MovieChat Forums > Rollercoaster (1977) Discussion > Who was the Young Man?

Who was the Young Man?

posted 18 years ago by rehiii76
15 replies | jump to latest

Just caught this film again this morning after not having seen it for like 20 years. Highly underrated work in my opinion. Very decent piece of movie making. One question that came to my mind----exactly who was the young man (played very well by Timothy Bottoms) who was blowing up the coasters? What was his background I wonder? He obviously knew explosives very well and was extremely well-versed on law enforcement tactics.

Was he ex-military or law enforcement? He was rather bright and too knowledgable about so many things to just be your garden variety nut off of the street. Any thoughts on who he may have been?

[–] 18 years ago

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[–] rehiii76 17 years ago

LOL-- yeah, I guess the mad bomber helped make up for the lack of the nicotine rush.

"Just an ordinary genius nutcase who cracked and needed money." That's probably as good an answer/explanation as there could be as to who he was.

[–] Croc-O-Dyle 17 years ago

There was more about him in the script - his family owned a rollercoaster ride, then the big corporations ruined them, his parents got ill... and he needed money, which he could get and, at the same time, have his revenge on the corporations. Something of that was even filmed, I think. Maybe a special edition will reveal more one day...

[–] rehiii76 17 years ago

Thanks for sharing that. But I'm not sure if I like that spin on the young man. It almost gives him a twinge of nobility (loosely speaking) or at least a shard of credibilty. I prefer to think of him as more or less a cold and very calculating soul who simply uses his expertise for bad things that only serve his own end.

Did the script mention how he came to be so expert in explosives and knowledgeable about police tactics. He was very brilliant in both areas.

[–] HorrorweenComposerTony 17 years ago

The script did not mention illness within his family. The scenario played like this:

The Young Man is with an older man out on an abandaoned amusement park midway. the old man explains: "Over there, they are putting the condos. Over here will become a lake, and then a golf course over there".

Next scene is inside a cafe and the young man kisses an old woman and the old man from the previous scene and you realize that those are his parents. He then talks about getting some money to help save the family park, that he has deal going. His parents ask for details which he does not divulge. Scene ended with him walking out and driving away.

Read it in my copy of the script buried in my archives, so it is a rough paraphrase, but you get the idea.

[–] markoship 17 years ago

I understand that that segment was filmed, but then hit the cutting room floor when the final product was edited together. I always thought they needed that bacjk-story in the film because you really never know what his motivation is, except him telling Segal's character on the phone that he's doing it for the money.

[–] chatanuga 16 years ago

I like it better that they left that aspect of the story out of the movie. I think it's more effective not knowing what his motives were (other than the money). For me, it leaves the viewer to think about the movie that they saw rather than have everything explained away.

[–] medic249a2 15 years ago

Agreed chatanuga. It's more interesting to leave that aspect out of the story; it made it more chilling in fact that this creep was willing to commit terrorism against amusement parks for money.

[–] kallsop-2 16 years ago

If you watch in the begining of the movie at the first park he is walking around the park blending in with all the people there before he sets off the bomb. At one point he is at a shooting gallery and is hitting the targets every time he fires. The attendant at the shooting gallery notices the young man has a tatoo on his arm that signified he was in the military in Viet Nam at the same time that the game attendant was. Apperently it may have been a special forces tatoo which would explain his knowledge in explosives and as a sniper. This is discussed later in the movie by Hoyt at Kings Dominion.

I want it to live, I want it to breathe, I want it to aerobisize!

[–] Katz5 16 years ago

He was a sociopath who happened to be an expert in explosives and demolition.

Dude means nice guy. Dude means a regular sort of person.

[–] 16 years ago

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[–] jmartz11 15 years ago

Where did he learn to make the Bombs? Vietnam ?

[–] mamacassfan 10 years ago

What a misfire of a role for Timothy Bottoms, who was Oscar-worthy a few years earlier in The Last Picture Show.

[–] jimmywhale 10 years ago

What a misfire of a role for Timothy Bottoms, who was Oscar-worthy a few years earlier in The Last Picture Show.

You hit the nail right on the head there, mama! Bottoms was robbed of an Academy Award nomination for The Last Picture Show! No one gave a more brilliant and heart-rending performance that year!

A young attractive guy like him should have avoided roles like this one in Rollercoaster.

To a new world of gods and monsters!

[–] 10 years ago

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