Clip joint: loose threads

We tug at some of those annoyingly slack plot lines that have left moviegoers tied up in knots and lost down plot holes Nothing nags like a film that leaves its plot or characters dangling. Some unanswered questions (did Cobb’s spinning top fall after Inception finished?) seem placed to give the audience something to mull over or argue about after the film has finished. Others (Beauty and the Beast’s Chip is clearly under 10, and the curse has been on the castle for 10 years, so did Mrs Potts give birth to him whilst she was a teapot? And who is his father?) look more like goofs than deliberate head scratchers. Yet they raise interesting, and sometimes disturbing, questions. Some loose threads are so neglectful they leave a lingering sense of injustice. Such is the case with Source Code, whose treatment of one of its central characters was so heinous it demanded this plot-hole-peppered Clip joint of protest. Schoolteacher Sean (we find out little else about him) is replaced by Jake Gyllenhaal’s Colter Stevens at the start of the film, and is never heard from again. Even the object of Sean’s affections, Christina, does not seem too bothered that the personality of the man she’s spent the last few years falling for has inexplicably changed before her very eyes. Who will weep for Sean? Poor old Sean, this one’s for you. 1) Colter’s fine: he’s got the girl, he’s saved the world. But what happened to Sean? Won’t his family and friends miss him? 2) In Chinatown, what happens to the fake Mrs Mulwray? 3) Who killed The Big Sleep’s Owen Taylor? Allegedly not even the film-makers know. (At least it’s fairly obvious who killed Canino .) 4) Back to the Future sees Marty return to a much happier, albeit alternate 1985 at the end of the film, having helped his parents fall in love with each other. But what happened to the Marty that lived in that alternate reality up until “other” Marty arrived? Was he replaced Sean-style? (“Where we’re going we don’t need roads … or to tie up any loose ends.”) 5) And one instructive clip : the end of Burn After Reading; numerous loose ends all tied up in a mere two-and-a-half minutes. Last week Oliver Pfeiffer waved his codpiece at the best of 80s cult fantasy. Here he sorts the Gelflings from the Skeksis in the clips that you suggested: 1) BrigadierBarking reminded us why Tim Curry is such a horny devil in Legend. 2) Neglected gem The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension was an ingenious suggestion by steenbeck . 3) rowingrob made us realise why the original, bleak ending does true justice to Terry Gilliam’s masterpiece Brazil. 4) goonergeof suggested Watson having his cake and eating it in Young Sherlock Holmes. 5) And greatpoochini went all dizzy on us with the reverse carousel clip in Something Wicked This Way Comes. guardian.co.uk

Posted by on May 4, 2011. Filed under News, Politics, World News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.