Don
soooo ... was he or not?
shareThis was one of the best mysteries of the film. I'm going to go with "no" because I don't think any of the elites would've been brave enough to embed themselves with those being hunted. I think Athena just wanted to see what Crystal would do at the mere suggestion that Don was a spy. Crystal quickly weighed the pros and cons and decided better safe than sorry.
shareThe elites embedded themselves at least 3 more times:
The gas station couple, the fake refugee and the driver.
Plus: he knew exactly how many they were (actually when he said "we were eleven" i started to suspect him, who would have time to count how many they were and to know details in those moments of confusion?)
But hard to say 100% so ...
I'm not sure I would classify all those other situations as direct embeds. The gas station couple were radioed about who was approaching and they had the element of surprise (shotgun under the counter), the fake refugee was embedded with actual refugees and no one thought any of those being hunted would make it onto the moving train. The driver was probably closest to a direct embed but probably felt safe about it since Crystal and Don weren't armed.
But you make a good point about Don's mention of "we were eleven."
I think so with knowing about the guy grenaded at the fence when counting off how many left to her.
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Maaaaybe, maaaabye not. Every film should have an unsolved mystery.
😎
He wasn't. His picture wasn't on the wall. He was one of them.
shareThese things are often fun to speculate, but I think the filmmaker's intent was clear: he wasn't. There are a Lot of cues, but one practical one is he could've easily capped her multiple times, had he wanted to.
Also, there's nice symmetry: Crystal's "maybe maybe not" works with his, as it turned out.
IMO, Don was one of the prey, not a hunter.
1. During the slide-show selection scene, the hunters said that they wanted to kill all of the thousands of web posters, but the consultant said they had to cap it off to just 12 prey.
2. If you add up all the prey including Randy who died on the plane, you need to include Don to add up to 12.
3. There were only 11 photos up on the Manor wall, but Randy was already killed on the plane and did not participate in the hunt. In the zoomed-in shot, only the top nine photos are shown, not the bottom two. In the zoomed-out shot you can see the bottom left photo is a stout man with a white beard that looks like Don and not like any of the other prey.
4. Don helped Crystal kill the hunter who went out to pee by distracting him and stood by letting Crystal kill all the hunters in the bunker without making any effort to warn or help them.
5. Once Don picked up gun in the bunker, he could have easily shot Crystal while her guard was down.
6. Athene would not be dumb enough to expose Don if he was truly an undercover hunter. On the other hand...
7. When asked if Don was one of the hunters, Athene says "... or maybe not" with a smirking look.
8. Crystal mistakenly killing Don fits in with the theme that people can make deadly errors based on faulty assumptions or misinformation.
Agree 100% with Funpig. Athena manipulated Crystal into killing Don. Don was one of the hunted.
Crystal was there by accident, and didn’t fully trust anyone, or fundamentally agreed with anyone. I believe that Athena just wanted to see what Crystal would do in a situation that she could easily manipulate. The scene goes hand-in-hand with the themes of the movie.
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My gut says no.
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