I Don't Get It

There is a lot of subtext and innuendo in this movie--and what else would you expect from a director who employs 16 other directors to make a movie. That means there are 16 guys slithering up to Landis and saying, "Psst, have you thought about doing this?"

You ask some good questions.

1. What was the money for?

A dying Jack Caper makes one last effort to take care of a woman he loves--there apparently have been a lot of other young ones in his life. His care for Diana is clear when she sits on his bed and they cuddle.

2. Why were they staying in the hotel room? Jack Caper, because of his wealth in a city where wealth, good looks and kiss-ass are the negotiable currency, obviously arranged before the shoot-out at the airport, for the federal agent (played by Clu Gulager--what ever happened to Clu Gulager) for Culager to take Diana and Ed in hand and protect them from the SAVAK agents. Culanger puts them into the hotel room, but there is no longer a need for the protection because the SAVAK agents are dead and Shaheen is in federal custody.

3. Diana left the money to show she was coming back. Ed Okin may be the only guy besides Jack Caper to show care and loyalty to Diane--care and loyalty that grew in the course of the movie. She apparently grew to love him.

4. Why was Ed not angry when she came back? Ed is not stupid. When he wakes up by himself, he understands that, based on Diana's lifelong habit of running away from her problems and other men in her life, he probably has been dumped, too. He obviously is puzzled, but there's not a lot he's going to be able to do about it. When Diana returns, he is glad to see her because she didn't dump him.

5. Why is Ed going to Mexico with Diana? When Jack tells Diana to get out of the country, as far as any of them knew, they could well die at the hands of the SAVAK guys. Ed takes a huge risk in going to see Shaheen but does so because of his growing attachment to--and love, apparently, for--Diana. Jack, again a dying man, leaves the love of his life, in the hands of another man who he obviously deems worthy of his trust to care for her. Jack provides money for the both of them to live.

6. Is Ed's wife looking for him? Why would Ed care if she is betraying him with her real estate colleague?

7. Did he quit his job? Who knows? As far as Ed knows, when he boards the plan with Diana, his wife is unfaithful to him, and he is a target for execution from the SAVAK. And he has obviously has fallen for Diana. (The unromantic view would be that he is only boarding with Diana to get away from the SAVAK. I take the romantic view.) He's running to stay alive and to be with Diana. He may have sent a collect telegram--you could still do that in those days--to his employer from Mexico City, saying he's quit.

8. Why did they go the Iranians? The SAVAK guys were obviously undisciplined and answerable only to Shaheen. Shaheen put Ed's and Diana's into the hands of these crazy killers because, though Diana reveals where the stones are, she still wants them dead. We're not exactly certain why she wants them to die; we only know that people who have been involved with the stones, have died.

9. Why did the SAVAK recognize Ed on the street when they didn't recognize him when he pulled out of the garage? If you will look at the garage scene again, you will see that Ed pulls his car up to the SAVAK car and the lights are shining directly into the SAVAK guy's eyes. The SAVAK guy couldn't see Ed clearly. When he was walking down the street, the SAVAK guys got a clear look at him.

10. And Bowie. We presume he died in the fight with Hamid's body guard. (This, by the way, would have been a place to put a sequel hook into the movie: to show Bowie getting up, in pain and bloody and exhausted, finding something that Diana and Ed left behind, and stumbling out the door.)

These are the best guesses I can make based on the information in the movie.