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Why they let the driver shoot Liz? In the novel, the guy runs away quickly and the couple are killed by guards in watchtower. That sounds much better. And where that ridiculous voice come from? Asking Leamas go back to the other side? Any German offices could let a British spy run away over the wall? And about the wall, I never see any picture about it, did they realy built any iron rungs on it? For climbers' convenience?
And where that ridiculous voice come from? Asking Leamas go back to the other side?
1. The voice from the tower was probably someone Mundt had sent to take over the operation of that particular watchtower on that particular evening. This is why the searchlight was turned back on, as well. The regular watchtower guards weren't there.
2. 'The Boy' shot Nan because Mundt wanted to ensure that Leamas wasn't shot by mistake. The vantage from that position was probably better than shooting from the watchtower.
3. As to the rungs, I can only surmise that they were there for maintenance, i.e., to string and maintain the fence on top of the wall.
the voice from the other side of the wall it was smiley's
and yes, the wall had iron rungs.
In the car, "The Boy" tells Lemas that the guard detachment for that section of the wall have inserted their emergency climbing irons to a height that he could lift the girl over and climb over himself.
shareI viewed it as:
Alec told the girl too much, and Britain knew she was a liability, so they had "The Boy" shoot her. The reason he waited until they were on the wall was so that Alec would just go over to the other side, and continue to be a spy for the British.
Alec wanted no such thing, as was made obvious by the excellent monologue he delivered earlier in the car. He decided he'd rather die along with the only other person he had a real connection with, instead of going back to work for the government that used him (after all, they didn't even tell him the real plan was to help Mundt, not to kill him). So he jumped back to the other side, where he was killed along with her.
A couple points. First of all, I think it was the British who released AL's name to the press. Remember Fiedler said they hadn't done it, they were considering using him as a double agent.
And I think it was Mundt that had the girl shot, not the British Secret Service, not that Control really cared about that and had probably foreseen that happening. What I don't understand was was he let AL go. He couyld have shot them both at any time as escapees and it would have raised less questions.
By the way, why did they, (The East Germans) arrest the girl anyway. She was a British citizen in good standing, and was innocent of any crime whatsover.
By the way, why did they, (The East Germans) arrest the girl anyway. She was a British citizen in good standing, and was innocent of any crime whatsover.
I don't follow the ending. It seems very risky for Mundt to reveal himself as a British agent to Leamas and Perry for the sole purpose of having Perry killed and Leamas left to go free - unless the plan was to have both killed, though it didn't quite look like that. If one or both had to be killed I'm sure they could have come up with a better plan than resorting to such a whopper of a revelation!
shareI was confused by the ending too but my take was that the search-light picked out people going over the wall -- the alarm went up -- and their helper was IN CHARGE OF THAT PORTION OF THE WALL (that´s how everything got set up for the escape and we see him come out when the alarm goes up). Their helper had to do SOMETHING so shooting the, in spy-terms, less important, Nan, was the option.
It wasn´t Smiley shouting because the words were to the effect of GO BACK TO YOUR SIDE, MR. LEAMAS. It was probably the helper shouting...If questioned what he was shouting he could just say he was shouting COME BACK OR I WILL SHOOT.
Maybe I didn´t understand it though.
The girl was supposed to die; Lemas was supposed to live. It just didn't work out that way because Lemas chose to die with her rather than keep on living.
Here's a link to a discussion we had about it on the Books board a few weeks back:
http://www.imdb.com/board/bd0000052/nest/79176935?d=79176935#79176935. You'd better check it quickly, I don't know how long the link will stay active as the posts on the Books board usually get deleted after two or three months.
The only second chance you get is to make the same mistake twice. - David Mamet
Thanks for that, SlowRain.
Works for me!
As far as I can make out, Britain ordered Mundt(sp?) to kill the girl as they knew Alec would tell her things and thus she would becom a liability. Mundt ordered the young boy to shoot ONLY her, that's why he shoots her when Alec is some distance from her. Britain assumed that Alec would jump to the other side, but he didn't and was shot by the soldiers in the watch tower.
share