MovieChat Forums > Point of No Return (1993) Discussion > How could you root for her?

How could you root for her?


She killed an innocent cop in the beginning for which she was sentenced to death. After her staged execution and funeral, she no longer deserved to live a normal life. A better ending would have been her getting seriously injured while taking out The Cleaner. The scene fades out with her calling PJ to say goodbye. The audience is left to decide whether or not she survived.

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Call it a darwin award that cop killed himself. trying to draw his gun when she had hers to his chin was STUPID he was an IDIOT. IF he had just stayed still and put his hands up she would NOT have killed him. She was a person who always killed in self defense or because she was forced to, she would NOT have killed him if he had not reached for his gun I am pretty sure of that. He was stupid and killing him actually helped clean up the gene pool.

And in all due fairness she was supposed to be an anti hero not a goody goody.

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Doesn't matter what would or wouldn't have happened, the deed had been done. She was given the death penalty because of the crime and was offered a way out by the agency.

She wasn't that great of an agent either, her looks was her best asset. She barely survived Harvey Keitel (The Cleaner) and would have been "cleaned" if she hadn't been able to drop the car on him.

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This is a movie about redemption. At the beginning, Maggie's clearly a drug-addled loser and is worthy of death for her crime. The viewer is not supposed to like her or respect her at this point. The fact that she's worthy of only death is precisely why and how the government is able to conscript her (condemn her) to a life of government-backed assassin.

I and other viewers were able to begin rooting for Maggie because of her character arc: She clearly develops a conscience and struggles over the idea of killing people for a living, e.g. the gig in New Orleans.

Her redemption is further established by the love of the two men in life -- P.J. and Bob -- the latter who admits his love for Maggie to P.J. at the end. Their love -- and Amanda's -- assists in Maggie's reformation. Witout love there is no redemption.

I and other viewers were able to root for Maggie because we were able to forgive her, but only because she illustrates that she's genuinely repentant -- i.e. she changes for the positive.

Although Maggie's plight is exagerrated -- being that it's an action movie -- many of us can relate to her situation in the story. I, for example, grew up in a dysfunctional home and became a druggie and criminal, a worthless piece of sheet. But I was humbled, like Maggie, and realized my error. I was offerred love & grace, a chance at reformation; and so I genuinely changed and am now totally against that type of lifestyle. You would never know what I was.

Hope this helps.

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"I... don't... see... any... method... at... all... sir."

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I have to disagree, she did not learn from her mistake. In my opinion, she never showed any remorse or moral anguish over killing the cop. She started feeling sorry for herself, distressed that she couldn't live a normal life. She was not sad for affected families whose lives were forever changed because of her actions.

As far as the people being killed by the agency, they were not good people. Having to killed such people is an appropriate penance for her sin.

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Um... our nation has rules its like a game with rules that must be followed a LEGAL SYSTEM. Here is how it works.

1. You ARREST someone suspected of a crime and charge them accordingly.

2. You have a TRIAL, they are entitled to a lawyer.

3. If they are convicted you sentence them if not they go free.

THAT is how our criminal justice system works, how the hell can we trust a government that would break its own rules at will and murder people who were not even tried much less convicted of any crime? We might as well be Communist China

(oh I know this movie was fiction but I suspect there is something similar in real life that we dont know about)

And as I said before she was never a real murderer, she shot that STUPID cop and yes he was STUPID only because he reached for his gun otherwise she would have just held him hostage and probably let him go at the end.

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she did not learn from her mistake.


What was her mistake? Murdering the cop, right? Does she come close to killing an innocent throughout the rest of the movie (disregarding the entire first act, which details her being broken and rebuilt by the secret organization)? No, she does not. This is proof that she did learn from her mistake.

Moreover, she develops to the point where she doesn't want to kill anyone ever again, innocent or corrupt (the obvious exception would be justfied personal killing, like if a dude is intent on raping/murdering her or a loved one, etc.).

What was the root cause of her murder? Her extreme drug addiction, right? The rest of the movie shows that she repents of this as well.

People have the wrong idea about repentance if they think that it's all about boo-hooing over a bad deed. What good is this if the person continues with the negative behavior? It wouldn't be genuine repentance, although it may indicate bondage/addiction to the behavior.

True repentance means to change for the positive by making a 180 from the negative behavior in question. This is what Maggie does in the story.

she never showed any remorse or moral anguish over killing the cop.


It's a good point, but the filmmakers opted to take the subtle route with this. It's possible that a scene was written and maybe even shot that depicted something to this effect, but they cut it for one reason or another. More likely, they wanted to show her repentance as a gradual enlightenment and change as she performs her "penance" killing people for the government. This is clear in the bathroom scene at the Mardi Gras where she can barely pull the trigger and, after she does, she weeps at her living damnation. P.J. enters the room and instinctively knows something horrible had happened, even if it was just Maggie experiencing ghosts of the past; actually it was both -- she just killed someone she didn't know from Adam and she's grieving over her past misdeeds that brought her to this living hell.

