MovieChat Forums > Retroactive (1997) Discussion > Does 3 people dying make for a satisfact...

Does 3 people dying make for a satisfactory ending?

posted 19 years ago by Bob_Brooker
16 replies | jump to latest

Karen tried numerous times to make the best out of the given situation. But what she ends up is a shootout with 3 people killed. How can they just handshake and drive off into the sunset?
I don't say the shop owner or the Mexican were moral people but seeing them dying for the sake of the woman is not what I call a satisfying closure.
In the last replay Karen set out to save everybody's life but failed. Even if she decided not to go back another time, she should have sported more sympathy for the killed people. In the end she was responsible for two more corpse than in the beginning.
I can't believe the filmmaker wanted to drive home the message that the three men deserved to die.

Live spelt backwards is Evil

[–] Bob_Brooker 19 years ago

I just figured out something I missed on first viewing. Frank's girl, the one Karen tries to save, isn't as innocent as I (and Karen) believed her to be. It's no coincident that she seemed so strained all along and it's no coincident either that her Latin lover passed their way on the street. Implication is they planned to setup Frank after he would receive the money at the store. That explains why the Mexican knows that Frank is carrying the chips with him and tries to get hold of it (scene on the highway in a later episode).

That makes the ending look kinda ironic as Karen tried so hard to save the life of a criminal who wouldn't have been killed in the first place if she had remained a nice girl and not tried to cheat on and take in Frank with her lover.

Live spelt backwards is Evil

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ImTylerDurden 18 years ago

I don't think the director intended the main theme to be a morality issue about who lived and who died. The main character arc is Karen's. She just had a failed hostage negotiation and now felt she had to intervene in what went down here which made her responsible for what happened as a result. In the end she decided not to be involved, so what happened simply happened and was not her responsibility. Who lived and died was purely circumstantial. Although the director did set it up in such a way that you didn't feel too bad about who died and if it's true about Frank's girl maybe planning to dispose of Frank, you can believe maybe she didn't get off scott free for shooting him.

[–] LWhite54 18 years ago

I came here with the hope that someone would explain the ending to me. What you said above, i.e., that Rayanne and her Mexican boyfriend were planning to steal the money and the chips makes some sense. I still would have liked to see what actually happened at the general store/gas station, though. Rayanne seemed to not even care about the money after she shot Belushi.

Layback
There are no stupid questions. Just questions from stupid people.

[–] erod111 18 years ago

They were meant to die. They were the ones that were directly connected to Frank and Rayanne. That's how it should have ended.

[–] Lobo305 18 years ago

Saw this for the first time last night/this am ('round 1:30 am) - anyway, the newspaper had an article about how police negotiators never quit; therefore, she was compelled to keep trying until she realized the situation got worse and worse each time. The murdered people all 'deserved' thier fates; however the scientist helped initiate the activity by buying stolen goods - I don't think he was properly dealt with.

Just my two cents ...

[–] chandler-47 17 years ago

Maybe Karen should have died in the end. This would been the best solution. Her character was annoying me throughout the whole movie. Belushi was much more likeable.

-------------------------
They don't give you the leads, they don't give you the support, they don't give you dick. (Dave Moss)

[–] NBBF 17 years ago

This had the potential of being one of those little films that becomes a cult classic. But a great ride was ruined by such a lame ending. The negotiator was never able to learn from her mistakes and put things right. There wasn't a good final twist. It just kind of ended with nothing really resolved.

[–] leigh1975 16 years ago

the message of the film isn't 'the bad men must die', its more along the lines of; Fate is fate, and whatever is meant to happen, should. You can't mess with destiny and save everybody. Which is why it got worse each time she went back.

"If i wanted your opinion, I'd have beaten it out of you"

[–] Yabier 15 years ago

There is one thing for sure. When Frank goes back, he should have learnt to avoid from being constantly kicked on-that-point by the woman.

[–] djsnafu23 13 years ago

I agree with the OP- the ending took the film down from a 9 to a 7. She should have been shown to be more cynical at the end for it to work- or Belushi's chick should have shown her nastier side in order for it not to look like its presented as a happy ending. Personally i wish |Belushi had killed em and all and left with the money in the sunset, would have been so ballsy!

myspace.com/bankrupteuropeans

Coz lifes too short to listen to Madlib

[–] wiiztec (235) 3 years ago

But wasn't what was meant to happen is what happened the first time? Karen only didn't get a ride from them because she had foreknowledge of what would happen. If you wanna say fate is fate then the movie should have ended with Karen waiting in the time travel lab for Frank to be arrested.

[–] bing-57 12 years ago

> It just kind of ended with nothing really resolved.

And it is a little worse than you think. When they went back in time the final time, just before the lab was destroyed, the lab wasn't actually destroyed because the new timeline didn't require them to pump up the energy.

And that brings up a little plot problem near the end. Karen and the scientist both didn't need to go back in time, only one of them did. When Karen was shot the scientist could have left her and gone back himself to fix things. And then do it over and over if need be.

--
What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?

[–] lebellue 7 years ago

Totally disagree. They both needed to go back...Karen wasn't going to stay in a timeline where where she was injured and Belushi was after her and she had all that mess to clean up.....

[–] Henry J Sosenite 12 years ago

If there's a message to this film, it's NOT that you shouldn't mess with fate. At the end, she messed with fate by turning down the ride from Frank, then tipping off the cop.

I don't think there was supposed to be a message at the end... It just doesn't play out the right way. Basically, after going back in time and f'ing everything up, she just goes back a little further and finally gets it right.

It's meant to be another entertaining time travel movie, and it was.

I'm the smartest guy around: http://meonvarioustopics.blogspot.com

[–] bing-57 12 years ago

> But what she ends up is a shootout with 3 people killed. How can they just handshake and drive off into the sunset?

Because that is what would have happened had she never accepted a ride from Frank in the first place. In a way, she restored everything back to its original state.

> In the end she was responsible for two more corpse than in the beginning.

No. She wasn't responsible for their deaths, Frank was.

--
What Would Jesus Do For A Klondike Bar (WWJDFAKB)?