MovieChat Forums > Con Air (1997) Discussion > How is Poe sentenced to prison?

How is Poe sentenced to prison?


Three drunken clowns come out of a bar lurking for his wife and he fights them off after they pull a knife on him and her and he's goes to jail?

PLEASE! Clear case of self defense.

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Didn't they go for some silly "registered as a deadly weapon" explanation? I can't remember.

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They did go with something along those lines and they clearly showed one of the dead guys accomplices take the knife so it appeared Cage killed an unarmed man.

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Judge held him to a higher standard because of his training. But I agree it should have been self defense or protection of his wife and unborn child.

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That was not self defense. He was protecting his ego, not himself or his wife. The douchey guys were behind a fence taunting him. He could have gotten in the car and drove home to bone his hot wife, but instead he decided to confront them.

Did they deserve what they got? I think so.

Was it legal self defense? No way, no how.

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They picked a fight with a hardman and he beat them up.

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He could have gotten in the car and drove home to bone his hot wife, but instead he decided to confront them.


Hmm... bone hot wife or go to prison. Bone hot wife or go to prison.. You've convinced me rabbit, we'll search for Rocky in the city..

And kudos for using "bone" as a verb.

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They didn't come near him not walking towards him. He had the option to get in the car and drive off. He went near them. Even his wife told him to get in the car and drive off. So he clearly had the option to drive off. That's why he is sentenced. Just like Forrest Gump's mother said, do not try to be brave just run.

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Gotta agree with you.

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He could have avoided trouble yes, but doesn't absolve the potential rapists from their actions or make them sympathetic characters. You play stupid games you win stupid prizes.

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Rapists??? You must've been watching a different movie.

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What do you think those 3 wanted with Poe's wife? A fourth person to play spades?

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You must've been watching a different movie as well. The one guy came on to his wife aggressively in the bar as he clearly wanted to have sex with her. After Cage left the bar they followed him to beat him up because he humiliated that guy back at the bar. No indication of intention to rape. They didn't even go after the wife.

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Sure pal, cause when a drunk, obnoxious asshole makes moves on a girl at bar then is told off by her husband he gets his 2 buddies to come back for tea and crumpets.

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It figures that you are also illiterate. I clearly said they wanted to beat him up, just like they did in the movie. A couple of drunk guys fighting over an insult happens way more often than a couple of drunk guys raping another man's wife because he told them off. And that's what happened in the movie, nothing more.

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You've never actually been out with a woman have you? Nice to know if you ever do and she's getting harassed you'll walk to your car like a bitch

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I'm not a lesbian, so no, I have never been out with a woman. I would actually say the same thing to my husband as the wife did in the movie. Point is, nothing in the movie indicated those guys were potential rapists.

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The thug was willing to stab Poe over nothing, not even an insult so I'm pretty sure the plan had he executed it would have involved rape at the least.

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I see no reason at all to be sure about that. A lot of people would be in prison if we would just stab anyone just because we think they could be a potential criminal. There was no reason to fear rape. As the wife pointed out, they were in a situation where they could've just walked away. These are fictional characters, we shouldn't assume more than what's suggested. They were "thugs", they didn't hint at rape.

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He followed Poe and then pulled a knife on him. That's an escalation of aggression and if he stabbed poe, why would he not rape and kill the wife? If Poe got in the car and then the guys kicked the window in or shot him where would they stop?

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Because rape is not at all the same as stabbing someone. The guy only pulled the knife because Poe got the upperhand. It didn't seem at all that their intention was to kill him and then rape his wife.

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"Because rape is not at all the same as stabbing someone."

Right!!!

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I'm glad you agree with me. So no reason to assume the guy was a potential rapist.

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Let me understand this, you believe this guy was going to stab poe and then leave the other witness alone, the one he aggressively pursued earlier? If he stabs Poe and Poe croaks he is going to be doing life in prison if the wife gets away. So if he already has to deal with her and he likes her a lot, isn't it plausible that he might get a little rapey?

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We don't even know if his intention was to kill him. It's very much possible he would've just stabbed him once to show him who's boss and gotten the hell out of there. But killing a witness to a murder is something totally different than rape. You're making an awful lot of assumptions about a fictional character we hardly know anything about.

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We were given the specifics of the character from the film! They didn't show him saving a kitten from a tree before he went after Poe with his gang. Everything portrayed was negative, I forgot he pulled a flower out to give to Poe, oh no it was a knife.

"It's very much possible he would've just stabbed him once to show him who's boss and gotten the hell out of there."

