Dr. Walker is in the shower, his wife takes a call, leaves the room & vanishes into thin air. Who called her & what was said on the 'phone that could have made her suddenly walk out ? She says something before leaving, but of course Dr. Walker is in the shower & can't hear her. Can anyone clear this up ?
Probably the lobby called to tell her there's someone to meet her. So she says something like: "I'm going downstairs, someone called for me". "What? i can't hear you, i'm in the shower!"
So she goes downstairs, the arab guy identifies her, probably from pictures in the other luggage, he goes to meet her, they talk for a little bit (probably he threatens her) the lady is confused, doesn't know wtf is going on. So the terrorist thinks she stole that detonator device, and kidnaps her at gun point.
Makes sense?
Yes your rendering of the "hidden sequence" of the film makes sense.
I went to this message board because I think it's fun to try and imagine what /these kind of people/ can tell /this kind of woman/ to make her come downstairs...
"Mrs Walker? We have a very important document for your husband's speech, and we can only give it in person. Would you mind picking it up please?"
or
"Mrs Walker? Hey, c'mon, c'mon downstairs with us dudes. We're like, scary and all, but we like to party. C'mon Walker, c'mon! Yo? Pleaaaaaaase?"
Before Richard gets in the shower, they learn that some man called from Paris to the US looking for Sondra. They're already intrigued.
It's the policy of every hotel I've ever been in that you don't hand out a room number to anyone. So when the Arab comes to the hotel looking for Sondra, he doesn't know her room number, and the hotel would call up to the room for her instead. We don't know if the hotel clerk talked to her or if he handed the Arab the phone, but the Arab wouldn't have said anything very strange on the phone in front of the clerk . . . or the clerk just told her that there was a man inquiring about her. Sondra then wisely went down to the lobby to meet the mysterious person rather than inviting them up to her room.
As mentioned in another post, the Arab didn't know who the courier was to be. He thought the courier was Sondra, because her suitcase was in the locker where he was expecting to make the pick-up. He didn't think it was a suitcase mix-up--all he knew was that his courier didn't deliver the item as promised. He just wanted to know where his delivery was, but he couldn't confront her about it until they were no longer out in the open. It would have only been later that they figured out the suitcase mix-up.
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That is what I thought too
shareBrandt, It is not very likely that a courier looking to stiff them would leave all the identifying info (hotel, names, etc. since they knew where to call and come). Besides, it was obvious there was a luggage mix-up, so why not call and arrange a peaceful swap (by neutral messenger if they thought it was a trap)? The whole premise for the kidnapping and movie made absolutely no sense. And why take so long to deliver the "We got yer wife" message? They knew he'd probably be sending the case back the airline right away, so why not messenger over the instructions? Weak.
I think she says:
"Well.... now that we got the impossibly boring set-up over with, let's get this tedious trainwreck moving. See you at the end of the movie!"
Sorry for bringing up this ancient thread, but I agree with what other posters have said: they concierge probably called to alert Sondra of the visitor in the lobby. The Arabs found her name and home address on her suitcase, and called there (didn't the son say that someone called earlier for Mom?) to find which hotel they were staying at. Those meddling kids.
Sondra might have thought the visitor had something to do with the suitcase (not in the way she thought, though!) What I don't get is when she ordered the toiletries. Presumably when she went down to the lobby, BEFORE she met with the Arab, as I can't conceive she would/could do it afterwards. Why would that be the first thing on her mind? "There is someone here to see me? Oh, and by the way, I need some cotton balls..."
Maybe when she got to the lobby, when she stopped by the desk she said "Oh by the way, I need some toothpaste, cotton balls, [etc.].
The reason she requested that stuff is for the plot; it is yet another indicator to her husband (and the audience) that she definitely wasn't planning on running away with someone.