she also doesn't want to be married to someone who lied about giving up a life a crime for her.

But that's just a theory, so I guess the only one who will know is Quentin Tarantino.

Answer 3

Mr. Brown got hit in the head by a bullet, probably fired by a police officer.

He doesn't die immediately because not everyone who gets a bullet in the brain dies right away.

Answer 4

If Brown got shot in the middle of the head, it means he could not live that long. I believe he must have been killed by Orange! You can see Orange's emotion when he saw the two dead police. After that, you see Brown is dead. These are two continuos scenes that convinced us that Orange killed Brown. So much fun with Tarantino's style.