MovieChat Forums > Critical Condition (1987) Discussion > Question about the end (SPOILER)

Question about the end (SPOILER)

posted 16 years ago by curtis-8
1 reply | jump to latest

I just watched this movie on DVD, and I saw it in the theater back in the day too. I've always wondered about the ending. At the end of the movie Joe Mantegna's character, the hospital administrator, tells Pryor's character, Lanahan, that his records burned up in the fire and Lanahan leaves on the boat as though all is well.
That makes no sense! He's a fugitive at the end, right? A man on the run? How does that solve his problems? I mean, Lanahan was undergoing a 20 day psychiactric evaluation that was going to have one of two results: 1) they find him sane and he goes to jail or 2) they find him insane and he's committed to the nutbin. He wasn't going "free" in any case. So at the end of the movie, our "hero" is still a wanted man. Sure, he was framed, but he's still wanted by the authorities. Right?

That's always bothered me--somebody explain it to me.

[–] padzok 12 years ago

Yeah, he wont be able to live as a free man under his real name.

But there's loads of confusion and mayhem to sort out. It will be a while until the proper authorities start asking questions about him. When that happens, the hospital people will say "We have no idea what happened to him?"

By that time, a man with his talents, ought to have plenty of time to create a new life somewhere with a new false identity.

If he ever gets arrested again, then his fingerprints will give him away. But I guess we're meant to assume that the events of the previous few hours have given him a new perspective on life, and he will keep his nose clean from now on.