The opening of the film establishes very clearly that not only was the homicide victim killed by several blows to the head, but that his body was severely mutilated.
What I don't understand is this: How did the character of Colin MacIver go from simply killing a man with an ashtray in a fit of rage and guilt, to cutting off his penis and fingers after the fact? Did I miss something in the dialogue? It seems like quite the leap.
Thanks.
It's spelled out in much more detail in the (long) original book.
Basically the victim gouged Colin during their struggle - so Colin cut off his fingers to remove his own tissue and blood from beneath the fingernails.
He then cut off the penis as merely a diversionary move to muddle the crime scene.
He was a very smart man and borderline genius - but still needed a lot of luck to commit that "perfect crime".
The book was a best seller when it came out and I really like it - but not sure it would be for everyone. The whole city is fictional in the book - not NYC but "Port Smith" an Eastern seaboard city close to Canada.
BTW - this cop "Joe Leland" (in the book) appears again in another Roderick Thorpe novel "Nothing Lasts Forever" - which was the basis for the movie "Die Hard" - so this cop is really "John McClain" - despite the fact THIS story all happened just after WWII ended - and then "Die Hard" timeframe was the 1990's. ;-)
Mr. justbobkc . . . thank you for that. I've just watched the Blu-ray disc and was wondering about the mutilations. The flashback sequence suggests it was a quick struggle ending with a death. I thought perhaps the psychotic Felix had found the body and done the mutilations himself!
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