(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO ROCK)
[This Plot Buster resulted from a request to identify a film title, not because the plot was difficult to understand. The asker wanted the name of a black&white movie concerning some man who worked for either the CIA or the FBI, and who had plastic surgery in order to go deep undercover. The only other facts that the poster could recall were that there was a scene which showed various charts and diagrams of the agent's new face, and that there was a shocking ending when the agent revealed his new face in the mirror.
The question languished for several days without receiving any attention, until I wondered if the asker might have mis-remembered some aspects of the movie. I thought I recognised it. So the purpose of the Plot Buster was to give just enough information for the asker to recognise whether or not I had found the right title.]
Seconds (1966) is an American black & white film thriller directed by John Frankenheimer with a screenplay by Lewis John Carlino, based on a novel by David Ely. It was released by Paramount Pictures and starred Rock Hudson.
At the end of the movie Rock Husdon discovers that he is about to be murdered because of a deal he unwittingly signed up to.
Because he is suffering a mid-life crisis, Rock Hudson engages the services of a secret organisation that promises its customers the chance of a new life.
The way that the deal works is that both Hudson and an employee of the organisation undergo plastic surgery. Hudson is given a new face, while the employee is given Hudson's.
Hudson is then setup in his new life by the organisation, while the unfortunate employee is killed in what is made to look like a terrible accident, thus freeing Hudson from all the responsibilities of his old life.
Despite all the considerable trouble that the organisation goes to in order to provide Hudson with a fresh start, he soon realises that things aren't really working out the way he had hoped.
So he decides to take the organisation up on their offer of a second free transformation, if he wasn't entirely satisfied with the first one.
The terrible consequences of this deal only become apparent to Hudson at the very end of the movie, after he reveals his second new face in front of the mirror.
As he removes the bandages, he realises that he recognises the face in the mirror as that of the organisation's latest customer, a man he met only in passing as he arrived for his second round of surgery. The implications of this new face for his immediate future are instantly apparent to him.
The anonymous headquarters and secretive nature of the Seconds organisation would be easy to associate with some government agency. And their actions in setting Hudson up in a new life could easily be mistaken for some sort of undercover operation. So I think that there's a good chance that the movie that you're trying to recall is the one described.
It was an uncharacteristically serious role for Hudson, and was regarded as his best performance in movies, although his only ever Oscar nomination was for his earlier appearance in Giant (1956).
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seconds_%28film%29
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Hudson
Wednesday 17 March 2010
A Perfect Getaway (2009)
(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO THE KILLERS ARE)
[This is the posting that prompted me to create Plot Busters. Someone posted that they nodded off during the performace, and didn't understand the movie. The advice that they received was to look it up on Wikipedia. They deleted their question before I had time to post a Plot Buster.]
A Perfect Getaway (2009) is an American psychological thriller film written and directed by David Twohy, starring Chris Hemsworth, Milla Jovovich, Kiele Sanchez, Timothy Olyphant, Steve Zahn and Marley Shelton. The film was shot in Puerto Rico and Hawaii, and its plot contain so many twists, turns and blind alleys, that it would defeat even the cleverest of champion maze solving lab rats.
(The plot summary available on Wikipedia is of very little help in unraveling the story, as it appears to have been written by somebody who themselves fell asleep at some point during the performance.)
The Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich characters are the killers.
Although the movie begins by portraying them as a mild-mannered and happy newlywed couple enjoying a hiking honeymoon in the wilds of Hawaii, they are eventually revealed to be a pair of psychopaths who are trying to make a career for themselves by murdering other couples whose identities they assume.
On their way by jeep to a particularly remote and beautiful beach the couple run into another pair of, seemingly less clean cut, hikers, played by Hemsworth and Shelton, who Zahn and Jovovich don't offer a lift to, despite the fact that they are on their way to the same beach.
Further along the trail Zahn and Jovovich meet a second couple of more experienced hikers, played by Olyphant and Sanchez, who they decide to team up with on their journey.
However, the widom of this decision soon comes into question when the group discovers a distressed young woman who has heard frightening news of a brutal slaying of yet another honeymooning couple on a nearby island, their teeth having been removed as part of the murder, ...
because Olyphant has been recounting his time as a member of the special forces involved in the invasion of Iraq, and Sanchez has demonstrated considerable skill with a knife by butchering a goat that Olyphant killed for everyones' supper.
