MovieChat Forums > Absolute Power (1997) Discussion > Ridiculous Plot

Ridiculous Plot

posted 16 years ago by dmiller2000
37 replies | jump to latest

I thought I was watching a comedy at times. Lots of ridiculous scenes in this one...

**Spoiler Alert**

1. Why would the President start slapping and choking a woman that invited him into her bedroom and arranged to have sex with him? She's ready and willing, yet he suddenly has an urge to kill her??!

2. What prompted the Secret Service (SS) bozos to burst into the room when they did? The Prez and lover had been struggling and screaming for several minutes. The Chief of Staff later implied that slapping and yelling was common for the President's encounters (imagine the President's surprise in the middle of one of these past little S&M sessions to have his SS guys burst in with drawn weapons! haha!). Anyway, they would have either been aware of the Prez's little fetish and left him alone, or, having no clue, would have burst into the room at the beginning of the scuffle.

3. Trying to vacuum up the blood was hilarious! What was in all those HUGE black plastic garbage bags anyway??!!

3. Before Luther (Clint Eastwood) goes out the window on the rope, the Chief of Staff and her 2 SS guys are on the ground looking up at a third floor window and they see the curtain ruffling in the window that Luther was looking out from. Then Luther goes out a window with his rope. It may not be the same exact window (there were at least 3 windows on the wall), but all the windows in the room are ON THE SAME WALL, so he would have landed on the ground right next to the Chief of Staff!

4. It takes the 2 SS bozos 20 cut scenes of running up stairs to get up to the third floor room. They arrive as Luther rappels down to the ground and runs into the woods. The 2 SS guys run all the way back down, and out of the house, split up - one runs off and the other goes THE OPPOSITE DIRECTION to the car, then the one that went to the car meets up with the guy in the woods - who is JUST STANDING THERE waiting for him - then the chase through the woods begins. From the get go, the SS guys are only 20 yards away from Luther. What??! Perhaps Luther stopped for 20 minutes to tie his shoe or something? Maybe the fact that Luther is 67 and the SS guys are 10 to 25 years younger? It's a laughably long chase through woods and open fields and woods again. I kept thinking "Shoot him! Shoot him! He's right there!" I was laughing the whole scene! The icing on the cake was when the black SS agent said "I got the number" referring to the license plate as Luther drove away. Yeah, okay.

5. The day after the theft/murder, Seth Frank (Ed Harris), the police investigator, walks into his office, proud as a peacock, holding Luther's picture. He says something about a friend of his told him there are only 6 guys IN THE ENTIRE WORLD that could pull off that theft and only 1 of those 6 lives in D.C. - Luther! Is this how police investigation works??!! Damn! If we could just get those 6 guys, all the world's cases would be solved. Even though Seth says Luther is a decorated war hero and he doesn't go after war heroes, Seth brings Luther's file in to work and declares him the prime suspect! Wow! Powerful stuff!

6. Investigator Seth promises Luther's daughter that Luther will be safe and she will "get him back" if she arranges a meeting with Luther. Why would Seth make such an impossible, unethical, stupid promise? He is TRYING TO CAPTURE Luther. Why would Luther's daughter buy any of this? Seth is trying to CAPTURE HER FATHER! So anyway, she buys it. Seth then assembles a SWAT team to take Luther down. At that meeting, Luther and his daughter are shot at by 2 different snipers. Mass panic ensues. Now you would think she would be pretty upset with Seth, but the next scene shows Seth taking her to her house and flirting with her. I would think she would be slightly peeved that Seth nearly got her and her father killed a few minutes ago, but no... she invites him in for water and flirts back!. Sheesh! To make matters worse, Luther seems to approve of this flirting, as he has been hiding in her house during this tete-a-tete. And in the hospital, at the end, he encourages his daughter to get together with Seth. WHAT?!! "Honey, you know that guy that tried to capture me? The detective that said I am one of the top 6 criminals in the world? You know, the one that suckered you into that deathtrap? He would make a GREAT boyfriend! Why don't you invite him over for dinner next week?"

7. Seth takes Luther's daughter to Luther's house, walks up to the front door and reaches into the potted plant for the keys to the house. Luther's daughter says she's never been here before. How did Seth know where the keys were? The daughter comments that Luther always did that, but it's AFTER Seth grabs the keys and she's never been here and how would she know and... never mind.

8. The daughter discovers that her father has been stalking her during her entire life, photographing her from afar, breaking into her house when she is not home, taking things out and bringing things in (stocking her refrigerator), etc. Somehow, she finds this endearing and emotionally touching??!! I guess she likes guys that screw her (see flirting plothole above).

