My question is about when they are all at the top of the mountain at the end of the movie. After Jessie shoots and kills Jake, Ben says "You can't help her now" and Terry says "But you can". Ben agrees to help Jessie and leave Terry alone if Terry gives him the papers from Kirch's wall safe. But Ben says "Jessie goes back where she belongs." What did he mean by that?
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Help her now? - get her out of trouble - cover up the murder of Jake.
Back where she bleongs? - home with her mother.
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Jake was angry with Terry for his affair with Jessie. At the same time, he was angry with Kirsch for fixing games behind his back.
So at the party, he purposely sat Terry next to Kirsch knowing the two were at odds with each other hoping they'd cause a scene among the other partygoers.
Then Jake gave Terry another job to break into Kirsch's office and recover the illegal gambling transactions he had stored there.
But it was all a set up. Jake had Kirsch murdered to make it look like Terry did it and to have his hired guards kill Terry.
But Terry fought his way out of the building and tracked down the redhead lady who worked there to recover the real transactions from Kirsch's safe.
Once he got them, Terry found out that Ben was in on the gambling scams and Jake was working for him. Ben knew that Terry could turn him in and he could lose his condominium project and his wife could lose ownership of the team.
So Terry bribed Ben with the transactions to fire Jake and Ben agreed but Jake pulled the gun and was going to shoot Terry but Jessie shot Jake.
So now Ben could turn Jessie in for Jake's murder. That's why Ben said "doing things my way". Jessie ran away and Ben wanted her back home and would snitch on her if she didn't.
I just watched this movie for the first time last night. I found the ending very interesting. I agree with most of what you have said here, with the exception of the very last part. At first, I was unhappy with the end. Granted, the final scene gives us some hope that in the future, after Terry closes up his career properly, and gets himself financially solvent again, Jesse and Terry may get together again.
However, I was bothered by the fact that Terry gave in to Ben in the first place. It was obvious that Ben was threatening to let Jesse hang for Jake's murder, but let's face it, that would cause trouble for him with his wife. She wouldn't take her daughter's prosecution lightly, and Terry would still have all the dirt on Ben. He turns it over to the law, gets immunity for his cooperation and Ben loses everything.
I think the real threat was that Ben would paint Terry as the murderer and have him hunted down and the damaging evidence destroyed. The daughter gets drugged up, and even her mother would admit that she's an unreliable witness. Terry ends up dead or in prison.
I realize they didn't come out and say all this, but I think that was the underlying threat, and that's why
Sorry, the last post got cut off.
As I was saying: "I realize they didn't come out and say alll this, but I think that was the underlying threat and that's why Terry let the chips fall the way they did.
Ben owned half the town and was connected to pretty much everybody. He could fix anything including a homicide. His price for Terry's freedom was Jessie with her mom and the goods from the safe.
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