MovieChat Forums > The Puppet Masters (1994) Discussion > *Spoiler* What's with the 'lame' plot tw...

Spoiler What's with the 'lame' plot twist?

posted 17 years ago by GregNSyd
18 replies | jump to latest

It's absurd for the lead man/alien to suddenly forget to walk with a cane or even limp at all. We're supposed to believe he's been in symbiosis right from the earliest stages and has managed to stay in character convincingly all the way through. For him to "forget" about his lame leg is just unbelievable - especially considering that he's now the last survivor and ought to be taking extra care to get away with the pretense.

In fact that's why I looked at this forum - to see if it was just me or if it really is indeed a remarkably inane plot twist that almost sucks all the merit out of the foregoing story (which up to that point is light but entertaining enough).

If the "forgets cane" device was a choice by the movie makers to justify their ending sequence (rather than faithful to the original novel) then I'd say they should have done better, and have treated their audience like idiots. No wonder some people feel almost cheated by this adaptation.

[–] Benedictus_scribebam 17 years ago

Totally agree. A fine film for about 60+ minutes, then the last act just keeps going downhill and finally crashes.

The lame twist is just terrible. Even before that, the whole encephalitis thing was badly, badly edited: five minutes of mano-a-mano slugfest, then about one minute to explain the encephalitis, and then boom, it's over in about 30 second of screen time. Huh ? An hour and a half of alien advance is halted in a minute? Pacing, people, pacing ! It was totally unbelievable.

It's the sort of film that start off so well, you feel extra frustrated as it falls apart at the end, because it had the potential to be really good.

--
Benedictus.

[–] servercat 17 years ago

Big problem witht he film is they took bits and pieces of the book plot without going into some of deeper ramifications.The Encephalitis is an example, the encephalitis was a way of using the books solution while still keeping it int he movies time frame.

The book however takes place in the 'Future History' era (albeit a 1-shot splinter), so many of the things just wouldn't work in the movie. Duo's, hand burners etc.. Sigh. Shame really.

[–] maximumpig 17 years ago

kudos to benedictus for using the word 'slugfest' in a comment on this movie.

[–] 17 years ago

[deleted]

[–] parkpunk 17 years ago

"...he's been in symbiosis right from the earliest stages"

I thought he was taken over when all that crap fell on him from above. Just before they walk outside and the guy runs up with his Cain.

[–] Skutter-2 17 years ago

Yeah, that is what the dialogue of the movie indicated. It would have totally nonsensical for him to have been 'in symbiosis' since the start of the movie but it was not the case.

[–] gzeka 17 years ago

Saw the movie an hour or so, and the thing I can't quite come up with is Sutherland's reference to "contraction" of alien : "It was back in ship". What ship? He refers to hive he had just visited or ship back in Ambrose, at the very beginning of the movie?

[–] lathe-of-heaven 16 years ago

For what it's worth, he never DID enter the ship at the beginning nor was he out of site for a moment in the entire sequence...

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[–] bhash875 16 years ago

I agree with you the idiot who thinks Sutherland was under control from the beginning did not watch film

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[–] ghostbusters 15 years ago

But Sutherland, controlled by the alien, had also said that he kept his body temperature down as "we learn from our mistakes". This led me to believe that he's been under alien control for a while.

However, what makes me think different is (1) that he kept using the cane during the whole movie until after being in the hive, and (2) he said that he was taken over when in a "ship" but he was never in one.
--
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[–] chrichtonsworld 15 years ago

Just seen the movie. I think Sutherland meant the strange construction in the Hive. Remember when Keith David
checked the fake spaceship with the green liquid. He said that it seemed that something moved,which was the real spaceship. I think the construction in the Hive is that spaceship.

And the aliens learned from their mistakes through sound signals (the tentacles that functioned as radar). So he could have learned that anytime.

If Sutherland had been under alien control from the start he would have done anything to sabotage the efforts to stop the aliens. He was in direct contact with the President. So he could have infected everyone without people knowing and then the aliens would have succeeded.

Now when I think about it that would have been one hell of a twist.

The last plot twist in the movie is just to provide one last thrill.

[–] theunknowntyper 13 years ago

The Hive is the ship. The Hive fell to the earth. They built a fake ship on the original ship/hive... They fly around in a bio-ship/hive. Seriously not freaking hard to get.

"The pants are fine sweetheart, it's your fat that makes you look fat." -Chronically single guy-

[–] amh4q 15 years ago

Interesting that when they were taking off their shirts to check to see who had an alien, Sutherland's character looked relieved when he didn't have to do it. He gave a sigh of relief when that lady ran off before he could take off his shirt.

[–] erikriveros 15 years ago

sutherland said he lowered his body temp,'we learn from our mistakes', because right after he contracts the alien (in the hive at the end when all the junk falls on him and not from the start of the movie), a soldier scans him....another soldier then checks with him to get the all clear and THEN sutherlands walks away sans limp

it is better to have a gun and not need it, than to need a gun and not have it

[–] sylentvoyce 14 years ago

agree completely with riveroserik; to add to that, I don't think he actually forgot to use the cane, I think he took off without in sort of a desparate bid to escape. Notice not only was he going without the cane, he was going fast, to board the helicopter and get out of dodge.

[–] RickyTheFish 13 years ago

I don't think it's absurd for him to walk without his cane; as some other commenters have pointed out throughout this thread, he was likely "infected" when he fell while looking at the remains of the hive, and then hurried off to try to get away as quickly as possible. What I do think is absurd is that no one, not even his own son, noticed that he was walking normally. It wasn't until he had knocked out the helicopter pilot that people finally realized that he was under alien control.

I know he and his son didn't spend much time together, but surely something as noticeable as a missing limp would be blindingly obvious.

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[–] MrBelette 12 years ago

They realized it when the soldier came out saying he forgot his cane (not his Cain as someone wrote !). If he was escaping I suppose it would have been really ridiculous to show him running brandishing a cane in his hand !

[–] mrmuggles 9 years ago

He was referring to a ship because early on in the movie we learn that they move the hive along the river (somehow). So he was referring to the moment when he fell and stuff fell on him.

*Spoiler* What's with the 'lame' plot twist?

Spoiler What's with the 'lame' plot twist?