MovieChat Forums > Body Heat (1981) Discussion > I'm confused about a few things...

I'm confused about a few things...

posted 4 years ago by pepetoony (1744)
3 replies | jump to latest

1. Why would Matty use the same bomb maker Ned used?? Ned and the bomb making dude were clearly friends so Matty should've known they were gonna talk. Am I missing something?

2. Ned didn't appear to be a criminal lawyer, so how was it he was always in close proximity with law enforcement and other lawyers who were working on the dead husband's murder case?

3. The movie kind of skipped over what exactly Ned was imprisoned for. Obviously it's implied he was in prison for the husband's murder, but how was he implicated enough for a conviction??

[–] yatzo376 (7717) 4 years ago

1. Mickey Rourke was the only bomb maker in town and he never met her

2.Small town , small courthouse Also, Ned had his hands on the will

3.Guilt got the best of him and he admitted it

[–] ExTechOp (2770) 3 years ago

Teddy (Mickey Rourke) DID meet her; he described her as a looker who knew all about the Breakers. She asked Teddy how to make the Breakers bomb but with a little time delay.

My take is that Matty didn't have anyone else to go to - she wanted to use the exact same bomb Ned used at the Breakers. That meant either Teddy or Ned himself.

Note, too, that Teddy and Ned didn't hang out regularly. Teddy only called Ned because he'd been pinched AND was getting asked about the Breakers. So it was a risk, but not an unreasonable risk.

And, as we saw, Matty had a backup plan in case Ned DID tip to the bomb. She installed it with a delay, just long enough for her to jump off the dock and escape using that old swim team expertise (mentioned in the Wheaton yearbook).

And I agree Ned 'fessed up, but Oscar and Peter had the glasses with Ned's prints. That's why Oscar was already heading over to arrest him.

[–] ProfessorPlum (69) 3 years ago

1. Matty was setting Ned up to not only take the fall for her husband's death but her own as well. By making the bomb similar to the one that burned up her husband, she insures they find "her body" in the boathouse and Ned takes the fall for her death as well. The police wouldn't believe that she would trigger the boathouse bomb herself, if she had rigged it explode.

2. Ned was shown representing a client in a criminal case of fraud against the town at the beginning of the movie. So he handled criminal and (as we see later when he is talking with the older lady about her health problems) civil cases. Not only is he around the courthouse all the time, but he eats lunch with the DAs and police and is friends with them.

3. The whole second half of the movie is a long list of the ways that Matty is setting him up to be arrested for her husband's death. In addition to being actually guilty of the crime, Matty destroys his alibi, produces her husband's glasses, and even implicates him by pretending he was the one that prepared the flawed updated will. And she insists on flagrantly continuing their affair immediately after the will is read. Everything she does piles on to give the police enough for a conviction . . . and then she frames him for her own death as well.