I've watched this movie twice now and I'm still not quite sure who actually killed the radio operator after the jump.
shareIt all happens off screen of course, but Smith says at one stage back in the castle I think, that the three double agents all together killed the two other members of the team,
shareAlthough as mentioned it occurs offscreen, in the novel, Harrod's killer is revealed as Edward Carraciola. Carraciola was renamed "Ted Berkeley" for the film, so I suppose Berkeley being the killer is the best answer you'll get.
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I assumed it was at least one of those finally revealed to be double agents who did the deed. What stumps me is how they did it.
The film gives the impression that the whole party apart from Harris landed pretty much in sight of each other, and we're shown them regrouping. When Smith asks where Harris is, Schaffer says he last saw Harris "drifting towards those trees over there", and points in a direction that none of them came from. So how could any of them have had time to find Harris, kill him, and then circle round at a great enough distance not to be seen and arrive at the rendezvous from a completely different direction?
It may seem like a small logistical point, and that we should allow the film a bit of artistic licence, but it bugs me every time I watch the film!
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Haha I totally agree with you. It's such a small detail of the plot that most people would give no attention to but every single time I watch it I am just so thrown off by that whole scene. And what about the footprints in the snow? The footprints would give anyone away on the ground. Maybe it happened right before the jump? And he landed unconscious (dead) lol.
shareI guess it's a bit of a oversight on the part of the scriptwriter (MacLean himself, so I believe). He couldn't have been killed before the drop from the plane or in the air so had to be killed on the ground. But there didn't appear to be any time for one of the others to kill him and then double back without being seen or leaving tracks in the snow. I'm inclined to put it down to a little laziness in the script writing.
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Confused me too. Pretty impossible. Only way they could have done it was in mid-air which seems very improbable.
shareI always had Christiansen figured for it. You see him look up with an expression of near panic when Smith asks, "Where's Harrod?" Then when they start spreading out to look for him, Christiansen has a look on his face like he just accidentally ate somebody's pet fish.
It's also worth noting that he's the coldest and nastiest of the three traitors in the film; in the novel, those traits belonged to Ted Carraciola (a.k.a. Berkeley in the film, who struck me as a much more passive character).
Someone on this board awhile ago said he's killed as he's leaving the plane, by the man behind him dashing his head off the edge of the door, breaking his neck. Never watched the movie to see if that's inferred but it makes sense then that there are no footprints.
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