Anybody care to unravel that one for me? It was all going along fine until Fassett went ding dong looney and decided to kill them all. I'm not sure why? Did *he* invent the Omega plot? Did his boss? Grrr.. stupid twisting and backtwisting movies.
shareThere was no "Omega"-Organisation. Omega was some kind of code for Tanners three friends, who wanted to betray the tax. But Fassett knew about it and "invented" Omega as a spy network in the service of the Soviet-Union, to get a job from his boss to "turn" the agents. Fassett uses this job to take revenge against his boss. Tanner and his friends are just his instruments. He wants Tanner to destroy his boss in his TV-show. To make Tanner do it, he kidnapped his family - to show his power he kills his friends.
shareOk I have the following list of questions.
1. Why was Fassett's wife killed by Maxwell's organization? I mean surely it wasn't to recruit Fassett to work for them right? The idea of them killing his wife in order to get his services seems ridiculous so that is out of the question.
2. What exactly did Maxwell want from the 4 friends if there NEVER WAS AN OMEGA? If there never was an omega, why was it at the start Maxwell was saying something like "Fassett inadvertently stumbled on the findings of a group called omega, apparently they are badasses". Was this information of the group "omega" just leaked to Maxwell by Fassett in order for him to be recruited by Maxwell and sequentially take his revenge on Maxwell?
3. If the whole thing really was the plot of Fassett to take his personal revenge, it seems insanely meticulous. Because Fassett's main goal was for Tanner to interview Maxwell and utterly expose him as a villain. So working backwards, in order for that to happen, everything that took place in the film had to have happened exactly the way it did in order for Fassett's plan to work. It's a little against the odds isn't it?
4. Who on EARTH were the people who attacked Tanner when he and his family were on the way to the airport??
Thanks. I think perhaps this is one of those movies that require reading the book first to understand all its parts.
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Great Movie
shareTo bad_habit: I'll take a stab at answering your questions. 1. Fassett's wife was killed because she tended to blab about Fassett's job when she got drunk. 2. Since the whole Omega thing was made up by Fassett, Maxwell went along with him. How did he know it was a hoax? That's also why Fassett took charge of the caper so that he could control it. 3. When trying to convince Tanner to do the job, Tanner made it a condition that he interview Maxwell to which Maxwell agreed. Maxwell probably figured that he was going to be looking pretty good after it was all over and so what better time to be interviewed. 4. Probably Fassett's way of keeping Tanner's family together for the weekend. For what it's worth, I was totally taken by surprise that the whole thing turned out the way it did. So for that I would say that this movie deserves some merit as I probably not to many people figured it out on their own that the whole thing was a hoax.
Karl
OK, maybe you can also explain why was Fasset ordering to kill Tanner then? What would be the point of planning all this if Tanner is dead? Furthermore, how could Fasset know that Tanner will be inviting Maxwell to TV debate and that Maxwell will afree?
I love Peckinpah and this movie would be OK if it wasn't for countless plot holes -- in fact the whole plot is nothing more than a big hole.
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I just have to tell you, 9 years after you posted it, that
"Maxwell was saying something like "Fassett inadvertently stumbled on the findings of a group called omega, apparently they are badasses"
is awesome.
I would have loved to hear Burt Lancaster say that line.
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