MovieChat Forums > The Ghost Writer (2010) Discussion > More on the ending

More on the ending

posted 13 years ago by qpw3141
64 replies | jump to latest

Starting a new thread because the other threads discussing the ending are getting hung up on would they - could they - should they have killed him.

Apart from the fact that the CIA, in such a situation, would have taken control of the situation - putting their own man as ghost writer - long before TG got involved, the big problem with the ending as film is timing.

TG could have made the discovery at any time - even before Lang's death. He certainly had weeks, at least between the death and the book launch to make the discovery and disseminate the information.

And yet we are lead to believe that, despite the CIA considering the information so important that they were prepared to commit at least two murders, they did nothing other than have a hit team standing by to perform a potentially difficult and very public assassination AFTER the most likely event at which he (or those he had told) would release it.

Effectively, the CIA plan was this:

We know that there is information there and we know TG has had access to it for some time. He could already have made the connection or he could at any time in the future. We can't let this information get out but we won't kill him quietly out of the public view now. No, what we'll do is have a hit squad available 24/7 so that the moment we know he has figured it out we can have him killed - possibly very publicly, within seconds.

Although we're perfectly happy to kill someone right out in the open on foreign territory we'll take the risk that he'll tip us off to the fact that he's got the information BEFORE he takes any steps to disseminate it even though he knows that his predecessor was almost certainly murdered.

Really, this is so utterly brainless as to be completely indefensible.

[–] imdb-6444 12 years ago

True - all true...

But Eli Wallach!

(:

[–] emuir-1 12 years ago

My feeling was that after he had revealed to Ruth that he knew her little secret, she signaled her enforcers and they waited for the Ghost writer to appear, then ran him down in the street. I also felt that Land had always been a puppet and she controlled the strings.

The implied death of the Ghost would have been much more effective as a random accident, say someone shooting through a red light hits another car which spirals out of control, as in "No Country for Old Men". Then we see the pages blowing away down the street. It would be up to the viewer's imagination as to whether the Ghost was killed, or just dropped the manuscript.

I have noticed that there is very little actual gore and violence in Polanski's films, just implied as the tension ramps up. Repulsion absolutely terrified me, yet it was all done off camera. You would see the victim cowering, and carol bringing down the knife, but you would not see her actually striking him. In Rosemary's Baby everything was ambiguous and may have been a figment of her imagination. Other film makers should take note - you don't need a blood bath to terrorize the audience.

[–] qpw3141 12 years ago

My feeling was that after he had revealed to Ruth that he knew her little secret, she signaled her enforcers and they waited for the Ghost writer to appear, then ran him down in the street.

I'm sure that is what we are supposed to think.

But, can you imagine the CIA (presumably) planning meeting?

"He's contacted Emmet, he's onto us. He's on our own territory in the middle of nowhere so we have complete control of the location, let's arrange a little accident ."

"No, I've got a better idea. We'll let him go back to London but have a couple of assassins tail him 24/7. Obviously, he won't tell anyone else or make any copies of the evidence but will instead tip us off before he does anything. Then we'll just have the assassins knock him down in the middle of one of the busiest cities in the world"

"OK, yeah, that's a much better plan - what could possibly go wrong?"

[–] Nick_200021 11 years ago

On top of all that ridiculousness, if there is such sensitive material out there that could reveal one of the biggest scandals in history, a book publishing is the last thing the CIA is going to be concerned about.

Also, the first ghost writer had to of figured out the corruption and coded the manuscript before he went to see Paul Emmett, since he was killed shortly after. It must be ghost writer protocol to tip you off before they burn you.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] qpw3141 11 years ago

I don't really understand why people are trying to pick off tiny points from the many objections to the logic of the this film when the entire plot is so severely flawed.

As someone mentioned earlier, this would be a major scandal, at least as big as Watergate.

Those who would not wish it to break had so much control that it is beyond belief that they would not have taken control of the situation right at the very beginning by assigning a safe pair of hands to do the ghost writing.

And then once they realised that the secret could be divined by an outsider such as the first GW to not only allow another unknown quantity to take on the work but to fail to take even such basic steps as to search the previous ghost writer's room ...