9. The snipers are both set up in rooms with windows (or a vehicle - I couldn't tell exactly what the SS guy was in - some kind of space with metal grates for walls, but he was definitely at ground level with a sliding window. After preparing their rifles, they both open their windows and HOLD THE RIFLE END OUT OF THE WINDOW waving the ends around. I'm serious! Watch these 2 scenes again! Unbelievable! The place is a "high traffic, public place", SWARMING with cops to boot!

10. The Prez sends the SS guys to find Luther's daughter. I thought they would bring her in for questioning or something, but they simply follow her until she happens to park her car at the edge of some cliff (??!) next to some kind of church or something. Rather than arrest her and bring her in for questioning (or use as bait, or something to get to Luther), they simply push her over the cliff and drive away? (HUH?!!) What purpose does that possibly serve??? This bizarre plot point is completely unnecessary. I will admit that I was completely surprised when they pushed her over the cliff, but adding irrational, illogical things to a movie generally has that effect.

11. After Luther finds out that the SS is taking over surveillance of his daughter, he drops the phone and speeds across the country from a phone booth in the middle of nowhere, to screeching his tires and blowing his horn repeatedly through traffic packed city streets(??) to a scene of him racing up a rural grassy hill at some church on a cliff (???), spinning his car to a stop, jumping out, walking over to the edge of the cliff, and then looking at his daughter's car at the bottom. At no time before this, did he see his daughter's car or talk to his daughter. He even drives right by the SS guys that pushed her over the cliff, seemingly oblivious. How did he know to find his daughter at the bottom of a cliff out in the country on the other side of the city???

12. The scene where the SS guy goes to inject Luther's daughter, he reaches for her arm to inject her in the crux of her elbow. All patients have IVs, so you can administer meds through the IV - no need to go poking them again. Also, the room has sounds of respirators and other monitors. The only thing Luther's daughter has on her is a simple oxygen supply line. I don't think so... okay... minor beefs... but read on:

13. How does Luther know that the black SS guy isn't a regular doctor coming to administer some scheduled meds for his daughter? He jumps the guy, even though the guy's dressed like a doctor. Perhaps it is because of my previous plothole and Luther recognized this (ah! see?). Or perhaps it is the way the SS guy, dressed like a doctor, lurks around like a Navy Seal or something the whole time he is in the hospital. I was laughing again when the guy enters the room, pulls out the needle at the door, uncaps it, and then we watch, following from behind the needle that he grips in his hand like a knife, as he creeps towards the bed ready to STRIKE! Great comedic stuff! Even funnier was when Luther wheels him out to the dumpster! That's where I put this movie.

[–] Mississippi20 16 years ago

This is about as silly as the other post.

1. Watch the scene and you'll see how it escalates from sex to rough sex to fighting. Plus, they were drunk.

2. The secret service is there to protect him at all times.

3. Objects in the room with the president's finger prints or blood. They weren't vacuuming blood, they were cleaning up the room: covering up the tracks.

4. This was an exciting, well-constructed scene. It's not easy to shoot someone while you're running him down.

5. Not worth addressing.

6. Seth did not assemble the SWAT team and was unaware of any snipers. Hence Seth asking if anyone saw where the shots came from. Looks like you weren't paying very close attention.

7. Not worth addressing.

8. She thought her father was uninvolved in her life, that he didn't care. Now she finds out her father does care and was there.

9. Not noticeable to the common passerby.

10. They attempt to kill Kate because she's a prosectutor and prosecutors "ask questions" and maybe "she knows what he knows."

11. Luther knows his daughter's schedule, knows where she runs. When he sees the secret service guy in the truck, he'd be suspicous. It's not unreasonable to think he'd be cluey and check it out.

12. Not worth addressing.

13. Luther would've seen both the secret service guys when he was hidden behind the two-way mirror in the beginning of the film. And as you already pointed out, Luther knew that the secret service was surveilling his daughter, and they already attempted to kill her once, so it's entirely reasonable to believe Luther would be expecting it.

That's one of the best parts of the movie.

"...right or wrong. He was my president."
"Well, he made a mistake. You made a mistake when you went after my litte girl. That was entirely unaccpetable."
"Mercy?"
"I'm fresh out."

[–] GIRobotII 14 years ago

I agree with Mississippi. Just because he was 66, doesn't necessarily mean anything. Some men that age can be that agile if they lived healthy, and took good care of themselves.

[–] SeisCinemaSeis 14 years ago

The OP is right, this film is full of inconsistencies, plot holes and ludicrous situations. I like most of the movies directed by Clint Eastwood, but this one is one of his worst works. There's nothing wrong on admitting this, even Kubrick, Bergman, Buñuel, Kieslowski, Hitchcock, etc. have "at least" one "stinker" in their filmographies.
After 'The Bridges of Madison County' and until 'Mystic River', Clint Eastwood was on a slump. In that period he shot 5 mediocre films and 'Absolute Power' was absolutely the worse of them all.