Calm is temporarily restored within the group as the local police arrest the apparently sinister pair, whom Zahn and Jovovich had failed to give a lift in their jeep to earlier, after a collection of teeth is found in Hemsworth possession.
However, the truth of the situation is revealed, and blind panic restored, when the Sanchez character accidentally discovers camcorder footage of Zahn and Jovovich rehearing their new identities, those of their most recent victims.
All of Olyphant's military training, and Sanchez's butchering skills come into play in their ensuing battle for survival with Zahn and Jovovich, in which Olyphant only manages (somewhat improbably) to escape death from a bullet to the head by virtue of the metal plate that was put there following a previous encounter with a granade during his time in service.
In the end Olyphant and Sanchez prevail, but only after she pulls him out of the line of fire of a sniper, one of a number of police who have gotten involved in the chase, who luckily ends up killing Zahn insteed.
The movie closes with Olyphant proposing marriage to Sanchez, as they are airlifted from the scene. Perhaps not surprisingly, they both agree to forgo the pleasures of a honeymoon.
It is a testament to the skill of Twohy as a writer and a director that he manages to pull off this slight of hand, without leaving the audience feeling cheated by unforeseeable plot twists.
The clues are all there it you can manage to spot them. It's just that they've been so cleverly mashed up that he is able to play on an audience's expectations, so that the plot twists, when they do occur, are genuinely surprising.
But, as you found out, take your eyes off the action for even a moment, and you'll be lost.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Perfect_Getaway
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/movies/07perfect.html
http://outlawvern.com/2010/01/13/a-perfect-getaway/
http://www.cinemademerde.com/Perfect_Getaway.shtml
And that's how we Plot Bust.
[This is the posting that prompted me to create Plot Busters. Someone posted that they nodded off during the performace, and didn't understand the movie. The advice that they received was to look it up on Wikipedia. They deleted their question before I had time to post a Plot Buster.]
A Perfect Getaway (2009) is an American psychological thriller film written and directed by David Twohy, starring Chris Hemsworth, Milla Jovovich, Kiele Sanchez, Timothy Olyphant, Steve Zahn and Marley Shelton. The film was shot in Puerto Rico and Hawaii, and its plot contain so many twists, turns and blind alleys, that it would defeat even the cleverest of champion maze solving lab rats.
(The plot summary available on Wikipedia is of very little help in unraveling the story, as it appears to have been written by somebody who themselves fell asleep at some point during the performance.)
The Steve Zahn and Milla Jovovich characters are the killers.
Although the movie begins by portraying them as a mild-mannered and happy newlywed couple enjoying a hiking honeymoon in the wilds of Hawaii, they are eventually revealed to be a pair of psychopaths who are trying to make a career for themselves by murdering other couples whose identities they assume.
On their way by jeep to a particularly remote and beautiful beach the couple run into another pair of, seemingly less clean cut, hikers, played by Hemsworth and Shelton, who Zahn and Jovovich don't offer a lift to, despite the fact that they are on their way to the same beach.
Further along the trail Zahn and Jovovich meet a second couple of more experienced hikers, played by Olyphant and Sanchez, who they decide to team up with on their journey.
However, the widom of this decision soon comes into question when the group discovers a distressed young woman who has heard frightening news of a brutal slaying of yet another honeymooning couple on a nearby island, their teeth having been removed as part of the murder, ...
because Olyphant has been recounting his time as a member of the special forces involved in the invasion of Iraq, and Sanchez has demonstrated considerable skill with a knife by butchering a goat that Olyphant killed for everyones' supper.
Calm is temporarily restored within the group as the local police arrest the apparently sinister pair, whom Zahn and Jovovich had failed to give a lift in their jeep to earlier, after a collection of teeth is found in Hemsworth possession.
However, the truth of the situation is revealed, and blind panic restored, when the Sanchez character accidentally discovers camcorder footage of Zahn and Jovovich rehearing their new identities, those of their most recent victims.
All of Olyphant's military training, and Sanchez's butchering skills come into play in their ensuing battle for survival with Zahn and Jovovich, in which Olyphant only manages (somewhat improbably) to escape death from a bullet to the head by virtue of the metal plate that was put there following a previous encounter with a granade during his time in service.
In the end Olyphant and Sanchez prevail, but only after she pulls him out of the line of fire of a sniper, one of a number of police who have gotten involved in the chase, who luckily ends up killing Zahn insteed.
The movie closes with Olyphant proposing marriage to Sanchez, as they are airlifted from the scene. Perhaps not surprisingly, they both agree to forgo the pleasures of a honeymoon.
