Okay here is the deal. The David Schwimmer character explained that he couldn't go over the border anymore because the authorities were too familiar with him. Now if you know anything about the narcotics trade, it is full of middle men. That said, if you consider the credibility of Schwimmer's character, it would be logical to assume that any "big time" drug dealer wouldn't give him the time of day, let alone large amounts of money to do a drug deal, especially because he can't cross the border "safely." In the narcotics trade, everybody gets a piece of the action. The David Schwimmer character isn't going to cut in Danny, Mort and Tim and give them all the money and he isn't going to leave himself open to be ripped off. So theoretically, let's say that Schwimmer is keeping half of the money that he collected from various sources and used the other half to buy the heroin in Canada. He is allowing Danny, Mort and Tim to split the profit three ways, once the product is sold. If we remain in this logic, it is reasonable to assume that Schwimmer collected money from multiple sources and over charged them for the going rate of heroin so that he could easily make his cut off the top. Anyone investing a large amount of money (as stated in the movie) to buy heroin, while not being directly involved with the transaction AND trusting a character like Schwimmer to take care of it for them is ignorant, a complete novice, not a big time drug dealer and an utter fool. So since the three ditched the car (which is unregistered, as stated in the voice over in the first 10 minutes of the film - and in 1975 the DMV was on a card and file system - very slow and time consuming to sift through) only half of the money was actually lost. Now, if and when the Schwimmer character finds out that the deal didn't go through, he isn't going to go look for Mort, Danny and Tim because he is has already covered himself when he over charged the people that he collected from to buy the heroin in the first place. He isn't going to go look for the three, he is going to split town and the people he collected from are going to be looking for him and not Danny, Mort and Tim.
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colparker
17 years ago
Dude, that's a pretty solid explanation.
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zeppelingrafitti
17 years ago
Yeah, man. I love this film. I am a writer, so this stuff is easy to sort out. That and I know a lil bit about the drug trade from back in the day.
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upnkttu
16 years ago
Zep that is a good theory, but ... Did you see how much money that was in the briefcase? It looked like a lot of cash. It was one hundred dollar bills bundled (each bundle appeared to be fifty single one hundred dollar bills, I have worked with putting together stacks of one dollar bills and they come in fifty singles to a bundle and those were the same size as the hundred stacks in the brief case) the stacks are least five high and as wide as would fit into a briefcase.
Schwimmers character would not have been able to put together this kind of a deal. (staying with your logic) You give him no credit among smart drug dealers but you give him credit enough to go to a lot of different dealers and put together what had to be fifty to a hundred thousand dollars in 1978?
That is a job by somebody with some mental sharpness. And he offered the boys thirty thousand to go through with it. His cut would have to be enormous for him to make a profit.
If, if he could pull all this off, I don't think he would let the boys off so easily even if he was the only one who knew they were involved.
Now, I will concede that Schwimmer was the only one that knew about the boys. At best he was killed by one of his money men before he could tell them about the boys or get to them himself.
This is all a leap. They would have had some consequences and that is a big hole in the movie. Along with the dialogue. It was a bit lame most of the time. It did show some realistic insight to post high school life for kids that do not have the means to go to college of the want. But the dialogue was sophomoric at best which is why this movie never received more attention.
Good acting, poor writing. Good ideas, lazy execution.
"Sit down Waldo!"
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ElectricKoolaidAcid
13 years ago
I've been watching a lot of Locked Up Abroad lately, and I feel the same way as the OP; when they got back they would have been VERY luck if they had not least gotten a very good-ass kicking, let alone death for all the missing heroin/money.
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hardwood53
12 years ago
While everyone is explaining the consequences of coming back with no money or drugs, they missed some other obvious plot holes. It is true on the actual smuggling trip their behavior around the car was highly suspicious. It was in sight of the Border Guards and was enough that they would be held and the car thoroughly searched. However, it is unlikely they would have gotten that far.
During the dry run, the Border Patrol did not ask for registration when they asked for Drivers license and ID. Stolen cars are one of the things commonly smuggled so registration would be an issue. No paperwork on car results in jail on preliminary charge and no car. The car would sit in impound until the right paperwork was shown and arrangements made to get it out. (I have been told that these days proof of insurance for driving in Canada is also required just to drive into Canada, I am not sure if that is true or when it may have started but it is also a consideration.)
Check points are a two way thing, both in and out of Canada. They are worried about things being smuggled both ways. Their paperwork would have been required to enter Canada. So they would not have made it into Canada the first time. This means the plot line based on the smuggling would likely end at the dry run because after that they would be known at the border, their names, pictures, and fingerprints would be in the database, and they would have a real reason to be paranoid.
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