[–] zill_o_the_wisp 12 years ago

SeisCinemaSeis ... The OP is neither right or wrong. It doesn't ring true to me, but it may to you.
I agree with much of what you said yet there's no way in hell this is worse than Blood Work or Space Cowboys.
I think it suffers from being over-abridged in the wrong-end-of-the-telescope way that Midnight in the Garden... suffers from being overly-long. Both are clearly above-mediocre pieces of filmmaking, although ultimately disappointing.
I actually like this one slightly better than True Crime or Midnight, making it my favorite of Eastwood's movies between his two towering masterpieces Bridges and Mystic.

[–] Christie99 10 years ago

It wasn't Eastwood's best work but agree it is certainly better than Blood Work and Space Cowboys. The film isn't perfect but still an enjoyable watch.

[–] SirEmu 16 years ago

dmiller2000 , hahahahahahahahaa , I just watched this movie last night and I also thought God damn this is silly..ahahahah , I gave it a 5 anyways , I like Clint Eastwood , he is grewat..
And when the billionare walks in to the President with the knife in his hand , confrontes the President and *Zapp* there is a scene cut - and later they said the President stabbed himself to death.. hahahahaha

Tune in , turn on - Dont Burn out

[–] timberwolf530 15 years ago

Well, I started to answer your questions one by one, but by the time I got to the second #3, I started to get the feeling that you were trying to dislike this movie. By #4, I was positive you were putting way too much time into picking it apart.

[–] nihatb48 15 years ago

Ridiculous plot ? No, I don't think so. Although some scenes may be unrealistic, like 67 year old Luther outrunning SS agents much younger than himself etc, the plot itself certainly wasn't ridiculous. After all, most movies are made to provide escapism from reality, aren't they ?

Now, if you really wanna see a RIDICULOUS plot, I suggest you check out the movie Flightplan with Jodie Foster !

[–] screamystu 15 years ago

anyone notice how this movie is very similar to "No Way Out" with Kevin Costner and Gene Hackman, playing a Defense Secretary who accidentally kills his mistress, with Costner witnessing it.

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] movienerd82 15 years ago

best post ever!!!! absolutely love it. sooooooo funny...

[–] KarlHungus26 15 years ago

Great post dmiller. How about the "suicide" at the end. Assuming the evidence from the dead SS man's tape recordings gets out, wouldn't the old man who killed the president be the prime suspect? It is pretty idiotic to think that you can kill the president with a knife and everybody would just accept it as a suicide... (did he slit the president's wrists cleanly without any struggle? I doubt it considering his age).

[–] jeswartz 15 years ago

how about laura linney's character being pushed down a cliff in her car with no air bags deployed, the car slams into the ground, smashes the windshield and twists the steel body of the car and then just hours later she's awake with just superficial cuts and bruises talking to her Daddy?

and while two fake doctors are duking it out with dueling hypodermic needles where is the REAL hospital staff? watching reruns of ER????

[–] wsered1 15 years ago

It's a movie. If everything was wholly factually accurate and realistic, you'd be watch old men taking a sh**. Get over it.

[–] KarlHungus26 15 years ago

I always laugh at people who take a stance like this. They think because it is a movie it is ok to abandon all elements of reality. If that's what you think wsered1 then stick to movies like Transformers. However, there are plenty of us out there who look for reality and believability in movies. You can make a great movie without being unrealistic, just take a look at The Godfather, Patton, and Saving Private Ryan (just to name a few).

[–] Mississippi20 15 years ago

I always laugh at people who take a stance like this. They think because it is a movie it is ok to abandon all elements of reality. If that's what you think wsered1 then stick to movies like Transformers. However, there are plenty of us out there who look for reality and believability in movies. You can make a great movie without being unrealistic, just take a look at The Godfather, Patton, and Saving Private Ryan (just to name a few).

So I guess you can't see the humor in people who pick apart movies, looking for things to bitch about, like the one poster who complained about the air bags not deploying? Does that really have something to do with anything?

It's one thing if you have a legitimate complaint......but all the complaints in this thread are such trivial, stupid stuff. Heaven forbid the air bags didn't deploy.

[–] Gaslog 8 years ago

I agree...too many people forget they are watching a movie and reality isn't always involved. Like the secret service guy chasing Clint through the woods at the beginning , using night goggles and still able to read Clint's license plate from over 200 feet away....go out and try to read a plate at 50 feet in broad daylight...it's a movie