MovieChat Forums > Thunderbolt and Lightfoot (1974) Discussion > Could Thunderbolt get away without the p...

Could Thunderbolt get away without the police knowing he was involved?

posted 9 years ago by parillamilt
4 replies | jump to latest

I posted this question a couple of years ago here and it seems that IMDB has purged everything off this board before 2013. Anyway.... The question was, could Eastwood's character have gotten away from a police investigation without being a suspect? It seems that all people involved were killed off after the heist so nobody's alive to expose Eastwood. Here are some random thoughts:

Money recovered from Red. Red's dead so no confession.

Goody killed and dumped on the dirt road. Goody can't tell the police anything.

The bank manager and family gets held up by two men which could make the police think it was just Red & Goody and not Red & Eastwood.

The alarm guy that got knocked out would make the cops think there were at least 3 people involved. I wouldn't be surprised if the guy said that it was a woman that whacked him which would throw the investigation off a bit unless he figured it out just before getting hit.

The only thing I can think of that would put Eastwood on the suspect list would be the drive-in ticket seller. She saw Eastwood and the "woman" in the car that ended up being in the police chase. They might have thought Goody was the woman, but the bullet hole in the trunk and the bullet in Goody would place him in the trunk. I don't believe anybody would think Red was dressed up as the woman. They might have thought he was in the trunk also. So that may be the thing that makes the police think there were 4 people involved.

All Eastwood has to do now is figure out a way to handle Lightfoot's body. Nobody is looking for the money from the first robbery, so I guess if he can get out of Montana and live somewhere else, I think he would never be arrested. He seems to be the sort of dude that would live low-key and not attract unwanted attention. Well, he did buy the Cadillac....

Anybody have anything to add to this?

[–] SunCanyonRoad 9 years ago

Remember, it's 1974 and it's in Montana. Thunderbolt could literally bury Lightfoot somewhere out in the vast Montana wilderness and no one would ever know, so that's not really an issue.

The idea is, according to Lightfoot is that "they made it", which I like to take as "we're in the clear."

You mention certain aspects that may or may not tie a person fitting Thunderbolt's description as a possible accomplice... Looking like someone isn't a crime and Thunderbolt would be long gone before the authorities could even piece all the witness stories together into something tangible. Also, the fictional "Warsaw, Montana" was right on the Montana/Idaho border (based on the exit road sign) so he wouldn't even be in the state if he was smart.

So really, the only way I see this coming back on Thunderbolt is if he were to get arrested in the area and they matched his fingerprints to those found on the vault door and/or cannon. Since it was 1974, it would probably also have to be soon after the robbery. But since he proved he could "lay low" in the beginning of the film (according to his story 7 years) then I see no reason why he wouldn't do it again, but this time with a boatload of cash.

"I don't want your watch, man. I want your friendship!" - Lightfoot

[–] arthurab 9 years ago

Maybe buying the Caddy with cash, if police searched for any large transactions in cash recently?

[–] parillamilt 9 years ago

I was also wondering about the guy that was gunning for Eastwood at the church. If he was known to police, then they might want to try to figure out why he wanted Eastwood (in hiding, posing as a pastor) dead. I suspect local detectives at that time would probably just wrap up the investigation with Red and Goody dead and the money recovered.

[–] SunCanyonRoad 9 years ago

No. Why? It's simple. By the time Thunderbolt bought the Caddy, Red had already been captured (dead) with all the money from the heist. Montana Armored would have known down to the penny how much was taken and the cops would have recovered that exact amount from Red's car... Also, Thunderbolt bought the Caddy with money from the original heist.

"I don't want your watch, man. I want your friendship!" - Lightfoot