This has always bugged/confused me. Wade asks for more morphine and the guys look back and forth at one another like they don't want to do it, but they eventually give it to him.
What's the implication here? Do they not want to waste it since they knew his wound was mortal, or do they imply that they intentionally gave him an overdose to put him out of his misery (ala The English Patient)? Since he dies immediately after they dose him.
It is probably the latter. However, giving him a couple of extra doses wouldn't kill him as quickly as portrayed in the movie, especially since he was bleeding out most of what was being put in anyway. An OD of opiates kills by depressing the respirations to the point of respiratory arrest, and eventual asphixia. This didn't happen. He bled out. I'm sure the director intended it to look like he was OD'd. But he just wasn't. In fact, this death scene was one of the most well-acted death scenes I know of in movies (Cowboy's in Full Metal Jacket was another).
TNSTAAFL
In fact, this death scene was one of the most well-acted death scenes I know of in movies (Cowboy's in Full Metal Jacket was another).
The thing that bugged me about Wade's death was ... why did he even make the charge with them? He used no weapon ... couldn't he have held back (like Uppam) and then came up after? Uppam's bitch ass should have gone ... but Miller prob knew due to his lack of combat, he would prob have been killed.
In my opinion, Wade should have waited behind. Thats my 2 cents
I read the novelization of this film some years back (still have it somewhere), and if I recall correctly, in that scene Wade did hang back with Upham, but when one of the others was hit (it was probably Barry Pepper, who was shown to have a very minor arm wound in the film),Wade allowed his medical training to superscede his good sense and charged right into the line of fire to render aid. Just as he tried to do with Caparzo before being held back. That's how I remember it, anyway. Steve V.
shareMy dad was a medic during the war. This is how he explained that morphine effect. Wade's wounds were internal, but probably not arterial. He was very lucid during most of the scene, including his ability to understand his wound and try to tell them what to do. If his artery was severed, he would have been very quickly losing consciousness. However, his understanding of the severity of the wound (liver destroyed), means he knew it was mortal, hence his request for more morphine. At that time, the rule regarding the morphine surrettes was one for pain, two for severe pain, and three for no more pain. Three morphine surrettes was enough to kill someone and pretty damn fast and his death was consistent with morphine. Remember, he probably was not dead when he actually lost consciousness though he likely died within minutes.
The look they gave each other was their shared understanding that "yes, we are giving him a lethal dose of morphine because he is mortally wounded, as horrible as that is".
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They were asking him how they could help him, clearly not wanting him to die. When his only response was he could use a little more morphine they knew his time was up and the reality of the situation set in.
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