At the end the police team pass the car accident. Does the team make a connection between the killer not turning up and the car accident? I have always been unsure after watching this film, just with the expression on the hard ass cops face makes me think there is a realisation that Jacks character was right.
shareThey never explain that on the movie but it is quite obvious that the police doesn't make the connection, because Jerry is shown as an drunk at the end still "waiting" for that man appear.
Very sad ending indeed, because only YOU (the watcher) know that Jerry was right! Brilliant! But so sad...
right sad.
shareAt the end the police team pass the car accident. Does the team make a connection between the killer not turning up and the car accident? I have always been unsure after watching this film, just with the expression on the hard ass cops face makes me think there is a realisation that Jacks character was right
Well the car is a big black one like the draw of the first murder.
They could remember.
No. Stan Krolak (Aaron Eckhart) is overconfident. He thinks Toby Jay Wadenah (Benicio del Toro) did it.
(BTW: Why do they allow him to do the police questioning like he did, with no lawyer or public defender? Seems crazy to me.)
Cheers
Mononoke-hime
(BTW: Why do they allow him to do the police questioning like he did, with no lawyer or public defender? Seems crazy to me.)
they had more important things to do---like get to dinner.
Where there's smoke, there's barbecue!
They most definitely should have made the connection. Had they trusted Jerry they would have. The guy never shows and there an accident down the road? A good cop would have definitely looked at that.
shareThey made the connection, and due to Eckhart's ego to be right, he is willing to never mention it, an evil in itself. Jack's character tried almost with angelic determination to stop the killer, was right, and fate botched it. As they drive past the accident, it is projected that it is known that was the car, but that it will never come to light. His pledge is in the style of the Greek tragic hero, you all honor him but would never want to be him.
shareOn what basis do you think this is the case? I've double checked that scene after I've read your post, but I couldn't see it. No sparkle of recognition in Eckhart's eyes. He takes off his glasses too take a better look at the accident, but he isn't surprised or anything, his expression is neutral. I don't think it is enough to assume that the filmmakers wanted to be ambiguous.
shareThey didn't trust Jerry cuz he was already exhibiting signs of mania by that point. Very tragic.
But you know, it was a really awful thing for him to use the girl as bait.
I also believe that Eckhart made the connection of the big black car and the murderer they had been waiting.
But maybe he did not bother to spend more time/enrgy on that.
This makes the end even more sad...
he possibly did but he wouldn't bother turn his victory, by making the indian confess, into defeat, and no troubled conscience since the serial killer is dead.
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the aim of the original writer is to show the absurdity of life, that sometimes we just feel helpless infront of it and don't do what we expect ourselves to do.
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wow you have a wild imagination but you're wrong.
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why wouldn't the police discover the murder, you don't make sense. and the point for me is that the original writer Friedrich Dürrenmatt is existentialist although he denies it like all of them. there no real clues in your direction of thought, all the clues suggest that jerry seemed to have mental issue because of old age. the title itself, the promise suggest that his commitment lead him to forget his responsibility for the child.
shareBut surely Jack would have heard about the accident, even driven past it later, and seen the black car. Also, they would have found out who was driving it--what about the porcupine hanging in the car window? When they found out who drove the car, they could have asked for a photo of him and shown it to the little girl who would have identified him as the man she was meeting. Perhaps they could have gotten some DNA from his possessions or remains and linked it to evidence from the other past crimes. Inconceivable that the whole thing would have been dropped like that.
shareStan Krolak made the connection.
You could say it was his ego. Thats a good theory. He is so confident he got the right man with Toby that it can't possibly be anyone else regardless of the odds of the accident involving a long black car like that in the childre drawing.
It could be just the fact that a childs drawing is all they ever had on the car. No eye witness descriptions that backed the car. No other childrens drawings depicting the car. No correlation with the black car to any of the other murders or missing childrens reports.
It could be that he did not want to continue to get sucked into Jerry's delusions about the case. He strongly felt Jerry was unstable and obsessed with the case. Perhaps he just didn't want to end up letting the obsession take over him too.
Who knows but he definitely made the connection. I don't think he purposely let it go out of maliciousness. But he also would have looked into it if he was a better cop. Worst case scenario its another dead end and case closed.
A lot of you are making up thoughts that the characters might have had, as if they are real people. Characters have no thoughts other than what we are told or shown.
shareThe carload of cops made no connection whatsoever - one of them even said "poor guy" as they drove past the accident and saw the burning body of the driver. It might even have been Eckhart's character but the line is o.s. so it's hard to tell. And I love that earlier post on this thread about Jack's character sabotaging the black car and all that - absurd theory but wildly entertaining.
shareI just watched this tonight, and I have to agree, it really appears that they don’t make the connection. I know everyone’s comments are from 7 years ago and stretch theories (conspiracy-esque) are under fire these days, but it would be a mind-reading assumption at best to think Eckhart in this scene tips that he somehow *knows* that this charred accident victim is the person they were waiting for. For me the giveaway is how casually he says “poor bastard”. It wasn’t faked, he really did just casually mouth it to his team. He wasn’t hiding anything. You can listen to it back and it really only comes across that way.
shareYes, I hated the ending with passion, I was angry. But then I cooled down and understood... the brilliance...
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