I wasn't totally paying attention at the beginning, but was it actually those two Arab guys from the plane that were watching Jodie Foster and the girl in her room? And if so was it ever explained what they were doing there?
I thought it was a great movie up until you found out what was really going on, way too convoluted.
yeahh I was kinda confused bout those arab guys too..
Could someone explain??
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I agree, this was a wide open plot hole. I'm assuming these guys were just supposed to be a 'red herring', but it would have been nice to get some kind of explanation. I'm guessing that was the point of the one guy helping her with the bag at the end, but why didn't they say something, even just to apologize to one another? It seemed like a wasted opportunity to me.
shareWhen you lose your daughter, you're not gonna say it was your fault, you're gonna look for the easiest blame.
the arab guys were just an example of the character going insane
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I thought the Arab guy bit was brilliant cuz it's playing off of the audience's prejudices as well. Whatever the Arab guys did that made the movie characters nervous, probably would make the audience nervous, and it just shows how prejudice can get really out of hand in a high anxiety situation, as it did for the fat American man who was whining about there being no magazines.
shareagreed with the message above. if you think it's a loophole, you're missing the point entirely. it functions as a device to show how jittery everyone has become post 9/11.
* Aside from that, Mrs. Lincoln, did you enjoy the play?*
exactly ^^^
shareYes, but not only that...
A lot of people here do not seem to understand why she does not say sorry to the Arab McGuffin at the end. Neither had to apologise at the end, as they both did the same to each other.
When they looked at each other, they were both giving a look of acknowledgement and empathy, that they both turned on each other, and they both know what it is like to have everybody else not believe you and turn against you, when you are innocent.
Too much to say with mere words..
I completely agree with Jason.
The guy apologised by giving her the bag and she just said it all with her eyes. I guess it's too much to expect that she'd be all polite and nice after the night she had. I'm surprised she could stand on her own after all this stress and running around madly.
I beleive they understood each other just with that little moment.
Well put, Jason!
I don't buy the "prejudice" bit.
Kyle correctly recognizes these faces as the men spying on her at their apartment. Why would they be there? It has no explanation. It's a false lead which the writers didn't bother to clean up.
I honestly think that this was there to eat away at the running time.
And when Carson is talking to Stephanie about the plan ("She even has half the plane convinced that we have Arab terrorists aboard. That's priceless."), I was amused. There's nothing funny about terrorism. However, I couldn't help but think 'Of course. After all, White people would never pull s**t like this'.
And then there's the end. I honestly don't recall Kyle apologizing to the two Arabs for accusing them. So, like I said, waste of time.
yeah choyt19 .
The B***h should have appologized to the Arabs... I thought she would do that when he passed her her bag, but nooooo.
And what's up with you guys???? You think two guys watching at a window is suspicious? just because the music gets scarier? People stare at windows all the time... The BIG point here is that she would automatically assume it was the Arab guys. There is NO plot here.
And btw I am neither Arab nor Muslim. But it is not fair to discriminate an entire ethnic and religious group based on one event caused by few people, no matter how horrible it is.
The movie was OK, I guess a fair 6/10 representative on IMDB. More like a 5/10 if you ask me.
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Nice red herring. Bit of a Hollywood statement, the arab guy is the only one to help Jodie to pack her car later on.
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Yeah I thought she was going to say sorry or at least thank you when the Arab handed her the bag as well.
Yeah, that's the only thing I dislike about the movie. i thought it was so rde, she should have said something apologetic to them.
"Eva's sisters gave her a cross with Jesus on it for her birthday, the next day Jesus was gone!"
Does no-one watch Hitchock movies anymore? Good grief, are we really getting to the point where folks know nothing of cinema history and plot devices?? The Arab guys on the plane are a Macguffin of course... really, can we actually SEE the faces of the two men looking out the apartment across from Kyle's? No! We see two figures who may or may not be of Arab or middle eastern ethnicity (and EVERYONE knows there is a large Turkish community resident in Berlin, so it's quite possible to look out an apartment window and see a couple of Turkish guys in the apartment opposite, right?). In Kyle's panic and distress, she 'thinks' she recognises one of her fellow passengers as one of the men she saw through her window the night before. Its a plot device to divert us from what is REALLY going on! Hitch was doing this decades ago, so shame on all of you for dwelling on this great, big red herring!!!
Many people do that on planes nowadays. It's really ironic - they're brave enough to get on a plane and fly, but then they get all jittery when someone of a different nationality happens to be a passenger.
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Does no-one watch Hitchock movies anymore? Good grief, are we really getting to the point where folks know nothing of cinema history and plot devices?? The Arab guys on the plane are a Macguffin of course
....and, how?
...it's alright, Ma, if I can't please himshare
Heh, a five-year followup has to be an IMDB record!
