MovieChat Forums > Falling Down (1993) Discussion > Did Prendergast's wife kill their daught...

Did Prendergast's wife kill their daughter?


It seems to me that Prendergast hints this to D-fens in the scene near the end where he is "negotiating" do diasarm him. He says that it was hard for her wife to lose her beauty when she gave birth to their daughter, and that the daughter died inexplicably during sleep. It seems that he hints that his wife killed their daughter, giving her the blame for her lost beauty.
Are we supposed to believe that this happened?

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Yes. Kinda obvious.

This is just my signature and is not part of the post lol...
- Signature, Mr

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No , that's absurd . The baby died from SIDS . His wife never coped with the loss .

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More than likely. She has obvious mental problems. Just look at how she treats him on the phone.

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That's how I viewed it.

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I also agree. She totally killed the daughter. It's hinted earlier in the movie with the "SIDS? At that age?" dialogue.

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I do not think so. I can not imagine that Prendergast would have stayed with her if that would be the truth.

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I didn't get that impression.

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Never crossed my mind, but it’s possible. Bill and Prendergast have many parallels that might lead to the audience.

Bill is the nutcase that could kill his child, but his wife won’t let him. Prendergasts wife is also a nutcase whose child is dead, and maybe his wife killed her. But, unlike Bills wife, Prendergast is loyal to his spouse to stay by her and help her. Bills wife put a restraining order against him, before he really did anything besides get furiously angry at his wife. Even the cop almost rolls his eyes at her whenever she’s explaining herself.

So it looks like Prendergasts wife did kill their little girl, because the parallelism is there. I don’t want to think that’s what happened because it makes me dislike Prendergast and his wife especially. But it does add depth to the story.

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