MovieChat Forums > Assault on Precinct 13 (2005) Discussion > This doesn't make sense....

This doesn't make sense....

posted 16 years ago by jmsocool
2 replies | jump to latest

After the opening scene where cops get killed, Ethan Hawke is on desk duty, because he doesn't want to make decisions that could get people killed. Because of the siege, he's in charge, he's making the decisions, and by the end of the movie, nearly everyone is dead, and the criminal mastermind has gotten away. At the end, the actress from the Sopranos makes the comment that he's a bad ass, and he says get used to it, implying that he's not going to sit behind a desk anymore, he's going to be a hardcore cop. Wouldn't the events of the movie reinforce to him the idea that he doesn't want to make life and death decisions? And after all the carnage, and the criminal getting away, wouldn't there at least be an investigation into the way he handled the situation?
Thanks.

"My girlfriend sucked 37 d*cks!"
"In a row?"

[–] turani_nation 16 years ago

It's a very good point.

If I wanted to be cynical though, I'd say he's decided to be such a badass that he doesn't care if people drop left and right and bad guys get away. Reminds me of South Park.

It's just that noone would condone a film that doesn't reinforce the idea of being a dutiful cop above all else. The script itself has several inconsistencies such as this one, for example if Roenick doesn't let on that the gangster got away (meaning that personal sympathies are above the call of duty), why couldn't he do the same when it came to giving him to the bad guys? Or vice versa, I suppose.

One could also argue that the character changed priorities in the course of the movie, or that he wants to get the gangster by himself, but nothing of the movie reinforces any of these two.

So i'll just write it up to the fact that the script this movie was based on is directionless, it has recycled, age-old themes, some of them underdeveloped, and it's just basically forced.

[–] Zatoichi_Sanjuro 16 years ago

One could also argue that the character changed priorities in the course of the movie, or that he wants to get the gangster by himself, but nothing of the movie reinforces any of these two.

He tells Bishop just before he runs off that he's going to get him 'no other cop, just me'. I think at that point in the movie he couldn't very well trust any cop that arrived first on the scene.

The thing that bothered me most about the movie (apart from it's remake status) was the sheer firepower of the corrupt cops. Are they suggesting all the bullets from those very expensive assault rifles are untraceable? As well as all the flashbangs and C4. It wouldn't be to hard to piece together that happened by the amount of forensic evidence they left all over the place.