A red herring is something included in the story to distract you from what's really happening, but which turns out not to be important; the Arab guys in 'Flightplan' are an example. So is little Larry Sellers in 'The Big Lebowski.'
A MacGuffin is some damn object, the details of which aren't really important, but the fact that the characters are all looking for it drives the story. Each of the Mission Impossible movies has one; MI3 goes so far as to emphasize how amazingly important and/or dangerous the 'Rabbit's Foot' is, but never gives any idea of what it is or what it does. Hitchcock would have been proud.
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If it ain't, it'll do til the mess gets here.
I find your post ironic because you said this "Does no-one watch Hitchock movies anymore? Good grief, are we really getting to the point where folks know nothing of cinema history and plot devices??"
Then you call it a Macguffin when it is clearly a Red Herring by your own definition "Its a plot device to divert us from what is REALLY going on".
What really annoyed me was this point: everybody -beginning with the captain (Sean Bean), apologizes to her; but SHE doesn't apologize to the arab guys whom she blamed just because of their religion.
Of course, the film was shot for, by and to her majesty Jodie Foster (ridiculous her appearance out from the fog after the plane exploded, as a female version of Sly's Rambo or Arnold's Commando). So showing her apologizing is something we'll never see in one of HER movies.
the arab guy was the one to send her flying into the chair right?. so to defend himself from prejudice he basically hunts the one being pursued. so its like joining the opression bandwagon if you ask me.i wouldnt apologise to the arabs and its not a race thing-well maybe it is.i hate to preach here but for there to be any kind of race rlations breakthrough someone needs to be the better person i just dont see that reflected in the guys smug -i stopped you escaping and wounded you ha attitude-sure its understandable but its not respectable behaviour is it? so no dont apologise to the damn arabs!
save the world recycle urself
Her not apologizing to the guy bothered me too. What? White people don't have to apologize to people that have darker skin? Sure, he threw her to the floor, but she knocked him to the floor earlier, plus she was acting like a nut who was a danger to the other passengers. He deserved an apology or a thank you or something.
shareShe blamed them because she thought they were Catholic priests? I missed the part where she said she blamed them because they were Baptists or whichever religion they were. She thought she recognized them based on their looks, like most sane people tend to recognize someone. And given her condition at the time, I'm suprised she even wanted to talk to anyone let alone two guys she thought were involved with her missing child.
You implied she is racist based on the color of her skin and your assumptions. What does that say about you? I bet you would piss yourself if you had to identify a dark skinned thief in a police line up. Even if you knew for sure which one it was, you could not make the call for fear of being called a racist. Get a sign and go protest something you puss.
Like UKJoe said she didn't accuse them of anything based on religion or race, just that she thought she saw them staring at her and she was paranoid...
Political correctness, I love it.
If we aren't polite to each other, society would collaspe.
"I wasn't totally paying attention at the beginning, but was it actually those two Arab guys from the plane that were watching Jodie Foster and the girl in her room? And if so was it ever explained what they were doing there?
I thought it was a great movie up until you found out what was really going on, way too convoluted."
It's another weak point in the movie. They're standing in the window looking mysteriously right at Kyle at the hotel, and then they turn up on the plane acting strange.
I supposed we're supposed to accept this false lead, which is based on a very suspicious unexplained coincidence, as an example of our own racial prejudice? GMAB!
Yes, the Arab guys were just red herrings. They were actually good guys.
shareI would've knocked Foster down too, regardless. You just simply don't run in a plane! It's not safe.
Besides, she was already declared insane, so someone must've done something. I'm suprised the crew didn't. But then again, the crew was acting really unproffessionally throughout the whole movie.
Ridiculous movie, really. But I guess your average movie-watching joe can appreciate it.
As for the Arabs, they're just there to create some tension before the whole plot twist with the tired-looking cop is revealed. Americans don't like Arabs, it's just a fact and nothing else.
Watched the film last night, and someone (poss the air marshall) shouts "Stop her!" as Foster is charging down the plane. Most passenger gets out of her way but the bearded character Ahmed(?) stops her rather bravely considering the circumstances
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If you re-watch the movie, he went to stop her but he was to her side, she tried to sidestep around him when he was reaching for her which actually pushed her more to the side, enabling her to hit her head.
And I am not sure if she needed to apologize or not. She did wrong by accusing them but they did wrong by yelling that she was crazy and she didn't have her daughter on the plane.
Each was trying to protect their own self. It was a nice "I'm sorry" gesture when he picked up her bag. At the least she could have given him a faint smile as thanks but she wouldn't do that because she remembered he didn't believe her about her daughter going missing and she had just been through a heck of a lot. Perhaps she still wasn't sure if they were the men looking through her window or not.
If this were reality, after all that, I myself wouldn't trust a whole lot of people at that point.
those arab guys' accents were so bad, i thought they were russian...and i live in an arab country