Heather
When the boat capsized we never hear a mention of her again. What was her purpose in this movie??? I thought she would have been the real killer or served some purpose but she was nothing in the end.
shareWhen the boat capsized we never hear a mention of her again. What was her purpose in this movie??? I thought she would have been the real killer or served some purpose but she was nothing in the end.
Oh dear; every so often this question comes up, and I'm forced to admit that I still haven't found the time to write it up in the FAQ...
I think the general view is that Heather's a MacGuffin. Her disappearance provides a reason for the others to start searching the ship, and - as you say - the audience is meant to suspect initially that she's the masked killer. (For those of us who've been discussing this film for years now, it can be easy to forget that Christopher Smith deliberately intended the early scenes on the ship to make us think we were in "slasher movie" territory - right down to him referencing Friday the 13th Part 2 with the sackcloth mask - before the film veers off in another direction...)
Beyond that, though, the couple of deleted scenes on the original UK DVD release point to Heather being a bit more important in the original script.
The first is an extended take of Sally and Heather talking on board the Triangle. We discover that Sally is in love with Geoff, and is trying to set Heather up with him as a "sexual interface". (Heather's reaction to this revelation leads directly to her "Oh, and for the record: I'm not interested." comment.)
The second is an extended take of the storm. In it, Victor instructs Jess to keep hold of the wheel while he goes to help the others. However Victor is then nearly swept overboard. Jess leaves the wheel to save him, but in doing so causes the Triangle to go out of control and capsize - which in turn causes Heather to be swept away. This would therefore mean that Jess was indirectly responsible for Heather's death, however Smith eventually decided to leave this out of the final cut, as he felt it put too much emotional pressure on Jess early-on.
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"So I've got bullets, but no gun. That's quite Zen." share
Apparently, the others are all being punished for something, too. They keep being killed over and over and even crawling over their own bodies from previous deaths. None are in control of anything, it seems.
Except for Heather. She dies only once. Thus, I'd say, innocent of wrongdoing.
Interesting that discussions have been going on for years. That's a compliment to the movie!