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I Agree With Alma - The Ending Where He Burned the Formula Was Better

posted 16 years ago by murray_johnc
12 replies | jump to latest

Espionage during the cold war era was a foul nasty business and films of that period had no business sanitizing it (Martin Ritt's "Spy Who Came In From the Cold" is an excellent example of the genre).
So, why would Michael burn the formula at the end of the film after all the trouble obtaining it? Probably a feeling of guilt. Professor Michael Armstrong and his female accomplice brutally tortured and murdered Hermann Gromek who was only doing his job, he also put a lot of other people's lives in danger - all in order to lie, cheat and steal a formula from a fellow scientist who trusted him. In a deleted scene at a factory canteen, Gromek's older brother tells Michael that Gromek was a married man with 3 children.

[–] DaveCharpentier 16 years ago

But that would go against the whole third act, when they were escaping. The reason they ran into so much trouble is because Michael was more concerned with getting the formula than escaping. He was so obsessed by the formula that he even stopped to write it down while police were looking for them.

[–] Altho73 16 years ago

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'I Agree With Alma - The Ending Where He Burned the Formula Was Better'
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So in other words you wanted the East German regime, one of the most brutal and pathetic dictatorships of all time to win!!!!!!!!

[–] rexshard93 15 years ago

I agree with Alma.

[–] juanmonge69 15 years ago

He never writes the formula down. He could have done it on the bus. Or at the Cafe. He could have easily given it to the "Farmer" in front of the travel agency.

Actually, I was expecting another ending: When the german Scientist who is sponsoring Armstrong takes Sarah aside and convinces her to stay. I thought maybe, a great possible ending, it turns out that Sarah is really a double agent or installed bY the Americans as Armstrongs handler( Unbeknown to him). Why else would she follow him and agree to defect unless she had another agenda.

[–] rexshard93 15 years ago

I think he wrote the formula on the paper before they leave to ride on bicycles.

[–] billpeter 15 years ago

Yes, he wrote it down on paper in the First Aid Room.

[–] c7c7c7r 15 years ago

Gromek wasn't just "doing his job"--as if he had no choice but to go into East German Security. (Spoilers) When he found the 'Pi' symbol, he really relished telling Armstrong he'd go to prison, and he made a pistol gesture toward the farm woman--she was going to be executed. Gromek loved being threatening. So Armstrong and his 'accomplice' didn't torture & murder Gromek. When Gromek picked up the phone, he was essentially just about to end their lives. Besides, the whole point of the killing scene was to show a German being put to death in a gas oven.

[–] evanevan 13 years ago

No Hitchcock said in the Truffaut interview book that the point of the scene was to show how hard it actually is to kill a person. it had nothing to do with a German dying in a gas oven.

[–] c7c7c7r 12 years ago

In another interview Hitch said, regarding that farmhouse scene: "We're back at the gas ovens in the concentration camps...." It's hard not to see that connection. This time, it's the German who gets gassed to death.

[–] hisgrandmogulhighness 12 years ago

Though he's a commie . . .

[–] poetcomic1 12 years ago

The East German Stasi secret police were full of ex-Nazis.

[–] hisgrandmogulhighness 12 years ago

Employred to serve the Soviet Union . . .