SPOILER! The absurdities that ruin 'Shattered'

I have to agree with you. I recall seeing this years ago & everyone saying "What a great twist at the end". I thought it made no sense & while a clever idea, it was unbelievable. The same thoughts crossed my mind...No one notices his voice is different. Were they the same exact height? Did they smell exactly the same? I didn't buy any of it.

Another ridiculous scene how did Jack Stanton when he think's Dan Merrick see Jack Stanton across the room at a party.It's a flashback scene.

Not only are his voice and mannerisms different, but he would have no idea how to be an architect. Then you have fingerprints. What about blood type, it would be a stretch of the imagination to believe the husband and lover both had the same blood type.

You can't fix stupid - Ron White

Yeah, but how could anyone NOT figure out the ridiculous ending? I would think most people would have it figured ut 20 minutes into the movie. I like everyone else have it figured out already. It was just a fun popcorn movie seeing how they would get to the end that was pretty obvious to me.

Walter Sobchak: Smokey, this is not 'Nam. This is bowling. There are rules.

Good twist but the face change and same voice totally ruined it! Even if the wife gave doctors a picture of him to reconstruct his face they would notice that his skull/muscle features would be different. Accident and memory loss victims can have different personalities and/or mannerisms. So that didn't bother me.

Loved 'Gus' character except when he uses the inhaler as a SCUBA. If I were shot, I'd be screaming and thrashing... not thinking rationally and pretending to be dead while using my inhaler.

CacaPoopooDoodie


For a good part of this movie, it simply is a beautiful neo-noir. Casting, location, atmosphere - it's all there. However, I cannot get past the absolutely ridiculous ending that <spoiler alert!> has us believe that Dan Merrick is actually Jack Stanton. Merrick goes back to work, goes to see Jenny, the interaction with Klein, all of this and NOBODY seems to notice that "Dan Merrick" has a different voice. A different personality. Different mannerisms. On and on and on. The writer(s)/director thought that by just changing the FACE, they could pull off a believable thriller. No way. It ruined the entire movie and is one of those that implies the audience must be brain dead to fall for all of that. Just a little bit of thought - and you realize you have been HAD. First 1/2 of the movie is an A. The second half (and especially the last quarter): F

In the book Tom Berenger's character's voice is different because he suffered a fractured windpipe in the crash. He mentions it sounds to him like 'gravel poured down a galvanized pipe'. In the movie Tom Berenger sounds like Tom Berenger but maybe the voice we hear is different than both Dan's and Jack's (though if that was the case you'd think the filmmakers would think to mention it)? I don't know. I read the book because, like you, I liked the set-up but thought the end was weak. The other stuff like personality and mannerisms being different doesn't seem like it would be odd bc he did suffer amnesia after a horrific accident. And that would also explain his lack of architectural knowledge.

Amen, but you forgot some other absurdities:

1) No American hospital would have released in three hours a woman who had just survived a car crash of that magnitude and had her husband there in critical condition. They would have kept her to watch for shock, if nothing else. In fact, with such minor-looking injuries, she might still be in the emergency room at dawn, waiting for a few stitches.

2) The wife's just committed murder and is desperately anxious to cover it up by creating a paper trail that shows Jack left town. Why, then, would she send an obviously traceable fax from a machine that could *only* be accessed from her husband's office, on a day when no one else would be in?

3) The detective (who we have no reason to doubt) reports that the hospital doctors don't believe the facial injuries could possibly be the result of the crash alone, but this discrepancy is not explained by the final reconstruction of events.

Yeah, the gimmick is surprising, but the logic doesn't hold up at all, which invariably ruins movies of this type for me no matter how well they are acted. The best you can normally hope for is that the movie's logic holds up until the second viewing. Mystery/thrillers like "The Usual Suspects", the plots of which are as perfectly constructed as a Swiss watch and survive three or four viewings, are rare. But you definitely don't want to be scratching your head and picking the thing apart before the credits roll the first time.

Just one problem. You've based your ENTIRE "absurdities" theory on his voice. Now, if this was just some guy trying to pass, it might hold a little water, however, this was a man who had been in a major auto accident. He was in a coma. He had amnesia... trust me, your voice can be damaged by life support equipment, being atrophied through non-use, or physically in the accident. On top of that HIS WIFE SAID IT WAS HIM (this is key). He looked just like him. And, to finish it all up, he actually believed that HE was Merrick--so he never acted suspicious, and, as I mentioned, his WIFE said it was him. It's very likely no one would question it as long as she didn't have a problem with it. Plus, if you're going to claim someone isn't who they claim to be (who looks exactly like who they say they are), it pretty much behooves you to tell everyone who they actually are, and what the reason is for the charade. To claim someone isn't who they claim, simply based on their voice being a little different, when they look exactly like the guy and his wife claims it's him would probably set you up for people wondering just how nuts YOU are.

However, doing anything that would require fingerprinting would definitely be his downfall.