MovieChat Forums > The Friends of Eddie Coyle (1973) Discussion > Help! Missed Ending(BIG SPOILERs)

Help! Missed Ending(BIG SPOILERs)


Damn DVR.

So I watched "The Friends of Eddie Coyle" on TCM off my DVR, and it gets to the quite gripping ending -- Robert Mitchum is being driven around by Peter Boyle and the Young Hit Guy. Tension mounts.

The Young Hit Guy shoots Mitchum. They drive around a little more with Boyle talking, and Mitchum dead.

Next shot: they pull the car into a bowling alley parking lot and...

...my recording ended.

Now, I can only feel lucky that the DVR recording didn't shut down say two minutes before(before Mitchum is killed),but I was still pretty furious.

So I'd like to know: anything of any importance happen after that car pulled into the bowling alley parking lot? Or just "The End"?

Thanks. I'll wait patiently for the answer. Right here.

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One quick correction. The "young guy" drives the car while the "older guy", Dillon, shoots Eddie.

The only thing you missed was the end of that scene and the final scene.

After they pull into the lot, they "stuff" poor Eddie down in the front seat and lock the doors. They get into a similar looking car that was already parked there by Dillon and drive away. It was a pretty depressing scene in that we know Eddie is in the car - dead and they are casually talking buisness as usual when the leave him alone in the dreary, unassuming parking lot - a fitting end to the non-entity that is Eddie Coyle.

Right after that, the last scene is a cut to Dillon and Foley walking in Goverment Center plaza again (like their 1st meeting - looks like it was shot on the same day). Dillon is relating a somewhat obscure analogy to Foley about how a guy is angry with the pigeons of the world and wants to get rid of them all and how he can't dump on who murdered Eddie. Foley shows how he doesn't care for these guys by saying to Dillon, "I never asked a fella do something he couldn't do if I knew he couldn't do it" in other words, he probably knew that Dillon was in on the hit but knows that Dillon won't/can't/doesn't have to tell while at the same time backhanding a dead Eddie in the face with the same comment.

It was an understated, dreary but, in-line ending of a story about the "grubby, dog eat dog world" of the Boston underworld.

Check out our tribute project on youtube dude (see my other post for the link). Let me know if you want us to shoot more scenes! :-)

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Thank you for rewarding my patience.

First, hoo boy! I missed who the shooter was, even when I could see that scene! Dillon!

My DVR shut down as they drove into the parking lot; I was prepared for them to go to the other car(because Dillon discussed it). But thanks for filling me in on what happened from then on. The "pigeon" scene espcially.

I will check out your project!

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You forgot the BIG spoiler - in the last scene we find out through Foley that it was Dillon who ratted out the bank robbers in the first place, not Eddie

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That was already determined before the last scene. The last meeting between Eddie and Foley in the dark barroom..when Foley says to Eddie, "You didn't read the paper yet".."It all happened without you" when Eddie ofers up the bank robbers and we of course see the scene where Dillon tips him off in the park.

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Double-irony there(now that I know the final scene thanks to the helpful poster above):

1. Dillion gave up the bank robbers...and managed to get the "hit" assignment on the wrong guy(Eddie), thus literally killing two birds with one stone, clearing himself and killing the guy who might be able to point to Dillon.

2. BUT Eddie WOULD have given up the bank robbers, had he gotten to Foley first...so...in a way...

...from the mob's viewpoint, Eddie got what he deserved.

Nicely plotted novel/movie!

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I hope you got a chance to see the last scene sometime. I think it is an absolutely perfect ending. 1) It keeps completely in the understated, hard-bitten tone of the rest of the film, while 2) confirming not only that Dillon brilliantly played both ends against the middle, but that his "rabbi" Foley will let him slide on whatever he did. Nails home the irony of the title with devastating finality (friends, indeed). And we get to hear Foley's tag line one last time. Great, great scene. Have a nice day...

You just keep throwing your feathers, mister, before I put you in a hospital.

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please correct me if i'm wrong. i read the book - and in the book its scalise's woman who gives him away because he discussed her "pussy" with foley.. i might have remembered it wrong.

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I came here to find out if it was the girlfriend. I heard that she was the one who gave up her boyfriend. (He told Eddie she was crazy about him. I couldn't understand the rest of what he said.) But, I did not see that in the film.

I think I will read the book!

"Two more swords and I'll be Queen of the Monkey People." Roseanne

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