It is a testament to the skill of Twohy as a writer and a director that he manages to pull off this slight of hand, without leaving the audience feeling cheated by unforeseeable plot twists.
The clues are all there it you can manage to spot them. It's just that they've been so cleverly mashed up that he is able to play on an audience's expectations, so that the plot twists, when they do occur, are genuinely surprising.
But, as you found out, take your eyes off the action for even a moment, and you'll be lost.
Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/A_Perfect_Getaway
http://movies.nytimes.com/2009/08/07/movies/07perfect.html
http://outlawvern.com/2010/01/13/a-perfect-getaway/
http://www.cinemademerde.com/Perfect_Getaway.shtml
And that's how we Plot Bust.
Motivation of a Plot Buster
(SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO DID WHAT)
You may be wondering why anyone would want to attract the sort of abuse that some kill-joy standing up at the start of The Crying Game (1992) and shouting out, at the top of their voice, "The girl's a dude, man!" would do? (I was actually in a theatre once when just such a thing happened!)
I love movies. And the last thing I would want to do is spoil someone else's enjoyment of them.
I enjoy seeing movie trailers, reading movie reviews, seeing movies on both the big and small screens.
And I enjoy discussing movies with my friends afterwards, and seeing what Web forum contributors think about movies they've seen. And sometimes I'm inspired to contribute my own thoughts online.
Sometimes what people say about a movie is "I haven't a clue what was going on. It had me completely lost."
Unfortunately, very often when they admit this online, and ask for help, the responses that they receive are, "why don't you just look it up on the Net."
The problem with such advice is that almost exclusively what's available on the Net is derived from publicity material that was produced for the movie's release.
And of course, the problem with publicity material is that it doesn't tell the whole story. And, worst still, it has "very occasionally" been known to mislead the audience.
So if you weren't supposed to understand the movie by reading its publicity material beforehand, how can it possibly help you to understand the movie to read it afterwards?
I have occasionally been known to take pity on these innocent victims under such circumstances, and provide a short Plot Buster as best I can.
However, the more of these that I have produced, the harder it is to keep track of them. And in some cases so much scorn and vitriol is poured on the poor asker, that they have decided to delete their question, and my efforts are wasted.
So as much as anything this blog is somewhere safe for me to collect my forum contributions together, as and when I make them.
Please don't be too disappointed if you can't find your favourite movie Busted. It just means that no one else has failed to get it, yet. Or, at least, no one's prepared to admit that they didn't get it:)
So, Movie Plot Busting isn't supposed to help decide whether or not to see a certain movie. It's an autopsy performed after the event, so that you can understand what it was that you either enjoyed or didn't enjoy.
Without further ado, let's get on and Bust some Movies:)
(One very last note. I am dyslexic. So if you spot some mistakes, try to be kind:)
You may be wondering why anyone would want to attract the sort of abuse that some kill-joy standing up at the start of The Crying Game (1992) and shouting out, at the top of their voice, "The girl's a dude, man!" would do? (I was actually in a theatre once when just such a thing happened!)
I love movies. And the last thing I would want to do is spoil someone else's enjoyment of them.
I enjoy seeing movie trailers, reading movie reviews, seeing movies on both the big and small screens.
And I enjoy discussing movies with my friends afterwards, and seeing what Web forum contributors think about movies they've seen. And sometimes I'm inspired to contribute my own thoughts online.
Sometimes what people say about a movie is "I haven't a clue what was going on. It had me completely lost."
Unfortunately, very often when they admit this online, and ask for help, the responses that they receive are, "why don't you just look it up on the Net."
The problem with such advice is that almost exclusively what's available on the Net is derived from publicity material that was produced for the movie's release.
And of course, the problem with publicity material is that it doesn't tell the whole story. And, worst still, it has "very occasionally" been known to mislead the audience.
So if you weren't supposed to understand the movie by reading its publicity material beforehand, how can it possibly help you to understand the movie to read it afterwards?
I have occasionally been known to take pity on these innocent victims under such circumstances, and provide a short Plot Buster as best I can.
However, the more of these that I have produced, the harder it is to keep track of them. And in some cases so much scorn and vitriol is poured on the poor asker, that they have decided to delete their question, and my efforts are wasted.
So as much as anything this blog is somewhere safe for me to collect my forum contributions together, as and when I make them.
