We are told very clearly who was not killed but not so clearly who was, or by whom, or how, or why, and we are especially not told why there are so many false accounts or why Travolta turned his back on the colonel and gave him the chance to kill him? Everything about this film is brilliant except the script which isn't.
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We are told that Styles had Kendall poisoned. Considering Kendall worked for Styles, however indirectly, if he was allowed to talk too much, he would've given too much away about the drug scheme. Did you notice that the moment after he said "you think I had Kendall poisoned?" he pulled the gun out of his drawer? Very quietly? Innocent people don't commit aggravated assault or attempted murder.
We are also told many times, without debate, that Dunbar killed Mueller. Dunbar kills Mueller in self-defense. Meanwhile, Osbourne killed Styles in defense of Hardy. No one else actually died.
Hardy and Styles were friends. Given that, he shouldn't have expected Styles to pull a gun. Alternatively, it's possible that Hardy didn't realize the Colonel had his gun out...you don't actually see it till he goes to use it. And if he was careful enough, it would've been slightly under the desk and out of sight. Every time I see this movie, I try to get a glimpse of the gun before its close-up...hasn't happened yet, but I don't watch this movie every week.
The false accounts were to give Hardy enough information to find out who was behind shipping the cocaine without giving away anyone's Section 8 affiliation, and to make the shipper comfortable in the knowledge that the person who found him out was now dead. Besides which, perhaps Hardy and Dunbar also needed to know they could trust Osbourne?
Anyway, Kendall must have learned about the Section 8 side sometime after Nunez "died" and before Mueller died. As in one of the tellings, the uninvolved had to be convinced to "tell the story right" so that everyone would get his just desserts. The whole thing was planned. Notice how West didn't actually kill Kendall, but instead shot him in the leg? Also, remember how Hardy tried to keep Kendall on target during their first actual interrogation with him? "Dunbar wasn't even his real name..." "Come on, Levi, focus, focus." Hardy knew darn well what did and didn't need to be told, and Kendall knew a LOT.
I think there is good reason for the false accounts even if I haven't hit the nail on the head yet. But it wasn't just cinematic artistry.
I agree that we are told clearly many times that Styles runs the drug scam.
I didn’t notice that we are told unequivocally that Dunbar killed Mueller. I thought it was equivocal. I’ll check back.
You say: “Hardy and Styles were friends. Given that, he shouldn't have expected Styles to pull a gun.”
This is crucial. The whole point of the film is that Section 8 are supposed to be some sort of unspecified uncover team, who are supposed to have known rather a lot about what was going on, but what? That is the question. We don’t know. Shouldn’t West have told Hardy what was going on from the very beginning for the story to make sense.
I still think that there is a scene missing and worse still that the false accounts at the beginning are hogwash to make everybody seem clever at the end, which is of course an insult to the viewer’s intelligence, but thanks for your reply.
I think your suggestion would have killed the film. I hate those movies where there is some long explanatory scene telling exactly how everything works. Typically, a dialog between two characters is used to force-feed the audience every little detail they may have missed.
As is, Basic is a movie that encourages audiences to think and piece together the answers themselves.
That's true but what was the point of all those false accounts? I was rackin' me brain tryin' to work it out, but couldn't, and then found they couldn't either, making them pointless.
shareTo have Connie Nelson's character go through all the *beep* to see if she's section 8 worthy maybe?
shareThe first story we get actually isnt an explanation of what happened it is to set the stage for the audience and also fro osburne. Then kendell wakes up and we can start exploring. the fact is Dunbar who is actually named Pike is the one who sets up Kendall for the story. Because the fact is that we learn that West wasn't killed by anyone. That means he has to be "killed" by one of the group and brought in. West was not part of Section 8 which is why he didnt tell hardy.
Moving onto the team. In all stories Nunez dies by section 8. Castro kills her in the first two accounts and West in the last one. Castro dies from Dunbar in the first two accounts and then again by West in the last.
The thing is we can throw out the first two acoutns because they are the two trying to get the stroy straight. Or actually to get out the information.
An interesting disaraging comment between the first two accounts which proves one thing is that in kendells account West pairs pike with Nunez while Dunbar is with Mueller. When Dunbar says this account Dunbar(himself) is with Nunez and Mueller is with Pike. Dunbar's name was Pike. Well his fake name.
The question is in the end how does West get into the conflict with the team. And that is the missing scene. The actual truth of the conflict. All i can gather is the Pike(the black one) is gone b4 the stuff goes down. Somehow the team has to make Kendell believe West is dead.
Kendell in his first account believes Castro was paid to kill him. Which means Castro didnt do anything. This leaves Nunez and West as Dunbar couldnt do it and get him to agree and Mueller wouldnt hurt his partner. Unfortunately I can only draw on Kendell's story to get info since the other stories are to draw info. kendell is the only "degree of truth" that hasnt been tampered by Hardy. Somehow though Kendell had to learn of Section 8.
That is all i got still trying to peelt he onion. Good movie.
Dunbar DEFINITELY killed Mueller. When Styles is in the helicopter, he sees it happen. But it was so obviously in self-defense. I'm thinking the plan of Section 8 was not to kill those who were running the drug scheme, but to bring them down. Mueller is the only drug runner killed by a section 8 member, and that was only because he was shooting at Dunbar. I think we are not supposed to know what happened in the jungle, there's nothing to figure out. How they pulled it off is totally open-ended. Hardy was in the jungle with them. When you first see him he's washing mud off himself in the shower. It's confirmed that he was in the jungle if you watch the featurette with the writer on the dvd. Since both Dunbar and Kendalls' accounts of what happened in the jungle was BS, I think it's a mystery the viewer is not supposed to figure out.
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