Was he himself brainwashed in to attempting the assasinaton?

Just watched this for the fist time. Interesting thread.

My opinion..

Parallax knew Joe's game from the start. He was a perfect candidate. Anti-social, previous run ins with the law... as explained by the Parallax guy which probably hit close to home with Joe even though he was pretending to be someone else.

In the beginning, the initial assassination in the tower was carried out by the one waiter yet it seemed that the waiter that ran from the scene of the murder (and who eventually fell off) was not the guy who pulled the trigger. Very similar to Joe's situation at the end of the film. That is assuming he was not the actual killer.

I think the brainwashing was to get him to a point that he ended up at the point where a high profile person was so that he would be the fall guy - not to actually kill the person. That way the investigation into the assassination would not be linked back to the person who put out the contract or to parallax themselves - just to some loner who was obsessed and had a history of issues which is perfect for a cover up.

Everything that happened after the Parallax test seemed strange. He changed from having a personality with a keen ambition to find out what was going on to being in situations where he was preventing planes from exploding mid air and high profile killings. It all went pair shaped after the test that is why i think he was brainwashed - but not to kill, to be in the right place at the right time.


One thing that peaked my attention was that the parallax guy kept asking about his height - seemingly unimportant but maybe a factor in being up in the roof of that final building, being big enough to be easily spotted by the people below.


Those are my thoughts...

Good movie, enjoyed it - I watched it as a result of watching The Conversation - also a great movie - highly recommended - it also provokes discussion.

Mr McChives thanks for starting this thread, brilliant feedback - read them all! From some posts, it says Pakula shot it 'unnecessarily vague and murky, and somewhat tedious' & 'needed more shots of Frady up in the rafters, showing an ever increasing realization that he was being set up...'
But if that happened, we wouldn't be here discussing this 35 years later!

I am involved in film myself. EVERYTHING IN A FILM is controlled. You see ONLY what the director wants you to see. Even on actors performances, I admit on stage an actor has to deliver the goods. In film, sometimes used a shot of the actor 'pre-action' (before 'action!') as his look was right while in a relaxed state before shooting started! In film you put the shots you want, how you want them.

I think Frady could be the assassin at the end (especially with the dazed look on his face). On the flip side, the gun is more likely to have been pre-planted to blame him after he's been shot by Parallax, as we see it before we see Frady see it & both times the position is the same. Also they have his fingerprints from the brainwash sequence.

But Pakula was very much leaving it open to make us wonder and question - as that is in itself the key theme of the film. Deliberately shown that way to make it ambiguous & open to interpretation.

Points have been raised about the fact that politicians from different sides of the 'political spectrum' are targeted by the organisation and that Parallax will kill for the 'highest bidder'. But I think this oversimplifies it. Do readers really think that there is any difference (eg in the UK) between Labour & Conservatives? The fact is that the 'democratic choices' open to the public are purely cosmetic. They're two sides of the same coin, an 'old boys club'. And the news media that sells us the 'political debate' is all controlled too, like Pakula's film, we only see news we're meant to see. Parallax is simply a government offshoot, under an 'independent guise'.

To the comedians that said it's a bad film or it's dated!! This stuff is happening around us right now (35 years fater the film was made). Open your eyes. Bad film? As someone else in the posts put it so aptly: Pearls before swine.

The movie is written to have interpretations. During the several deaths, including the opening and the ending, we never actually SEE the killer doing the deed, just a fella running at the Space Needle, like Frady runs, both could've been the assassins or being set up.

Interestingly, the only time we see someone taking a life on screen is when Frady pushes the sheriff into his death. Plus he holds the girl tightCUT TO MORGUE, he's boarding the plane and boat, both carrying a bomb, and he's the only one close to the gun when it fires in the hall.

He's neurotic, obsessed with conspiracy and wracks havoc around himself all the time, an ideal Parallax sleeping agent who could've been the narrator in A, Tyler Durden in B mode. As a matter of fact, he was there in Seattle and wanted to enter the Needle illegally before he was denied, he could've been "activated" even back then.

Of course this all may be a reach, but remember, we do take a psychically challenged person's POV, so not everything witnessed can be trusted 100%.

I thought @ the end he had either been brainwashed, or was just being setup, but the Kids with the flip cards, and the band playing, I leaned towards brainwashed, it was so similar to the video in the training center, looked like a trigger, and yeah the assassin killed Warren, so he couldnt tell his story.