The Sables (Spoiler)


What was the purpose of releasing the sables into the Swedish forest at the end.
Was Renko trying to eliminate the possibility of this kind of conspiracy from ever happening again or was it a little secret joke he was playing on everyone? After all, no one outside of him and Irina knew of the existence of the other 6 sables.

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Basically, Renko was a prisoner of his own country. He had to go back as he explains. Their were twelve Sables not six, but the Russians thought there was only six, so no one know those six existed. By setting them free they were doing for the Sables what they couldn't do for themselves. Irina escaped, but she still needed to keep a low profile in the free world. The KGB could always try and kill her if they wanted to. Also, Renko had to go back otherwise they would try to kill her. Also, he knew that if he didn't return, they could always try and kill him to, and he'd be stuck looking behind his back the rest of his life. So Renko was still a prisoner in so many words, and Irina was only partially free.
So setting the Sables free was supposed to be symbolism for the movie. Also, it was a hidden way for Renko and Irina to stick it to the KGB without them knowing. The six Sables were something that slipped past the government. They were truly free without the government knowing they go out or anyway for the government to ever track them down. It was in a way a private victory for Renko to have over the government, as he was their prisoner.

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Thank you. I thought there might have been more to it, since they made such a point earlier in the movie that Russia was the only place that had sables. The Symbolism was as aspect I hadn't considered.

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What the heck kind of an animal were those sables? Some sort of wolverine? They looked so vicious in those cages.

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Sables are in the Mustelidae family of carnivorous mammals, aka the weasel family, which includes things like ferrets, otters, martens (which the Sable is a species of), badgers, and as you mentioned, wolverines, among many others.

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I first saw this film in Spanish and didn't understand that the "sables" they were talking about were the actual small furry animals. I took sable to be the colloquial Spanish word for "mole", as in "undercover agent". So I spent the whole film thinking that the 3 murder victims were potential "moles" being smuggled to the West!

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Not sure if it's intentional, but this post by AureliaBuendia has to be one of the funniest "lost-in-translation" pieces I've seen lately. That whole movie must have meant something totally different to you!

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most of this movie was about losing things in translation, tho.



Season's Greetings

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The actual animals in the film were pine martens, not sables.

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I assume the sables that were released were capable of breeding which was the point of Jack Osborne taking them out of Russia. Aside from the symbolism, releasing them into the wild in Sweden, establishing a breeding population there, would have eventually ended the Russian monopoly. It was a second way to get revenge.

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Oh good point Spaminput.

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Sables actually exist outside of the Soviet Union, but the ones in the Soviet Union had the most desirable pelts due to some geographic variation in the fur. It's an open question whether by the time someone identified that there were sables in the wild whether they would still have the desired pelt attributes, possibility for interbreeding with other domestic martens with less desirable pelts, etc. I also don't know you'd end up with enough sables to make a dent in the Soviet sable monopoly with wild sables. You'd still probably need to create captive breeding "farming" of them to get sufficient numbers.

I was also kind of skeptical of a new external breeding program with only 6 sables. Unless they were chosen carefully from different lineages, you're probably going to end up amplifying negative genetics. It would take a fair amount of scientific selective breeding to get some chance at genetic diversity and minimize the chances of unwanted recessive traits.

Knowing the Soviets bad habits, the existing captive sables probably were interbred like crazy and had as much bad genetics as overbred AKC dog breeds.

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In addition to ending the Russian monopoly, think it was a subtle animal rights message. At the time it was made anti-fur sentiments were catching on in the UK and the furrier was a sinister murderous character.
It's almost inevitable in a story like this--caged vs freedom.
Reprising the opening music was a good touch.

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But those Sables were raised in captivity and fed and sheltered. I doubt they would have survived in the wild very long, much less mated and reproduced.


We got a job.
What kind?
...The Forever Kind.

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I don't think the sables were raised in captivity. I think they were captured in the wild.
So why did Renko release them? I prefer to think he felt sorry for them. I know I would.

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Too bad. He could have sold them for millions.


We got a job.
What kind?
...The Forever Kind.

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I don't think the sables were raised in captivity. I think they were captured in the wild.


I don't think so. How could Russia have a monopoly if there were sables in the wild? Is it physically impossible for them to migrate away from Siberia or something? Are they too small to make the trip?

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