And then, once he's tipped them off that he's onto them to fail to take control of the situation on their own territory but to leave him for what must have been several days at the very least during which AT ANY POINT he could have begun to disseminate the information. It just beggars belief.

[–] Melton (5618) a month ago

No they wouldn’t have killed him on the island. As Rycart said, ‘they can’t drown two of you, you’re not kittens’

They only resort to murder at the end because they’re now certain he’s going to blow the lid on them.

[–] Nick_200021 11 years ago

He absolutely figured it out since he wrote the manuscript. lol

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] kekss 11 years ago

My theory is that Ruth was not aware of bloody murders by the CIA until dinner with the ghost. This is why she was so shocked realizing how deep she is in and that her reports might be reason for killing people, even very close to her. Like her husband premier never realised he was all life to much influenced by Ruth and respectively the USA. Clearly the CIA could have killed the writer off sooner. They had pointed gun on him all the movie and just waited him to pass the line. The final execution was signaled by Emmet immediately he saw a Ruth's agitation. Of course there were lots of agents off screen. Ruth and Emmet could not be so efficient alone. I think this movie is a masterpiece. Location, atmosphere, characters everything just perfect.

[–] 11 years ago

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[–] eagleowl-1 10 years ago

of course she knew - that is why she was drunk all the time

She was playing to get as much as she could out of him (also using sex).

They knew (the CIA) that manuscript had some information in it, but they didnt knew WHAT information it is. They were interested not only in hiding it, but also how to keep the secret in future, so they had to know how previous ghost came to this knowledge. That is why they didnt kill him right away. Also, the fact that Lang went into politics earlier than he said, wasnt that much of shock, so they waited for more.

There is perfect logic to that. The weight of the matter was sufficient to keep assets (agents) on alert all the time to react if necessary

[–] dextertrax 11 years ago

Just chiming in on the ending...

What a fantastically moody piece ruined by such a pedestrian conspiracy plot. The best parts of the film were McGregor signing onto the book and the early conversations. As it moved into conspiracy territory the joints of the film started to creak as the heavily signposted wife is repeatedly thrust into the viewer's sphere and Brosnan becomes increasingly absent.

Finally, when the 'truth is revealed' (to the shock of no one) we finish on a 70s-political-paranoia-thriller ending with the car accident. Horrendous. If the film had ended in the hotel room two scenes prior when McGregor states he doesn't want to finish the book it would have been much stronger, instead it resorts to three cheap tricks in the final three minutes of the film that completely debases any class it had left. Such a shame

Never tell me the odds.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nvxwf1jxdaM

[–] McQueen1980 11 years ago

i disagree. It was a terrific ending.
The lead character was called the ghost(ergo he had to die in the movie). The last scene implies he just turned into a ghost... or did he? There's a mystery all in one scene.

[–] sErpEnt_v 10 years ago

It's this damn latest generation of CIA agents -- bleeding heart liberals the lot of them!
They didn't WANT to kill him until there was absolutely no other way (i.e. there was incontrovertible proof that he had figured it out).

That's the only "logical" explanation......... ;)

_____
I don't know, Butchie, instead.

[–] saima_pyke 10 years ago

I thought that they had killed the previous ghost writer without really knowing what he knew, other than that he knew something and it might be in the manuscript. They couldn't really risk two ghost writers dying in a row without concrete evidence that there was something concrete to kill them for...so they waited until they were absolutely certain. After all, the manuscript they were concerned with was not the one being published, so what harm could it do? He almost gave it back to the PA, then the problem would be over without any suspicion being raised. He had clearly believed it was the PM who was the spy, and the PM was now dead. Problem solved...except he played his hand to get a reaction so he knew what he had was real and they acted faster than he anticipated. He was off screen when he was hit...who is to say he was not on the footpath by then? I think the speedy hit at the end was meant to surprise us, just as it surprised him...he had no time to prepare an adequate defence.

[–] denham 9 years ago

If they'd hired Stephen Pollard as second ghost writer it would have saved a lot of time.
http://www.mytypohumour.com/2011/12/hidden-message.html

I beseech ye in the bowels of Christ, think that ye may be mistaken.

[–] 9 years ago

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