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.

[–] marmac2768 15 years ago

I just finished watching this movie on Encore again. Sure, lots of holes in it, but Eastwood, once again, does a great job playing the Anti-hero again.

And Ed Harris showed another reasons why he is one of the great unsung actors in Hollywood.

[–] jim-1102 15 years ago

You are so right! I did enjoy the movie anyway - great cast, and there was a lot of good suspense, not to mention nice scenes in the National Gallery - but the plot was totally full of holes, as you enumerated. And then the truly ridiculous ending. I get the feeling they spent way too much time at the beginning - the sex & crime scene took forever - and at the end, they just had to bail! I wonder if they tried shooting the President's undoing, and it was so implausible they cut it out. Maybe not - the notes say Eastwood was very disciplined as a director, so they writers must have known it would be better to have that crazy denoument happen off-screen.

Still Ed Harris, Judy Davis, and Scott Glenn were all great, and Eastwood was, too, once he got away from the voyeur room.

[–] onebadgungan 15 years ago

I found it very hard to enjoy this movie as a thriller - we figured out the ending of all the characters before the 30 minute mark. It had a couple great scenes, like the President dancing with the Chief of Staff. Ed Harris and Scott Glenn did the best jobs in the film - everyone else was passable at best, with the exception of Judy Davis. She chewed more scenery than William Shatner on a paper mache diet!

I can't give this one more than a 1.5 out of 5. I'm harsh because Clint makes such great films that I can't give him the benefit of the doubt.

[–] drphonic 14 years ago

Yeah, I tend to look at this movie along the lines of gungan. Personally, I thought the whole movie was little more than a series of completely ridiculous, unbelievable turns. I didn't hate it though; mainly I was just disappointed because Eastwood's other movies have been so good.

[–] Benmanc 15 years ago

Agreed. It was enjoyable and entertaining, but very hard to take serious. The part in the hospital at the end - attacking the SS guy with the needle and messing about for 5 minutes with the door wide open, before somehow getting him onto a trolley and wheeling him out the back, was daft!

People have come on and complained you've gone to great lengths to take this movie apart - I think they have to go to even further lengths to make half of it seem credible!

[–] 15 years ago

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[–] jimiphish 14 years ago

I fully agree. This was a sloppy,unrealistic film. It's too bad because there were good actors in it.

"But the only thing that worried me was the ether."

[–] FatBurgerCocktails 14 years ago

this was a great movie- just watched it for the first time. i realize someone already went through this fellow's post one item at a time, but still...was the OP even watching the movie? or was he facing in the opposite direction playing with himself the whole time?

1. the insinuate he often has rough sex...it just escalated

2. he yelled for help...i'll venture the guess he never yelled for help before.

3-1. not vacuuming blood as was pointed out already- getting rid of foot prints, hairs, etc. that's why it looks like pillows and such the president touched were taken.

3-2. (omg look at the plot hole in this post, there are two 3s!111!!!) multiple windows. it's a huge room in a huge house. maybe, i know this seems preposterous, but maaaybe there are windows on another wall?

4. i found this a little unrealistic, at the same time, he's in shape, he had a head start. and they go in different directions cause 1 guy is grabbing stuff from the car. and yeah- as the other pointed out- hard to run and shoot.

5. other poster handled this.

6. yeah, he was trying to bring him in, but not try to kill him. as he told her, better for him to try to get luther rather than someone else...maybe just in case an outsider is hired to bring him down.

7. her mom could have told her he does this wherever he lives...she may have told frank in the car on the way there, or maybe he just gave it a shot or had been to the house already and found it.

8. answered.

9. this why i believe you weren't facing the TV while 'watching' the movie. he was in a van. they show the van several times and show it drive away. you didn't pick up on that? granted, the one dude is pointing a large portion of his gun out the window. so it is kind of weird, but how often do you walk around looking at every window in a highly crowded area with lots of buildings?

10. she always goes running in that park...that's where clint met her earlier. it's not like all of a sudden she decides to go to some spooky woods...she goes running. they followed her. so what?

11. yeah, clint drove pretty fast to get there, so i'll give you that one.

12. so he didn't inject it into the IV...like going directly into her arm makes it unrealistic.

13. he's seen the guy before...back when he was in the vault. really? this is a plot hole?

the only thing i'd point out in this movie, that the OP apparently had no beef with, was this guy walks into the white house, beeps in the metal detector, then passes his cane through to say "this is why i beeped" and its ok? cause that means he has no other metal on him? i realize they trust him, must not see him as a threat and all, but still...kinda silly.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] whomod 14 years ago

Maybe I missed this part because no one has brought it up but in the scene in the outdoor cafe, there were 2 assassins, the black guy working on behalf of the President/Chief Of Staff and the 2nd, older guy working on behalf of the rich guy.

Now the reason the black secret service guy knew to be at the outdoor cafe was on account of the SS having the police phones bugged. How the @%**k did the 2nd assassin know to be there?

That scene was exactly the point in the film where the movie started to fall apart for me. Everything that followed that event was just more baffling and idiotic stuff designed it seemed to wrap up everything. Sense making or otherwise.

[–] walkingf00l 13 years ago

I'm pretty sure Ed Harris mentions to Scott Glenn that he called EG Marshall right before the sting operation to let him know they were closing in on Clint Eastwood.

It's kind of a stretch, plot-wise, but they did sort of explain it.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] Mississippi20 12 years ago

Plot hole or not, biggest reason I found this movie somewhat stupid is, that Ed Harris found about Eastwood way, -way- too soon.

...and what is it that Ed Harris's character (Seth Frank) "knows?" He didn't know the extent of Luther's involvement.

So Eastwood hasn`t been caught in 30 years, but out of 6+ billion people on earth, Harris just picks him and stays with this idea without ever thinking anyone else?

He hasn't been caught. That doesn't mean he hasn't been active. You answer your own question here...

The robbed house has multimillion dollar advanced security systems, and the only person who can break those, is someone who hasn`t committed crimes in 30 years?

Remember the guy from the FBI told Frank that there were only 6 guys with the skill to pull it off; Luther is the only one that lives in Washington. Frank seeks out Luther to talk. When Luther goes on the run, Seth is suspicious and uses Luther's daughter to get to him.

Seth doesn't think Luther committed the murder, he's just suspicious of his involvement. Seth doesn't even know what happens until the very end.

[–] brokedickdog7 12 years ago

Ha ha good points dmiller2000

I suspended disbelief and enjoyed this movie. I liked Taken-

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0936501/

but the part where Liam Neeson steals a detective's badge and then impersonates a Paris police detective (speaking English with an Irish accent lol) was ludicrous.

[–] hitman200318 12 years ago

I have to agree with you. I guess that watching the movie just after reading the book did not really helped on the contrary it just made the movie even a bigger disappointment. I didn't really liked the book but the film was even worse. I don't care about the main character omission (or other plot developments). What really disturbed me was the jumping between scenes without any logical connection, characters decisions and the whole atmosphere just does not make any sense.

dmiller2000 I can ensure you that the book was not that bad. The book won't leave you with those doubts about 'how...' or 'why...' .

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nEzvhvOcWEs&feature=player_embedded

[–] 12 years ago

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