MovieChat Forums > F/X (1986) Discussion > Not as good as I remembered... {Question...

Not as good as I remembered... {Questions and Spoilers}

posted 15 years ago by djopdyke
7 replies | jump to latest

Rewatching this film 20-years-later, I didn't love it so much this time (tho must still "care" because I'm still wondering about some things...)

Specifically: if Rollie shot and killed a FAKE DeFranco in the restaurant, only the most incompetent morgue tech wouldn't realize it was a man in an elaborate MASK!?!? Right?

I've seen other goofs mentioned here, like the smashed-then-unsmashed rearend on the car. What about when the living DeFranco "shoots" Rollie who then falls into the room all wrapped up in the curtains? Next scene he's laying there, totally unwrapped and holding a gun. (Besides that, how could he NOT expect that someone might be suspicious of the F/X pro and pop a coupla extra bullets in him to "be sure"??

Too bad this film didn't still hold up to my older, wiser eyes...

[–] heinzelman-1 15 years ago

No, Rollie did not shoot DeFranco, he only thought he did. What happened actually was he shot blanks and DeFranco pretended to be shot. Later (in the ambulance, probably) he was replced by a "nobody's" corpse. Recognition of the body is only done by Mason in the morgue (note, we never see dead's face). So, the plan was effected in full including the "cover-up" but the target instead of the mob was police, justice and public in general. As to the final scene - I will add one more question: how did Rollie know, DeFranco will shoot wildly at the windows. As to your reservation when he was lying "dead" on the floor, he might be wearing a bulletproof jacket and in case of direct risk he might use the gun.

[–] jenniferles1000 15 years ago

Yeah there were a few dodgy parts in this movie but if you can look past them i think it was pretty enjoyable.

[–] j-taylor-goddard 13 years ago

It was the 80s! You have to take that era's plots at face value!

[–] mikekaraoke23 12 years ago

same with every decade really

[–] PenalColony 13 years ago

This movie has a lot of holes and other stuff that wasn't exactly well thought-out, but I still consider it very enjoyable, mainly because of the performances.

Specifically: if Rollie shot and killed a FAKE DeFranco in the restaurant, only the most incompetent morgue tech wouldn't realize it was a man in an elaborate MASK!?!? Right?

Rollie didn't really kill DeFranco, the assassination was fake just as originally planned. The body in the morgue was unidentified, and -- this is the important part -- it was Lipton who identified the corpse as being DeFranco's. The medical examiner or whoever that was clearly had no idea whose body that was. All that mattered is that it went on record that DeFranco was dead.

As for the shooting Rollie scene at the end, I don't think DeFranco's reaction was really the goal, I think it was more done with the longer-term goal of Rollie faking his own death to the law enforecement officials on scene. I think Rollie was already planning on stealing the money from DeFranco's Swiss bank account before Leo even encountered him at the hospital.

Just my 2 cents.

[–] mcfly-31 9 years ago

And as Rollie goes into his dramatic spin, how does he know that DeFranco won't keep firing, not knowing Rollie is "dead"?

"Jesus, does anyone?"

[–] JohnnyJohnson (174) a month ago

The whole plan went pretty much as planned, except they wanted to kill Rollie so that there were no 'loose ends'. Kill Rollie, DeFranco gets away, and they win. It was always the plan to kill Rollie.