MovieChat Forums > The Natural (1984) Discussion > gus sam had roy shot.. just noticed

gus sam had roy shot.. just noticed


as you know, memo was the girl on the train who shot roy hobbs... years later she chsnged her hair and was working for gus... when gus meets hobbs for the first time he mentions that he once bet on 3 pitches ( aka hobbs vs the wammer) and than said he lost but he ruined the guy the next week!! now if thats not memmo shooting hobbs by order of gus, i dont know what is... any thoughts???

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Good catch on the three pitches and who knows, maybe Gus was there on the train. Memo though is way too young to have been the woman who shot Roy. Memo went for the gun on her own because she could see all the loot that Gus had promised her slipping away.

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I have wondered about that conversation for years but could never come to any conclusions that could be proven with the facts that we, the viewers, had. I am certain that it wasn't Memo that shot him because Barbara Hershey's character committed suicide after shooting him.

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it was not memo who shot him.

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No, Harriet Bird was already older than Memo 15 years earlier, and she jumped from the hotel after shooting Roy. Whether she thought she was a real "bird" and tried to flap her arms on the way down wasn't discussed. In any case, Max Mercy had the picture of Harriet doing the sidewalk splat..

Also no for Gus having Harriet shoot Roy for striking out the Whammer. Why would Gus kill Roy? Even if Gus was there (he wasn't), he still wouldn't kill Roy. Gus was a gambler, which means he won big and lost big every week. If he was inclined to kill Roy over him striking out the Whammer, he would have been leaving thousands of bodies in his wake whenever he lost a bet.

Now, if Gus had made a deal with young Roy to throw a pitch out of the strike zone and Roy backstabbed him by striking out the Whammer, then perhaps Gus might have had Roy beaten or killed.

Finally and more importantly, Harriet was stalking The Whammer to kill him, because he was the best. Harriet was modeled after Ruth Ann Steinhagen, who stalked and shot Eddie Waitkus. Unlike Harriet, Ruth Ann did not kill herself. Anyway, Harriet's plan changed after the Whammer struck out against Roy. Once she thought he was the best, she attacked Roy instead.

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Wow, good catch, about the convo on 3 pitches! That flew over my head! Thank you! Memo however is younger than Hobbs while the lady in black was older than him.

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