MovieChat Forums > Finder's Fee (2023) Discussion > Plot hole in ending? (spoilers)

Plot hole in ending? (spoilers)

posted 20 years ago by weaverx
47 replies | jump to latest

Despite the plot contrivances, I found myself enjoying this film very much, which made the twist ending such a frustration. Why must good movies blow it all with a twist ending just for the sake of having a twist ending? It reminds me of "Frailty" a couple of years ago.

Anyway, the ending doesn't make sense to me. If the man at the door is the real Avery, then who is James Earl Jones's character? The only likely explanation is that he is Victor, the brother-in-law, which would explain why he knew the granddaughter's birthday. But if that's true, how did the real Avery show up at the door only a minute after Victor left? Surely Victor wouldn't have told him about Tepper's message if Victor's plan was to acquire that lottery ticket. What did I miss?

And another gripe about the ending: All through the movie, no one can get into the building (except the cops of course) without being buzzed in with the intercom. Yet the real Avery just knocks on Tepper's door, because of course if he used the intercom first, the twist ending wouldn't happen. Blah.

[–] jessewillis 20 years ago

Great points, I agree 100%!

[–] thomas-cambridge 18 years ago

He also rang the fire station didnt he , and he left a message for avery ,

[–] stargirl22 20 years ago

You didn't miss anything. I had the same frustrations and I agree, it was probably there for the sake of having a twist. I thought it was pointless and rather annoying because I enjoyed the rest of the movie. James Early Jones had to have been Victor, but then wouldnt the real Avery find out if he cashed that winning lottery ticket. Good film other than that.

Who said anything about cutting you up, man. I just want to cut a little Z in your forehead!

[–] nsx6128739 20 years ago

I think Avery got into the building when everyone else was leaving and they just let him in. I dont know who James was. Victor maybe but wouldnt Avery recongize him on the way in? I am confused

Can you believe they wanted to call it, "Highway Crossing Frog" - Will Ferral

[–] RebelMas 20 years ago

I too dislike twists for twists sake. The best ones are surprising, yet make sense. I disagree with you about Frailty, though. I thought that was a great series of twists that more or less went along with what we had seen the the whole time, but weren't thinking on those lines.

All the best,

~Rebel

[–] UnusuallySuspect 20 years ago

I don’t think the movie gets ruined because the real Avery was able to get in the building so easily, or that he didn’t see Victor on his way out, or even how well the timing worked out (or didn’t). You just have to chalk all that up to suspension of disbelief, accept it and move on. (Or at least that’s what I do, but I guess that’s what discussion boards are for?)

About "twists for the sake of a twist," I agree that not everything has to "Usual Suspects" at the end, but I don't think this was necessarily twisting for the sake of a twist. I actually like this twist a lot – in fact I think it makes the movie much more provocative. Without the twist the movie is just about one man’s struggle between doing the right thing against all odds. To me that’s blah.

With the twist it poses the additional question as to what the “right” thing really was. By doing the right thing was he really doing the wrong thing? Should he feel guilty or morally satisfied for giving james earl jones the ticket? Had he never called the cop would this all have been averted? I just think that adding the twist added a whole different level to this movie, and forced the viewer to run through a completely different set of “what-ifs” and “what would you dos.”

I dunno, that’s my $.02…

[–] MadWriter29 20 years ago

I don't have the same issues with the plot holes..or I can at least see some possible solutions to them.

If james earl jones was Victor, then

1) How did they not run into each other? Chance. You've never walked into a building looking for someone who was walking out another entrance? Chance meetings occur, why can't a chance miss? It might not be satisfactory, but only because "the difference between truth and fiction is that fiction has to make sense." -s.c.m.

2) How did the real Avery get into the apartment? This I have issues with because why wouldn't Avery just call up to see if Tepper was in his apartment. Short of a plot device. Getting into the apartment...easy. I've done it before in visiting friends and not wanting to wait to get buzzed up...particularly in the pouring rain. But a complete stranger going to an unknown apartment, sneaking in and knocking on the front door? Odd and a bit unlikely.

3) Why would Avery know about Tepper if Victor went to steal the ticket? Harder to answer, although there are possible solutions. Perhaps Victor got the call from Tepper, called Avery (who is at work) and tells him about the wallet, thinking nothing of it. He returns to watching the news and sees the winning lotto number. He recognizes his niece's birthdate/brother's lucky numbers, greed overcomes him, he goes to steal the ticket thinking that his brother-in-law won't be able to leave work for several hours and that he will have the ticket by that time. He gets stuck in the apartment, in a potentially dangerous environment with four individuals he doesn't know, so he has to play dumb and get the ticket back without showing his hand.

Possible...not sure how probable though.

[–] ideal4u2k 20 years ago

i think the cop might have told the guys that they fixed the problem with the building. There could have been another way into the building, or maybe Avery took the elevator or something while everyone else took the stairs. Overall I really enjoyed the movie, although like you all mentioned there were a lot of unclear parts.

[–] bonesbaby33 10 years ago

Yes, I am digging up a 10-year-old thread because the ending drove me nuts too!

You may have me convinced with the possibility of James Earl Jones' character calling Victor, who was somehow unavailable, and then seeing the winning number on TV and going to Tepper's apartment to get it.

