MovieChat Forums > The Shootist (1976) Discussion > Great Movie With A 'Trick Question'

Great Movie With A 'Trick Question'

posted 20 years ago by ecarle
30 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS for "The Shootist"

I love how "The Shootist" ends, but I've always had a funny thought about it:

Books manages to kill all three bad men who come gunning for him. Then the bartender sneaks up on him and shoots him in the back, dead.

...but what if the bartender didn't do that?

Think about it. Books would have had killed those three guys -- and still be alive to die horribly from his cancer!

What would he have done? Challenged three more varmints to a gunfight? And then three more? And then three more... until he finally lost?

[–] MaximRecoil (4850) 6 years ago

The first shot that hit him (in the shoulder) was most likely a fatal wound since where he got shot is exactly where the subclavian artery is. If shot through any major artery you'll die of blood loss in a matter of minutes without medical attention.

[–] redban (6779) 5 years ago

He wasn't going to sit around and die of cancer. That he set up the 3 on 1 gunfight signifies his abhorrence towards that route. So he might have kept challenging others to a gunfight until he loses.

But this 3 on 1 gunfight had all the workings of the finish line for him. He dressed up in his best, dry-cleaned clothes. He had the tombstone made. He said goodbye to the landlady. It was his birthday. It was a "false spring" climate. No matter he won the gunfight, it just seems like this day had to be it. Perhaps he might have left his gunwounds untreated, dying from it eventually?

Basically --- Even without the bartender's finish, he was going to die that morning from the prior wounds. If he didn't, then he would've keep challenging others.