I stopped watching the movie after the scene...

But then you also missed the happy ending.

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He's a lover, not a fighter. But he's also a fighter - so don't get any ideas.

Yes, at one time his family "gave up" on him. However, they come to realize how dedicated he is to his principals and rejoin his efforts to seek justice.

This begins when his son brings him the coffee and begins to help him go through the endless boxes of files he has in his garage. The son then becomes his legal associate\council when Bob decides to represent himself in court. When the Ford representative comes to his house the final time and offers him $30 million dollars, he asks his family what they think he should do. They tell him to reject the offer and continue with his legal battle. His children all stood behind him in court, so I don't know why people keep saying he "lost his family." He lost his wife, yes, but not his family.


As to goldeneyes question about justice, I have to agree with Mr. Kearns. Accepting the settlement from Ford would be like giving up, saying "Okay, you win. I was wrong, you guys really invented it & I'm just a greedy schmuck." That is not justice. Justice would be setting the record straight. Like you said, "This movie was all about the PRINCIPLE of the matter. You need to give credit where credit is due."

He was not only seeking justice for himself, but he was seeking justice on behalf of all inventors who had their ideas stolen from them. This was shown in the scene where he pulls out a stack of letters he had recieved from other inventors who had been wronged, encouraging him to keep up the good fight. He felt a deep moral committment to those people. Now, how would him accepting millions of dollars do anything to help the other victims of intellectual thievery? By standing his ground, proving and ultimately winning his case, he showed people everywhere that they stood a chance, even against the biggest corporations on the face of the earth.

He ultimately recieved his due recognition, was looked up to by his children, inspired inventors everywhere, and on top of that he got millions and millions of dollars. I'm sorry if I'm missing something, but that seems like a happy ending to me.

Well, you clearly missed the point of the movie. And it's "bear" not "bare". Also, the dollar signs that seem to mean everything to you come before the numbers, genius.

If you had stuck with it, I think you would have enjoyed the movie on the whole.

But I agree the $250,000 offer was a key scene: it illustrates the consequences of Kearns' rigid self-righteousness. While some may see that as a virtue, any time I meet somebody like that, I'm annoyed just as much as Kearns' wife, psychiatrist, and lawyer (Alda) were. Most emotionally mature people realize that life isn't fair - you find the message in a dozen cliches: you can't always get what you want, get over it, you can't fight city hall, let it go, etc. It's a lesson we should all learn in childhood. The fact that Kearns was ultimately vindicated is nice, but his example isn't necessarily a good one to follow.

I give the filmmakers credit for balancing the picture this way. They could have made it strictly a feel good, underdog-wins, Rocky-type story, but that would have been unrealistic and overoptimistic.

He stated at the end of the movie that all he wanted was for people to see his inventor badge. I think what he did was very commendable. Most people would have just taken the money and ran. He stuck it through to the end. Granted, it cost him his wife and family, but I thought towards the end, his family issues were looking up. Not sure about what happened with this ex wife. I thought the movie was brillant.

blam_web - question - Why you could not bear such outcome?

Why did you stop watching when he declined the money?

I dont believe anyone has the right to judge what he did the moment he turned down the money... unless you're an inventor that had your idea stolen. I can not even imagine his anger every time it rained and he had to use or see the intermittent wipers. You can see Fords guilt throughout the movie with their offers. $30 million dollars for him to just go away?? GUILTY!! He didn't want the money he wanted Ford to admit they stole his idea. And the issue with his wife, I see it as the marriage wasn't strong enough to last through the years he was fighting Ford so why would it of lasted after the settlement... money? If she came back after that it would of made her look like she was out for the money, which I dont believe she was. She wanted him back and he wasn't able to give that to her.