What Happened to John Book?

I figure he got promoted as a result of exposing the criminal element and transferred to a safer line of work;-)

yes probably the biggest question of the movie i always thought about.

i figured he went back home to the city where his (the) real "world" was and just slowly tried to put it all behind him. i think most people in this situation especially coming from the big city life would have needed up missing it too much to leave it all behind in the civilized world.

he might have ended up probably getting married and having kids as time went on. he probably did carry on as police officer and could have been promoted out of this situation of the movie but initially it would have been a crazy time still with trial's etc going on as a result of the exposed corruption/ murder's, testifying, etc.

what i always wondered was, did he ever return to the farm for a visit? i would say probably not but its interesting maybe especially to see samuel all grown up even..

I've always wondered why he disappeared in the first place. A real detective captain would have gotten right on the phone to any of the numerous prosecutors and/or FBI or Pennsylvania State Police investigators he must have known intimately and filed charges against McPhee for violation of civil rights under color of law (i.e. a police officer killing an informant), attempted murder of a police officer (Book), and conspiracy to commit same. To hide out from EVERYONE, to the point of being labeled an absconded criminal himself, didn't make sense to me.