MovieChat Forums > The Bad Lieutenant: Port of Call - New Orleans (2009) Discussion > You guys are missing something important...

You guys are missing something important...

posted 14 years ago by daweller
11 replies | jump to latest

spoilers ahead

I think that after the shootout ( Cage was visiting Xibit and that mobster guy showed up )...
I think Cage actually died in that shootout.
At the end of the movie, Cage is visited again by that criminal who we saw at the start of the film, who was about to drown while locked in his prison cell.
They are bot sitting there ( in Purgatory, or Limbo ) thinking.... then Cage chuckles. At the point where he chuckles, he realizes to himself " Hey, I'm dead... I didn't save that guy... he died... so I must be dead! "

This is reinforced by how, during the shootout, Cage saw the dead mobster's body breakdancing. Only dead people can see the dead dance.

( OK I guess my theory has some holes... like how could Xibit be talking to him etc )
I gotta watch the last 30 minutes and refine this theory, but I think I am on to something.

[–] Hildovar 14 years ago

I thought the same thing- the whole miraculous recovery of his *beep* up family and the happy families scene at the end jarred too much with the build up. It was all in his head, as he was dying/dead.

[–] daweller 14 years ago

Yes!
OK I gotta watch this great movie again...

[–] jeannyvere 14 years ago

Nice theory (and everyone's entitled to their own interpretation; it's art, after all) but I really don't think this was the writers' intention!

The whole point of the ending was that he has been a very 'bad' luitenant, without losing his integrity (after all; he didn't really hurt innocent, well-meaning people, he actually helped them) and with a great future ahead of him; a lovely family and a great promotion!

[–] Mr_Wolf_80 14 years ago

Well, it's not sure he died during the shootout, but at a certain point I expected and imaged something like that, since that happy ending is absolutely implausible

This film somehow surprised me, it's a bit weird

What still annoys me a bit is: what has this to do with "The bad lieutenant"???
It's not a remake, it's not a sequel...

I'm Winston Wolf, I solve problems

And no dream is ever... just a dream...

[–] jeannyvere 14 years ago

It IS plausible. It's called irony!!!

[–] Mr_Wolf_80 14 years ago

Mmmm... I wouldn't be so sure!
Just think of the football match: Texas winning after it was loosing against Louisiana 24-6 5 minutes to the end! All his problems and all the charges against him suddenly solved and disappeared!

I'm Winston Wolf, I solve problems

And no dream is ever... just a dream...

[–] duderunner 14 years ago

But apart from the football match (which not being american I wouldn't know how implausible the outcome was), how was anything else implausible?

The crack pipe turned up because he planted it.

The "Whooa... Oh Yeah!" guy made peace because he attributed the sudden disappearance of his mobster friends to cage, not to Big Fate.

[–] Mr_Wolf_80 14 years ago

I'm not american, too!
Well, it's always a film after all, without any claim of plausibility!
However, on that crack pipe there should be tracks of Cage's DNA, too!

Another thing that annoys me is that a gangster like Big Fate, who didn't hesitate to exterminate a whole family, is somehow blackmailed by a cop, just watch for example the scene in the car in which Cage menaces him with the gun

I'm Winston Wolf, I solve problems

And no dream is ever... just a dream...

[–] duderunner 14 years ago

"However, on that crack pipe there should be tracks of Cage's DNA, too! "

OK, good point :-) But then its fairly obvious to the cop he dropped the hint to that cage planted it anyway so perhaps the cops could ensure his dna was removed. Cage certainly gave the impression he knew what he was doing... so I kind of bought into it.

"Another thing that annoys me is that a gangster like Big Fate, who didn't hesitate to exterminate a whole family, is somehow blackmailed by a cop, just watch for example the scene in the car in which Cage menaces him with the gun"

Well I got the impression Fate looked upon the gun waving more as an annoyance by a drugged up colleague than a genuine threat. And I think he'd put up with a lot of irritating behaviour from cage considering how much extra money the guy was going to make him.

[–] willson_x 14 years ago

Jesus Christ, he's not dead!! what's with all this *beep* new-wave, post-modernist, analytical way of thinking? He's not dead, he's just high and hallucinates the man's soul breakdancing. You know, you wath it, you take something way with it. If you try and analyze the experience, it detracts from the bigger picture.
You should phone up david lynch and talk to him about this scene, cause that's his alley of storytelling, he would probably talk to you for hours about death and dreams whilst slurping on a malt shake.
In the real world, you react to things from within yourself, and what ever is imprinted is a reflection on you and how you relate to the world. You have to believe in the magic of the film's illusion, because when you start looking at films analyticaly, it's hard to go back to your old ways of just enjoying something, and films become like a potato and you end up picking all the eyes off it.

[–] raimund-berger 14 years ago

Yeah, for some people the irony seems to be particularly hard to get.

Besides, there's subtitles two times where the director wants to inform us about the time line. Once between Terence's accident and the family shooting investigation, where it says "6 months later" or so. And once after all things worked out alright for him and it jumps forward to the second promotion ceremony, where it says "1 year later" or so.

Thinking the director included the latter to specifically inform the audience about time while Cage's character was dead already makes no sense at all.