MovieChat Forums > Hostage (2005) Discussion > What a negotiator would not say in a hos...

What a negotiator would not say in a hostage situation

posted 13 years ago by tonimiles1
5 replies | jump to latest

At the very beginning of this film Bruce Willis as the negotiator replies back to the hostage taker by phone "Only God has the right to decide who lives or dies" (this might not be the totally correct wording but this is what he meant and the word GOD was used).

Now although I know the hostage taker was talking about God and good and evil and all that, I would not think that the negotiator would get over emotional, angry and so screams down the phone with the above comment about God. That would only make the criminal even more angry.

This put me off the film straight away but it's just started again on the TV so I,ll let that slip by and see what I make out of the rest of the film.

What do others think? Perhaps I may be wrong and we are meant to suppose that Bruce Willis does lose it...

[–] copykill 13 years ago

in the scene you're talking about, everything slows down and you see him running towards the house, right?
just before he does that he get's handed an earpiece on which he hears the hostage-taker praying (the house is bugged and we can hear what he is hearing from off-screen). so in an absolute last ditch-effort he tries to get the guy's attention by appealing to his religious side to let the hostages live.

it's not something he would normally do, but hearing the hostage-taker pray, tells him that he's about to lose them all.

also, he's not screaming down the phone. the hostage-taker hung up the phone (and tossed it onto the street), making clear he does not want to negotiate any further, so jeff runs to the house and screams (the part in question) at him from outside, at which point you hear the gun going off inside.

i don't think he lost it in that sense, but he lost the hostage-taker earlier and couldn't admit it, so he didn't let the sniper take the shot when he still had the chance. so at that moment he knew he fuç/d it up and had to take the blame for their deaths.

[–] tonimiles1 13 years ago

Thanks for your answer

i totally forgot that i had put this in the IMDB boards. it's probably called old age!

No, but you know what i mean when you start seeing what you yourself would not put in a movie if you were the director!
thanks again

Toni

[–] manofsteel4455 12 years ago

Just goes to show that sometimes people's moral B.S. can get others killed.

You want to play the game, you'd better know the rules, love.
-Harry Callahan

[–] manofsteel4455 11 years ago

If you let something as stupid as that put you out of a movie then you have no business watching movies at all.

You want to play the game, you'd better know the rules, love.
-Harry Callahan

[–] Lash125 11 years ago

Bruce hears on the SWAT-guy's earpiece that the hostage taker has started praying, which means he's not about to let the family go. Bruce is arrogant and thinks he can save all of their lives, underestimating his control under the circumstances. As he realizes just how wrong he was to prevent the sniper (who had a clear shot) from taking out the hostage taker, he rushes down to draw the hostage taker to the window in order to reestablish the sniper's clear shot. At that point though, Bruce acted out of desperation because he knew he'd botched the best chance they had to save the woman and child.