Was Tim Allens Character....???....

No I don't think Chet or the wife was in on it. I think Joe Mantegna's character was the ringleader, he was connected to Chet, he saw the gimmick of the marbles at the dinner party, and it was his assistant who gave Mike's wife the 'fake numbers' (though we also know that Mike's wife was in on the scam too, she wanted Mike to fight and be rich like her father and brothers, so whether she actually couldn't get in touch with Chet's wife is up to debate but I say she faked all that, she faked the debt too, in order to manipulate Mike). But Chet was just a drunk star and the others used their connections through him to set up Mike.

THERE WAS NO CONSPIRACY TO GET THE BLACK GUY TO FIGHT IN THE BIG FIGHT!!! There is no set up in the movie other than the fights being fixed and the three marble idea being stolen from the black guy. The point of the movie is the black guy lives his life and teaches jiu jitsu according to a code of honor (similar to the samurai) and as a result gets crushed by the sea of corruption around him before being redeemed at the end of the movie.

yes he was in on it, almost everyone misses this, but the whole point was so the wife could make money and break her ties w/ Terry. The idea was she would help her brothers w/ a Gimmick for the fight. some of the events are just fortunate (for her) like the accidental shooting and were taken advantage of. the other stuff like stealing his handicap idea were premeditated. As the female lawyer(forgot her name) points out, it was his idea and he owned the rights to it, the problem was how to get it away from him. the shooting solved some of that, the debts sealed it. keep in mind, she did the books, it wouldnt be hard to manipulate alot of this, Id even go a step further and suggest Joe the cop didnt kill himself. that couldve been set up too.

"Aint nobody here but two people in green"

Allen's character was angry that Mike had the "Police Captain" call him to check on where the "watch" came from because MIke's cop friend was suspended. Since Allen was a big moviestar he felt slighted and embarrassed for being asked about a stolen watch. Thats why the wife stopped speakinhg to Mike's wife also. They are snobs...Pure and simple. The watch situation and Allen not showing up to dinner along with the wife blowing Mike's wife off is a different stoy line from the black dice/white dice...having to fight again at the end. The watch situation with Tim Allen and his wife just adds to the stress and tension but is totally seperate from the fight promoters and them stealing Mike's idea.

I agree that stealing the marble idea did not come up until dinner. Otherwise, Mike's wife could have done that on her own.

However, it could be that the bar fight was a set up. I never thought it was originally, but since the director tended to drop "clues" along the way, there was a likely a point to say why Chet always traveled with security but did not on that particular night. If it was not a set up, there would not be a reason to try to explain that a washed up star still always travels with security. The only thing though is what would have been the motivation? It was known that the Mike's wife wanted money, but it's not as if Mike was this well known fighter that they wanted to get into the tournament. Therefore, without some motivation for Chet to get Mike involved, it goes back to the bar fight was not a set up...

Then even without the bar fight being a set up, Chet could have still been involved starting from dinner... but there's no evidence that he's nothing more than just a drunk, washed up actor.

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