This scene reveals that Maggie has finally developed a conscience, meaning she has grown spiritually. It's after this occasion that she actively seeks an escape from her damnation, which -- again -- illustrates her genuine repentance.

That said, I agree that she was a pathetic, drug-addled loser at the beginning of the film and definitely deserved death, but the government blocked this for their own selfish purposes. Give Maggie credit: She could've remained a conscience-less killing machine at the government's beck & call, making good money and living "well", like The Cleaner -- a lifeless, loveless shell of a human being; a living zombie -- but she refuses to do this and even risks capture & certain death in order to find freedom.

In short, she was redeemed.

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"I... don't... see... any... method... at... all... sir."

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I agree with your sentiments. I also wanted to congratulate you; it sounds like you had some rough times but persevered through it all. You should be very proud of your accomplishments!

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I always thought it was interesting that in the older TV series they said he was falsely convicted of killing someone. I figured they had to do that because they needed to build more sympathy for her with the audience to maintain a TV series than they had to in a film.

I haven't watched the current series (geez, isn't three versions enough?) so I don't know that character's story.


Nobody's looking for a puppeteer in today's wintry economic climate.

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The person saying the cop deserved to die is a absolute moron. In no way did that cop deserve to die in any way just because he went for his gun when she put the gun to his head/neck. She is the one who pointed a gun at him and then shot him, she is 100% guilty and in no way did she deserve any mercy. Cops are trained to draw their guns when someone points a gun at them, most people who are armed will draw when someone points a gun at them rather then be at the mercy of a drug addict like her. The cop may have thought she did not know how to shoot the gun, it was empty, safety on, and he wanted a chance to fight back and did not want to be taken hostage. After she did the hits she should have got a bullet to her head by the people who took her in for killing the cop.

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neo out the matrix kill about 8 cops

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neo out the matrix kill about 8 cops


Not the same, the Matrix universe was a computer program and not real. Everyone within the program were simply pawns of the computer. Neo had no choice but to kill "real" people.

Maggie however was a cold, drugged out scum who had a choice. People argue that she changed and earned her redemption and a second chance for a better life. Wrong, she never acknowledged that did something wrong before nor did she feel remorse for it. (Not unless self pity qualifies as remorse)

The scene in New Orleans where she breaks down in the bathroom - it was due to the realization that executing people was getting in her way of her relationship with her new boyfriend.

She was despondent because she didn't want to live the life of an agency killer. Pardon me? At that point, she no longer had a life because a jury had sentenced her to death.

From the story beginning to the end, it had been always about Maggie and what she wanted.

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Not the same, the Matrix universe was a computer program and not real. Everyone within the program were simply pawns of the computer. Neo had no choice but to kill "real" people.


well he did have a choice kill Morpheus like he was going to Insead of killing innocent cops. but Maggie should not of killed that poor cop but she was hoter than neo and killed less cops she is not as bad.

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well he did have a choice kill Morpheus like he was going to Insead of killing innocent cops. but Maggie should not of killed that poor cop but she was hoter than neo and killed less cops she is not as bad.


Still not the same. There was greater good behind Neo's motives, he was saving Morpheus and the human race. The unfortunately casualties were collateral damage and unavoidable.

Maggie's motives? To get away so that she could have her next hit of heroine, etc.

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Still not the same. There was greater good behind Neo's motives, he was saving Morpheus and the human race. The unfortunately casualties were collateral damage and unavoidable.

Maggie's motives? To get away so that she could have her next hit of heroine, etc.


yes but neo after killing most of the cop blew up the lobby most likely killing the cops he knocked out. neo is a cyber terrorist where as Maggie is just a cute drug addict.

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I never got the impression you were supposed to "root" for her at all. I sympathize with her desire to get out of the life of murder and drugs, but I don't feel that she is all that great a person, even at the end. To me, this movie was always about following her story as seen from her point of view. While she definitely makes some progress towards redemption, she is just beginning on that path when the film ends. It's very similar to Alex DeLarge in a Clockwork Orange. He's a psychopathic, murdering rapist, and the movie is shot from his point of view so we see the events as he sees them. He's not a sympathetic character, but that doesn't remove the audience's desire to see what happens to him. The same is true with this movie. She is not a "good guy," but I am curious about her story which makes her character somewhat compelling even if also repugnant. In fact, it's this look at her morally flawed character that provides the whole underlying value of the film. Without that, it's just an action adventure movie about an assassin.

In fact, virtually nobody in the movie is all that sympathetic, except perhaps a few characters like the store owner and the cop she murders. Is there anybody who is a major character that is a good guy in the whole film?

She robs and murders innocent people and later murders guilty people.
Her bosses circumvent the law and recruit her into an extralegal death squad. The people she assassinates seem to be even worse than the people she works for.

It's a movie about the scum of humanity killing the scum of humanity, while employed by the scum of humanity.

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