MovieChat Forums > Pushing Tin (1999) Discussion > Did Connie really cheat?

Did Connie really cheat?


Did Connie and Russel have sex or not?
I'm leaning towards no. Russel never admitted to it, and a it just seems like Connie says that to make Nick jealous.

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No

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I really, really, really doubt it.

I saw this movie for the first time today. When Connie blurted out that she had slept with Russell, I believed her for all of two seconds. First, her "confession" was a little bit too hysterical, too over-the-top; it was a typical knee-jerk reaction to the crushing news she'd just gotten from her husband, an attempt to hurt him back, to hurt him in return as much as he'd hurt her. If she really had had an affair with Russell - and when was there time to do that? - I would think she would have been a bit more subdued, perhaps a bit relieved, even, at getting it all out in the open. (FWIW, it didn't appear to me that Nick really believed her admission, either.)

Also, if she HAD slept with Russell, why then would she take the kids and run off? If that were the case, she'd be just as culpable as Nick was - they'd be even, in a sense, and their shared guilt would give them a platform to try to work things out, to try to save their marriage. If she had committed adultery, then it would be awfully hypocritical of her to use her husband's infidelity as an excuse to take the kids and run - obviously the actions of a genuinely hurt and betrayed woman. Not that it isn't something some people might do, anyway, particularly if she was already looking for an "out" from the marriage. But given the obvious love she expressed for her husband in every scene prior to that point, I just don't think it fits with her character.

I become a bigger and bigger John Cusack fan with every movie of his that I see. For many years, I couldn't quite see what all the fuss was about him. (Ditto for Billy Bob, for that matter.) But over the years, I find myself liking him more and more. I really enjoyed this movie - it wasn't one of the Greatest Movies of All Time, or a clear box office smash. But it was definitely better than the average Sunday afternoon two-star movie. :)

-cg

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Good points, Longliverock. I watched this film again the other day and there are several scenes that I think suggest she did cheat. In a couple of scenes -- when Russell gives her the French language tapes and when Connie and Nick are riding in a car and Nick tells her Russell is interested in her -- she clearly is flattered and intrigued by Russell. After her father's funeral she and Nick are riding in the taxi and Nick starts talking in general terms about faithfulness. Connie has a guilt-stricken look on her face, she begins squirming nervously and it appears she is about to admit something. Then she figures out that Nick is talking about his own affair, he admits it, and she freaks. Her later "confession" in the plane does seem phony, but those earlier scenes make me wonder.

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The whole plot of the movie revolves around Russell trying to drive Nick nuts. Russell's approach at getting revenge on Nick is unique and in the end works out well. When Russell finds out from Mary that she slept with Nick, of course he had to be upset. What man wouldn't be upset? But does he get revenge by sleeping with Connie? I seriously doubt it. He makes a lot of things LOOK LIKE he was behind it - having an affair with Connie, putting his plane in a thunderstorm, and other things. But in reality, he has nothing to do with a lot of the bad things happening in Nick's life even though it appears he does. Thus, Russell gains more control and Nick clearly loses control. Besides, Connie seems like the kind of wife that would never ever do something like that, and it's clear in the entire movie how crazy she is about him. Russell gets his revenge by making Nick THINK that he's screwing around with Connie. Nick falls for it, and so have some of the people who watched this movie! :)

What I want to know is who do you think called in the bomb threat?

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"What I want to know is who do you think called in the bomb threat? "

maybe that crazy ex-air traffic controller Dr. Freeze guy who couldn't make it back past the door. He might know the number to the secure line where threat was placed.

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Could Russell have called it in?

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I agree with you on this. But I have a question. Did you feel Angelina Jolie's part started off good, kept you interested and then just left you hange? There is almost a full fourty mintutes after the car scene when she tells nick she told russell about cheating. She is never seen again in the movie after that scene. Did she move with Russell? Or did they split? I hate the way it ends.

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1) I'm pretty sure Nick called in the bomb threat. He said something ominously to the effect that "Somebody was going to be needing a personal day." I think the plan was that (he hoped) Russell would chicken out, he would "bravely" stay and everyone would lose faith in Russell while he became the hero and all.

2) I really doubt that Nick's wife cheated on him. She just said it out of anger. If she really had cheated on him, then it would be like offsetting penalties. Not that they pretend nothing happened but that they have two alarm clocks giving them the wakeup call...they should at least talk it out for the kids' sake, etc.

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I can see why you would think Nick called in the bomb threat. I think it goes right along with him becoming completely irrational & losing it. But I really doubt that if he called in the bomb threat that he would be running out & diving into the snow like that.

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I agree with you on that, to me it seems pretty obvious that he didn't, otherwise it he would have stayed behind to.

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Mary DID move with Russel to Colorado, when Nick shows up there he mentions that Mary told him where to find Russel.

And the bomb threat person was never shown on screen but they did find out who it was. If you listen carefully at the end of the news article Nicks watching, just as Connie comes into the room the reporter mentions that the police caught the person who made the call. It's just a dangling plot thread after that, the motives of the caller are never explained but we can assume it was a tasteless and ill-thought out prank.

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she moved off with russell. when nick finds him in the river fishing, nick says something to the effect that he called their house and angelina told him that billy bob would probably be out there (fishing).

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I was wondering the same thing, I also thought she might have made it up to get even. It would seem so from the setting, and it would fit very neatly with all the other elements (how BBT would just sort of play with his mind), but the way she talked about it right before she left in the taxi got me wondering. She was talking about how their cheating had hurt him more than her, and right then it just sounded like she actually had done it. I'm very unsure about this though, and I'm leaning towards saying she didn't cheat.

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"She was talking about how their cheating had hurt him more than her, .."
Because she is hurt for thing her husband did to her, he was guilty and felt so sorry for her and their marriage, even they split and divorce, the sense of guilt remains. For her, she was mad and hurt, but she didn't do something to betray their marriage, so that's why she said his(thing between them) cheating had hurt him more than her.

She didn't do wrong, she is loyal to their marriage and relation, it he who is blamed for cheating on her.

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I watched this movie for the second time last night, it had been years since
I first saw it. With that being said, no I don't think that Connie slept with
Russell. She is intrigued with him from the moment she meets him and her like
for him definitely grows, but the way she blurts out, "how she allegedly slept
with him", and what they did, and where: "We did it upside down, all over the house",etc., is a gross exagerration, and in retaliation to what her husband
has just told her of his cheating. I think she wanted to sleep with Russell,
but seriously doubt it even happened. I am in question of how and when they
met to exchange the French tapes, however? Alright that'll do it for me, Thank
You for listening.

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I wouldn't say she wanted to sleep with him in the sense that she would've, just that she was intrigued by him, and liked him.

But no real evidence she actually cheated. If she had, she wouldn't have been angry when accused. And she wouldn't have been so hurt when she found out he cheated.

But it raises the question - why was Cusack mad at russell when he got back? Not his fault it came out. Unless he realized he'd been manipulated.

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I don't think she did either. She was too mad at John Cusack's character when he confessed his infidelity. Had she slept with Russell she wouldn't have been half as mad.

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I dont think she cheated either.

A lot of what Cusack was seeing was overblown through his eyes.

Russell may have been throwing sowm jabs out there. But Cusack was going over board to the point if making things up in his head.

Also seems like Russell would call in the bomb. Cusack wouldn't be running out if he knew it to be fake.

Russell has these moments like he has set them up to make him self look bigger then he is

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