MovieChat Forums > Air (2015) Discussion > Someone explain plot twist (spoilers)

Someone explain plot twist (spoilers)

posted 9 years ago by roni_arg
5 replies | jump to latest

Ok, so one of the pods sets on fire and gets ruined. They both go to the storages to get the replacement parts. As Cartwright is fearfull about crawling in to sleep, Bauer takes his place.

Bauer starts feeling the air getting thinner in the pod and Cartwrigt says "I'll check the pump" and is out the scene. As Bauer saw later, Cartwright didn't go anywhere, he just stood by the failing pod staring at his wife's pic.

This is where I don't understand.

Why does Cartwright just stand there instead of releasing Bauer and checking the air pump for real? The pod was complete and the parts where whole, they could have fixed the malfunction.

For some reason, Cartwright decided to let Bauer die in the pod (why? Bauer hadn't done anything).
After some minutes, however, Cartwright regrets this and cuts the plastic with the cutter to let Bauer out. Why?? Now they are in a real problem since the spare parts are now really broken and there's only one pod for two.

--

Artificial intelligence is no match for natural stupidity.

[–] CosimaValkyrie 9 years ago

I don't think his intentions were ever to kill Bauer. I think he was just having another hallucination about his wife, and that's why he never heard Bauer. He kinda dissociates with his hallucinations

[–] evelhussey 9 years ago

It was very confusing. I can't imagine the pod is ever supposed to do that, which made me wonder if he reversed the airflow to create a vacuum. Something about it seemed intentional (like he was looking at the photo of his wife to make himself feel better about what he was doing, plus all of the hurried apologies as he cut the plastic), but as you pointed out, he had no motivation.

[–] puschit-1 9 years ago

I am sensing a missing scene where his wife tells him to kill Bauer and it was later cut to not spoil the twist (well, to actually create a twist).

He may not have had a real motivation, maybe he had. See, his wife is among the scientists while Bauer's family is dead. And it shows - Bauer is kindof an ass throughout and he doesn't really care, he talks about this "job" as if he is just a janitor, he prefers to watch reruns of a baseball game and to jerk off instead of checking systems while Bauer uses the remaining time to analyze the situation. Bauer doesn't even listen when Cartwright makes suggestions and assumptions about their situation.
So, what if his wife in his hallucinations tells him he has to get rid off Bauer because he is unreliable and not of great help? Without Bauer the air supply would be worth of 4 hours each cycle, hence double the time for Cartwright to find solutions.
It's still a bit odd that he first comes up with the idea where to get extra parts and then when they have it to kill him. But that can be explained with the timing - Abby probably showed up when Bauer volunteered to go first.

This, however, is another thing - why was Bauer so adamant to go first?

[–] hovaoc149 8 years ago

i thought it went like this:

- once bauer volenteers to test the pod first, cartwright uses this as an opportunity to kill bauer. so he rigs the pod to suck the air out. but his consience gets the better of him and he changes his mind and cuts bauer free.

- why did he want to kill bauer? i thought if he kills bauer, it's one less person to use the air and resources up so that means he could wake his wife from cryosleep and be reunited with her and live with her on and off for the next couple of cycles, instead of having to wait until the earth's air is no longer toxic which could be decades later.

-was it suppose to be a plot twist that cartwright's wife was one if the scientists in the cryosleep?

for me, i already knew the abby character that cartwright sees throughout the film was one of the persons in the cryosleep pod. in the beginning of the film when they first go in the sleeping chamber, i could see her face while she slept. so for me it was no surprise, the only surprise to me was that she was cartwright's wife.

[–] FrankSniper (6) 8 years ago

My opinion goes like this: Cartwright was never sincere with his parter. Bauer even told him about him being a coward and abandoning his wife and little girl in the outside. What´s the meaning of what i´m trying to say? Simply: Cartwright new far more about Bauer than Bauer knew about him. Cartwright knew Bauer was a fighter, so he hesitated about letting him be his enemy, because he knew it was a hell of an enemy, and if he could let the 2 more important people of his life die a horrible dead, what could he spected for himself?