MovieChat Forums > Roadgames (1981) Discussion > question - scene where she sees the van ...

question - scene where she sees the van beneath the cliff

posted 15 years ago by PeterBlues
11 replies | jump to latest

i think i really find this movie enjoyable in some way, i checked it out when it aired again lately. when "hitch" (i think that's what she was called, right?) walked off the "camp fire", she saw the van standing beneath the mountain cliff i think it was, but it doesn't seem she tells Quid about it. i didn't quite get that, why didn't she emidietly run and tell quid? did i miss something here?

valentines day,
goes back a long way,
since 496,
i ain't got nobody, to give chocolate and gifts,
and i haven't got the money to pay for it, even if i did,
valentine,
to me, it's just another day passing by,
i don't ask for anything,
and i don't give it a try couse of what it may bring,
it's called all hearts day,
why does mine feel so solitary then,
maybe i'll go look in the trash,
and make myself have a blast,
me, myself and i,
having a blast, on valintine,
opening my gifts to me, so what else is new,
just like i always do, just me, celebrating valentines day blues.

[–] WarpedRecord 15 years ago

I was confused about that too. I was thinking "Hitch"/Pamela may have been in on the killings, but that wasn't the case. I suspect some scenes were trimmed.

[–] PutTheGlassesOn 14 years ago

Yeah, this threw me, too, and I immediately thought the same thing- that Hitch was in on it somehow. And I know this may sound stupid, but what did the ending imply- that Quid was in on it? Or simply that Smith or Jones had been in Quid's truck? I know Richard Franklin said he wasn't happy with the ending, and I gotta say, other than the scene where Hitch sees the truck at night, this was the only part that confused me.

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[–] WarpedRecord 14 years ago

I'm glad to hear Richard Franklin didn't like the ending, because I didn't particularly care for it either. As for what it implies, I'm not sure. It seems like a needless gimmick thrown in to end the film with a shock, but it also seems to obliterate much of what we've seen before. Still this is an excellent film, and I'm inclined to believe Quid was indeed a good guy – a very good guy.

[–] PutTheGlassesOn 14 years ago

Yeah, and I now think upon further thinking about it hat it does mean that at some point, Smith Or Jones snuck into the back of Quid's truck (remember how he discovered the doors swinging after pulling over the one night?) and that he planted dead bodies inside. The heads were off and one fell loose in the bucket of water at the end.

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[–] mnoe 13 years ago

Remember Boswell the dog keeps yanking at the leash until Quid finally lets him go, calling him a coward as Quid goes off into the rest area to be sidetracked and draw the wrong conclusions about the sounds of people having sex. But the dog was trying to alert Quid that someone was breaking into the truck.

Plus, Boswell had a fascination about the smell of human body parts -- he's the one who first alerts Quid to something "fishy" about the garbage bag in the beginning of the movie.

He was a good dog detective; his master should have paid more attention to what he was saying.

last 2 dvds: Behind Locked Doors (1948) & La belle noiseuse (1991)

[–] balducci2 13 years ago

Yes, it was a little odd.

Of course, we do not know for a fact that she did not mention it to Quid. It might have been left off camera, for us to imagine.

Assuming that she did not, it could be because there was as yet no real evidence about the guy in the van being a killer. She had only met Quid a short while before. Perhaps she did not trust him yet, and wasn't at all convinced yet that there was anything to his suspicion.

[–] worldofbong 11 years ago

That scene really made no sense though, it was just there to build tension but in reality was completely implausible. Even if she doesn't mention that the serial killer guy is standing 50 yards away staring at them, why would the serial killer guy then not bother to murder them while they slept?

or maybe not lol http://www.amazon.com/Attack-The-Pepperoni-Monsters-ebook/dp/B00C4GFK0 8

[–] tdl797 11 years ago

I thought it was weird, too.

Re: Ending - Like someone said, the guy broke into his trailer while Quid thought he heard Hitch making love. It was the newlyweds.

[–] jmsfan 10 years ago

And the killer did indeed plant a body (or parts) in the truck. When the lady who is cleaning the truck at the end discovers the head, she pulls on a wire that is brushing against her hair. The wire is the same type that the real killer used to try to kill Stacy Keach in the alley at the end.

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[–] enfilmigult 10 years ago

Yep, it's weird. Best I can figure is that they already know the guy is ahead of them, and it's an isolated highway with a long distance to the next stop, so "he's stopped for the night aways ahead of us" wouldn't be news. And it's early enough that they're not going to just run up and confront him. Possibly he's not even all that close (not a lot to get in the way of the view), and they just bungled the photography and made it seem like he was right over the hill.

It would have been better just to cut the scene altogether, I think.

[–] Boromir (9712) 3 years ago

The movie is great although this scene bother me to. It's not a rational decision not tell nothing to Quid. Moreover she go to sleep (!) how you can let go your guard if you know someone, probably a killer, watching you?

It's clear from her face that she scared at the start, but in the morning she look too much calm. Later I thought maybe she's accomplice and they both try to frame poor Quid.