Please don't be too disappointed if you can't find your favourite movie Busted. It just means that no one else has failed to get it, yet. Or, at least, no one's prepared to admit that they didn't get it:)
So, Movie Plot Busting isn't supposed to help decide whether or not to see a certain movie. It's an autopsy performed after the event, so that you can understand what it was that you either enjoyed or didn't enjoy.
Without further ado, let's get on and Bust some Movies:)
(One very last note. I am dyslexic. So if you spot some mistakes, try to be kind:)
Plot Busters Mission Statement
After reading such an over-the-top Welcome message, you're probably wondering what Movie Plot Busting is all about, and what you can expect to find here in the future if you choose to take the Red Pill?
In a nutshell, what you can expect to find is a (SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO DID WHAT) warning message heading up each posting, because what follows will be a no nonsense, no holds barred, no punches pulled summary of the plot of a movie.
A Plot Buster is a summary of the plot of a movie that leaves no doubt about who did what to whom, and, if possible, why. The story will be cut back to the bone, for better or for worse.
The point of Plot Busting is not to tease the audience into buying tickets, or renting DVDs. It is to help the poor souls who handed over their hard earned cash, to understand what they've just paid to see.
Where movie reviewers fear to tread, Plot Busters will boldly go.
In a nutshell, what you can expect to find is a (SPOILER ALERT: DO NOT READ THIS POST IF YOU DON'T WANT TO KNOW WHO DID WHAT) warning message heading up each posting, because what follows will be a no nonsense, no holds barred, no punches pulled summary of the plot of a movie.
A Plot Buster is a summary of the plot of a movie that leaves no doubt about who did what to whom, and, if possible, why. The story will be cut back to the bone, for better or for worse.
The point of Plot Busting is not to tease the audience into buying tickets, or renting DVDs. It is to help the poor souls who handed over their hard earned cash, to understand what they've just paid to see.
Where movie reviewers fear to tread, Plot Busters will boldly go.
Welcome to the Jungle
When there's something strange / In your picture house
Who 'ya gonna call? / Plot Busters!
Welcome to Genuine Jon's Movie Plot Busters, an occasional foray into the sometimes twisted world of motion picture story lines.
With apologies to Andy and Larry Wachowski...
Friend, sooner or later, you're going to realize, just as I did, that there's a difference between seeing the movie and understanding the plot.
I don't know if you're ready for what I have to show you, but unfortunately, your choices are limited.
Let me tell you why you are here.
You have come because you want to know something.
You're here because you know that there is something wrong.
You don't know what, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.
The hype. The hype is everywhere, it's all around us.
Even now, in this very blogosphere.
You can see it when you go to the pictures or turn on your television.
You can sense it when you read the paper, or when you go to the mall, or when you listen to the radio.
It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
The truth. That you are a slave, friend.
Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside the prison of publicity that you cannot smell, taste, or touch.
A prison for your mind.
Unfortunately, no one is ever told what the hype is. You have to weed it out for yourself.
This is your last chance. After this, there is no going back.
You take the blue pill. The story ends. You go back to your reviews and believe whatever the publicists want you to believe.
You take the red pill. You stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
Remember... all I am offering is the truth. Nothing more.
Who 'ya gonna call? / Plot Busters!
Welcome to Genuine Jon's Movie Plot Busters, an occasional foray into the sometimes twisted world of motion picture story lines.
With apologies to Andy and Larry Wachowski...
Friend, sooner or later, you're going to realize, just as I did, that there's a difference between seeing the movie and understanding the plot.
I don't know if you're ready for what I have to show you, but unfortunately, your choices are limited.
Let me tell you why you are here.
You have come because you want to know something.
You're here because you know that there is something wrong.
You don't know what, but it's there, like a splinter in your mind, driving you mad.
The hype. The hype is everywhere, it's all around us.
Even now, in this very blogosphere.
You can see it when you go to the pictures or turn on your television.
You can sense it when you read the paper, or when you go to the mall, or when you listen to the radio.
It is the world that has been pulled over your eyes to blind you from the truth.
The truth. That you are a slave, friend.
Like everyone else, you were born into bondage, born inside the prison of publicity that you cannot smell, taste, or touch.
A prison for your mind.
Unfortunately, no one is ever told what the hype is. You have to weed it out for yourself.
This is your last chance. After this, there is no going back.
You take the blue pill. The story ends. You go back to your reviews and believe whatever the publicists want you to believe.
You take the red pill. You stay in Wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.
Remember... all I am offering is the truth. Nothing more.
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