What's up with the tea cups? Chuck switched and Patricia switched back...did I miss something here? How did she end up with the poison cup?
I'm sure this was addressed in the message board at some time, but it looks like the old entries were deleted.
Patricia put a cotton swab next to one of the cups to indicate which one was poisoned. When Patricia wasn't looking, Chuck moved the cotton swab to the opposite cup and turned the teapot in the middle to face the opposite direction, making it look like Patricia accidentally put the poisoned cup on her side (which she hadn't yet). He didn't actually switch the cups. So when Chuck wasn't looking she turned the entire tray around, putting the poisoned cup on her side.
shareIt wasn't a cotton swab, it was a sugar 'cube' in a fancy shape.
Putting a piece of cotton on the saucer would be like writing "POISON" on the cup.
In the DVD commentary they even refer to the closeups as something like the 'sugar cube shot'.
I have seen sugar cubes in unusual shapes before, so somebody must sell them commercially. I somehow don't see the spy/assassin using a sugar cube mold and making her own, as is described here:
http://thecraftychica.blogspot.com/2008/02/project-heart-shaped-sugar- cubes.html
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Forgive me, I hardly ever drink tea.
sharethe sugar cube appeared to be heart-shaped, kinda like those valentine candies only thicker.
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futureamafan and bobwasere each got it half right...
what happened was this-- when chuck mentioned the view out the window, he switched the sugar cotton swab and rotated the cup to make it LOOK like he turned the entire tray on her (which she would expect). so when she distracted him and "switched it back", she was actually turning it for the FIRST time, thus poisoning herself.
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but you said she wouldn't double bluff back, but she did- he just fake bluffed her in the first place. she double bluffed to nothing. right?
i'm confused.
great movie, though.
p.s. i secretly think sam rockwell should play the young bilbo baggins in 'the hobbit' movie. is that weird?
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yes, that's what i meant too.
i'd be a terrible grifter.
yea I was thinking about that tooo
but uhm.. if he doesn't want to take a chance why not just fake drinking it? he did a good job faking his death anyway. Crazy guy >D
but uhm.. if he doesn't want to take a chance why not just fake drinking it? he did a good job faking his death anyway. Crazy guy >D
very interesting, I didn't notice the cup having little coffee
patricia's pretty witty herself
It would have awesome if Chuck just pulled a gun on her and shot her, right when she offers they both drink the tea.
Or if she says: Never get involved in a land war in China, and never mess with the sicilian WHEN DEATH IS ON THE LINE!
I believe Vizzini's final words were, "You fell victim to one of the classic blunders. The most famous is never get involved in land war in Asia. But only slightly less well known is this: never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!"
(Vizzini then laughs 17 times, then falls over.)
(Yes, 17: two sets of seven, then three, then dead.)
(How do I know this minutia? The Princess Bride is indelibly etched in my brain. I was on a first date watching this movie right after it came to video in 1988 with a fellow Maryland Terrapin at the time, who was to me a slightly curvier version of Mary Stuart Masterson's character "Watts" in "Some Kind of Wonderful", who was my crush at the time. So here I am, curled up to my starcrush's lookalike, lightly caressing her neck, smelling the fading lavender scent of her recent shampoo, working up the guts to kiss her (on the neck of course, never a frontal assault at the time), while Princess Bride is playing on the VCR. You tell me you wouldn't remember that moment. I dare you.)
Oh, and if I'm wrong, please correct me from memory, as I have quoted. ANYone can Google the script and get the alleged exact lines spoken.
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Zooey? Zooey from Maryland?
Uh, hi. Gosh, it's been, what, 20 years? I haven't seen you since that time we watched Princess Bride.
This is a bit awkward... Uh, what've you been up to?
Listen, I've been meaning to call. It's just, I was busy and stuff.
That scene is pure genius, excellent film too. Why isn't Clooney directing more??
sharehe did an awesome job of faking his death, when he first slurred when he said new york, and touched his tounge, i believed him
shareShe put a sugar cube next to one of the tea cups to indicate which one was poisoned. But Chuck knew her game and simply put the sugar cube on the her cup and turned the cream pot the opposite direction when she wasn't looking to make her think she set the tray down the wrong way. So when she turned the tray around, she actually flipped the poisoned tea on herself.
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One thing still eludes me in that scene:
Let's fast forward... Ok Patricia standing there just realized she drank her own poison. She fell on the ground. Chuck rushs to her and writes (with Patricia's hand) on the book "No love" and then goes on to wipe prints he may have left in the bathroom at the end of the hallway.
If I'm correct he picked up the pen himself, then put it in Patricia's hand and wrote what would be, after, presumed as her last words / suicide note...
But why wipe prints in the bathroom? They're on the pen.
There is a clever point in the film
Patricia poisons one cup and places a sugar cube on the saucer to mark it
First: She looks away and Chuck switches the cube ONLY to the other cup and rotates the creamer. The poison is still in his cup
Second: Chuck looks away and Patricia rotates the cups and creamer AFTER moving the cube to the other cup. The poison is now in her cup WITH THE CUBE
Its not that she moved the cups and creamer correctly. That is obvious. Its that she moved the cube as well.
If she had left the cube and rotated the cups and creamer the cube would have been on Chucks saucer - not hers.
Why? Because he would have noticed it and rotated everything again and of course she would have as well
The twist to the scene is not that the cube was moved.
The twist has to be that Chuck had to have felt her rotate the tray on the bed so the cube didnt matter.