MovieChat Forums > State of Play (2009) Discussion > Plot confuses me (spoilers)

Plot confuses me (spoilers)

posted 15 years ago by maupert-vos
3 replies | jump to latest

Every time I try explaining the story to myself, I get confused.

PointCorp 'taking over' Homeland Security = true, right?
Collins investigating PointCorp = true, right?
PointCorp + governor using Sonia to spy on Collins committee = true, right?
PointCorp involved in murder of Sonia = not true, right?

There's nothing else to it, is there?

I think the film would have been more interesting if the whole conspiracy with Sonia being murdered by PointCorp was true. The final twist was unexpected (to me at least), but it made State Of Play lose its initial power. It was more of a distraction than an awesome twist. Or did I miss something?

[–] mkofman 15 years ago

Haha. You are right on the money. The whole bit about the killer working for Collins rather than PointCorp is really out of place, unless the killer/Collins' buddy was Collins' agent inside PointCorp. I don't think the movie offers any explanation, so you can only guess. And you are right, they inserted that bit to pivot the plot to make it unexpected.

This is what I wrote at the other thread:

So, let's go through the story:

-PointCorp gets in cahoots with politicians to get security contracts.
-One of the politicians is not on the same page with the rest, and actually decides to investigate PointCorp.
-PointCorp and the pols send a spy to watch over the young rookie.
-The young rookie finds out about it and gets an old buddy to watch over the spy/mistress. Does it make sense at all that the buddy works for PointCorp - the supposedly corrupt entity which he is trying to investigate??? Or is the buddy meant to be the rookie's spy inside PointCorp?
-The buddy accidentally (or not so accidentally) kills the spy/mistress and pretty much everyone else involved with her.
-Now the newspaper and the cops jump in and try to put the pieces together.
-Conclusion: PointCorp is corrupt, the politicians are corrupt, even the rookie who tried to be idealistic is corrupt.

So what's the point of the movie? It didn't seem like the makers wanted to say how profoundly disgusted they are with all the corruption that's going on in Washington, DC. It's more like: "uhm, yeah, it's all corrupt, and that's the way it is, I guess that's never going to change, so let's just make a movie about it."

So you wanted this movie to be an uncompromising attack on Blackwater USA/PointCorp? Too bad for you. The makers of the movie didn't really care to make a principled film; they just wanted to shoot a "thriller" and get paid with your money. And they did it so that guys like me can't slap this movie around for being left-wing. :)

[–] Niharika 13 years ago

I totally agree with you. The final twist was stupid (before anyone points out - in my opinion :) )

[–] davebuffalo (3457) a year ago

I think the film would have been more interesting if the whole conspiracy with Sonia being murdered by PointCorp was true.

I said the exact same thing after the movie ended. They went to a lot of trouble to try and prove the above, and it all made sense. I like twist endings, but this one seemed to negate almost everything in the movie. It just didn't fit.