When Cliff is being shot at during the test flight at the beginning of the movie, does anyone happen to know if that was a late addition to the script? Because nobody's ever mentioning that later and the two guys are even apologetic about their plane having crash-landed. At multiple occasions, I was shouting at the screen: "Yeah, because you've been shot at!"
This all felt very disconnected. Does anybody know the reason for this?
I see nothing disconnected about it. You assume that Cliff actually noticed the guys firing at him. He is busy flying the plane, as as memory serves, he just glimpsed down and saw the car chase below. They fire as he is right above them, so I doubt he noticed it. He just suddenly had all sorts of problems and was going to crash. Could he hear the gunshots with all the engine noise and wind?? He crashes and the plane catches fire. It isn't like they ran right over to inspect and see bullet holes. You the viewer know he was shot down.
The FBI men don't seem to really give a crap. They just want to retrieve the rocket and don't care if their mission financially hurt the little guys like Cliff and Peevy.
- - - - - - -
I am not a fan. I just happen to enjoy movies. Fans are embarrassing.
Well, that's a good point. If he didn't notice he was being shot at, the rest of the reactions make sense again.
shareThat's not right. Right after the crash Cliff and Peabody made a claim to the FBI agents as they knew that their airplane had been shot during the FBI operation. One of the agents (Ed Lauter) adviced him to file a complaint. Cliff said that it would take too long until the Government read it. Then the agent told him to find a real job for a man. And after that they had a quick fight.
So our heroes were perfectly aware of what had just happened. But they couldn't do anything with it, so there was no reason to mention it later.