Are you a battered wife or just trolling?

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Yes, because personal attacks prove you're right...

You don't think that kind of stuff happens?
People get into a fight, stab someone out of anger and then flee. It does happen. The point is that just because he pulls a knife on Poe in a fight, does not in any way imply he has it in him to rape and kill the wife.

The specifics of the movie did not show him to be a rapist. A potential killer? Sure. A potential rapist? Nope, that's incorrect.

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Ok so rape is a more violent crime than murder? Three people attacked him all at once, were they going to high five afterwards, they'd all be going to jail even if they didn't kill him by some miracle.

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It depends one each individual
case. Sometimes rape is more violent.

So never has someone stabbed anybody else without killing them and fled, often to be caught later on? You should really check the news more often.

But even if the guy had the intention at that moment to kill Poe, there's no reason to assume he would rape the wife.

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its amazing that you cant see a reason not to rape someone if you could get away with it.

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I had to explain how the world works to Stratego 5 years ago and now I have to do it all over again for you?

Go watch the scene, this wasn't a good guy, he was portrayed as a halfwit thug who was sexually aggressive towards the wife before stalking Poe out into the parking lot for no reason. He's a "regular hound Dog," to quote him in the film. He attacks Poe unprovoked with broken bottles and a knife with three guys on one.
It wasn't a small escalation, they were clearly going to beat Poe close to death at the very least. And had they stabbed him to death why wouldn't they commit another crime? They went after Poe in the very first place because he was with that girl. She'd be a witness to their crime.

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Its pure fantasy that he would go to prison. People are saying because he didn´t get in the car that he was somehow guilty but the three guys waited for him to come out and then confronted him, I don´t think him not getting in the car makes much difference. In addition one of them pulls a knife on him. No chance he goes to prison in real life.

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Didn't one of the survivors grab the knife when he ran? Poe couldn't prove it existed.

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Well it would be hard to prove the murder weapon didn't exist since Po killed someone with it even if they ran off with it.

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Do you honestly think that the target audience for Con Air gave a rat’s butt how Cage got on the plane? They just wanted him ON THE PLANE, so they could watch a lot of mindless action. In the movie, Snakes on a Plane, no one cares how the snakes got there. In Pacific Rim, no one cares whence came the huge monsters. They just want to see huge, human-controlled robots battle huge monsters. The entertainment industry calls movies and TV shows like this “high concept,”
which means that whomever conceived of them was high at the time. The audience for stuff like this is comprised of the easily-amused, not of the deeply-thinking. Sheesh.

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I think some of the specifics vary from state to state, but I’m pretty sure that in order for you to use lethal force in self defense a lot of criteria needs to be met. More so than most people would think. One of the criteria in most states is you can’t use force if you can easily leave the situation/flee or difuse it in another way. Hence the controversy with the “stand your ground law.” If you have your car next to you, and are being harassed by people behind a fence, you are legally supposed to get in your car and leave. Not go over to them and beat them to death because “you’re fearing for your life” Lol. A lot of places also require you to use a roughly equal amount of force, such as if they were threatening to beat you up, and before you are even hit you, you can’t pull out a pistol and shoot them in the face. I’m not a lawyer or legal expert, but just from what I’ve read on this topic, claiming self defense when you kill someone isn’t something you can do in a ton of situations. There are a lot of variables that will be taken into consideration when determining if you are justified in killing another person in a public place. You would have to show that it was a legitimate threat to your life, you are unable to reasonably flee, and you have to respond to the situation with a reasonable level for force, and they have to continue trying to attack/kill you the entire time. Ex, if someone pushes you hard, then you punch them in the face and they stop/try to leave, you can’t continue beating them or pursue them to continue attacking them. Once the threat stops, you are supposed to stop also. It’s interesting and potentially useful info to know, I recommend you read up on it. I am going to myself now as I realize there are a lot of areas I’m unsure of. Especially my particular states’ laws.

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One of the two that survived took off with the knife so it wasn't seen by law efforcement. In Texas if you are attached by 3 or more people even without weapons you can use deadly force. This movie was in Louisana though.

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Well there’s the fact that A) Poe is a trained killer and can respond with deadly force that others can not, B) Poe could have walked away but he chose to engage them, C) The knife was never found so therefore there was no evidence that he was threatened with deadly force, D) There were no witnesses to confirm Poe’s story, E) He had a really shitty lawyer

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Louisiana back then was a really dumb democrat run state. It still has the problems now left over from back then.

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