At first I thought this wouldn't work because Jones' character was too eager to stick around (which he shouldn't have been if he wanted to get away undetected before his brother in law showed up). However, if I remember correctly, he kept pushing to stay when he first got there, before he knew which lotto ticket he had, and then KEPT pushing to stay once he saw that Tepper had given him a losing ticket. And by then, he knew he had to stay to win the ticket. I remember being very puzzled by Jones' characters' ineptitude at reading social cues. I kept thinking, "Come on, old man, he obviously doesn't want you to stay. Why would you stay?" So I think your guess makes sense.

This is all conjecture. I'm too lazy to watch the movie again and I didn't love it anyway. It was okay, just not my favorite. I liked it more before the twist ending, like most it seems.

Anyone else weirded out by the movie poster? I know it was a super low budget indie film, but the characters' photos all seem to have different lighting, and Ryan Reynolds is clean shaven even though he has a rather thick beard in the movie.

[–] madmike007 9 years ago

Pretty good solutions.

[–] dave-lorraine 20 years ago

I think the ending sucked. I really liked the movie but the ending spoiled it. If the man was really Victor, how did Avery get the message and know where to come to pick up the wallet?

[–] txchick77 20 years ago

My husband and I were pretty confused too. I think James Earl Jones and the cop were in cahoots with each other. What makes me think that is the whole "running his record" deal. Not sure why I feel that way, but I do. I think the first phone call he made, when he stated he didn't reach his wife, was a call to his police buddy and then they found out a way to keep him in the apartment to get him in the game. Does that make sense? I also think they knew each other because they were in a similar line of work (fireman and police officer) and the remark that the cop made at the beginning. What's REALLy wierd is that one of the guys recognized him as someone who spoke at a meeting his dad's or something....just another twist that I can't quite figure out.

We literally laid in bed after watching this trying to figure out if we missed clues somewhere.

[–] dfadely 20 years ago

I think it was his brother. He was nervous when the cops came to the door because nervous that they would come in and find out that he had parking tickets. (he knew his brother had some parking tickets)He did not want to get kicked out of the house and lose his chance at the ticket. He might have actually been a felon himself. Had the cop searched him, he may have found his real wallet. He was willing to split it because it wasn't his. He didn't want the cop there because he knew it wasn't his. He was laughing at the end because Tepper had fallen for it and given him a baseball card. It was just chance that they missed each other. Sure it is silly that his brother would do all that when he knew that his brother Avery would find out when he cashed it. Maybe Victor knew that he had to get over there for his brother to get the ticket before the kid figured out it was the winning ticket and then when he saw the ticket had been changed called his wife or someone to tell them he would be late, cuz he knew he would be staying a while. I might have to watch it again just to figure it out for sure. Maybe there is more info on the special features of the dvd.

[–] dardura108 20 years ago

i agree with you, that i think james earl jones and the cop were in on this together. why else did "avery" insist on "hiding" in the bathtub, so that the cop would "find" him and then "call it in" to verify his identity.

i think the 2 con men were hoping the guy would "do the right thing" and
give the cop the ticket for safe keeping, because the other card players might
mug him and steal his ticket. (at some point, the cop even offered to drive avery home, more proof they were working together). But, Tepper "did the right thing" in his own way, by tricking the cop, and giving Avery the real winning ticket. Thats why Avery was laughing hysterically, because he thought his partner the cop had the ticket.....well, thats just my 2 cents.....

but i also had a question about the red haired card player who recognized Avery as Mr Fire Safety...was he just mistaken (all black guys look alike to him?) and, why did he insist on leaving the game early? his actions there dont make sense.

[–] ffejhtims 20 years ago

He kept saying he recognized 'the name' and not the person who truly owned the name.

[–] LawrenceDimmick 19 years ago

The real avery was a fireman, so the fake Avery was probably not a fireman.
He also could have been making up that victor was Averys brother in law, maybe someone else had given Avery Victors phone number, and Victor had seen the lottery ticket number while in the kitchen, when it was in the silverware drawer. This would explain how Avery got into the building and knew what the numbers were. Then he made up the story about how he always used the same numbers to make tepper feel bad and want to give him the ticket.
???

You shoot me in a dream, you'd better wake up and apologize.

[–] lorelei3 20 years ago

This is how I believe the real Avery found out. Tepper left a message on Victor's answering machine, Victor listened to it and immediately came over, then the real Avery got home from work and listened to the message on the machine that Victor neglected to erase as he was in such a hurry to come over to claim the ticket. Unfortunately I cannot explain how the real Avery got in and Victor didn't see him; my first thought was that the blond guy (with fertility problems) left then Avery walked in behind him, which is plausable if Avery were trying to find the right apartment to go to which took time, but we saw at the beginning of the movie that the lobby area is quite small and there is no place to hide (if one were inclined to do so) and not be seen by Victor as he was leaving. I really wish we could get this solved!

[–] lorelei3 20 years ago

WAIT! I figured it out.

The real Avery is not the REAL Avery! He's actually Victor. J.E Jones is really Avery and the guy who shows up at the end is Victor impersonating Avery.

Fits perfectly :)

Any better suggestions?

[–] Uptowngirl226 20 years ago

No, that doesn't make sense, because when the real Avery comes to Tepper's door, we clearly see his Bus Driver license that has his name and picture, so therefore that can't be.

But I think I may have figured out how it's possible that the real Avery got into the building without being buzzed in. Since Tepper found the wallet relatively near the apartment, that means that Avery must have been walking near the building when he dropped it. So it's possible that he lives in the same building as Tepper. That way he would not have to be buzzed in to get in, since he would obviously have a key.