I dont understand the ending deal, Is that how police work? although it's allowed for drama but opening the box without proper equipment and permission was weak point,It could've been a bomb. A detective like Somerset shoulve handle it better, it felt out of character.
shareA detective like Somerset shoulve handle it better, it felt out of character.
Yeah in real life Somerset wouldn't be allowed to open the box for sure but he and the audience knew it wasn't Doe's style to use a bomb, having extra delays getting a bomb squad in would've slowed the ending down for sure. Plus real life scenarios are dull, I'll take movieworld scenarios all day long.
shareApart from all the points raised by others (a bomb not really being Doe's style, etc), there's also the point that this was made 20+ years ago, when serial killers didn't really use bombs much (actually, they still don't). There wouldn't have been the same protocols in place then as today - I don't recall people raising the bomb issue as a criticism of the film at the time. You could just as easily make the point that Somerset being paged is a weak point - why didn't he have a cell phone? Answer: because it was 1995...
shareSomerset didn't always follow protocol, such as contacting that weird FBI dude for
a list of books that were flagged or hiring the crackhead to come up with a b*ll crap story as to why they went knocking on John Doe's door.