MovieChat Forums > The Transporter (2002) Discussion > How did Wall Street know Frank looked in...

How did Wall Street know Frank looked in the bag?


Just saw this again recently and I remembered this puzzling me the first time I watched the movie as well, and yet I still didn't get it again...

So Jason (Frank) looks in the bag and finds the girl (we know this as the viewer), but he ultimately delivers her in the bag to Wall Street, who immediately after hands him the briefcase with the bomb inside for that other job, which later blows up his car.

But how could Wall Street have known that Frank looked in the bag? Unless he had him under surveillance or something how did he know? Either it never explains it or it got past me twice!

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yeah i noticed that too

maybe you are connecting the briefcase bomb to the question about opening the package? i was thinking wall street already had the briefcase ready in advance, like that was his plan all along, and having nothing to do with frank opening the bag. that's how i took it





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Once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her Daddy in the bathtub.

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Well I agree he already had the bombed brief case prepared such that he gave it to Frank immediately after Frank gave him the bag. So yes I agree with you in that he probably was just going to kill him off anyway.

But later in the movie (I think it was when the cornered Wall Street in his office and Frank asked him why he planted the bomb and Frank said something back to him like "You broke your own rules, you looked in the bag."

I guess you could argue Wall Street was going to kill Frank anyway with the bombed brief case and then after Frank left and Wall Street opened the bag she either confessed or he figured it out somehow, but still it just seems kind of vague and choppy far as how they conveyed it in the movie. Don't get me wrong I liked the movie overall, this just seemed like a potential weird plot hole.

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that's true, he did say that in the office. i agree it's mysterious how he'd know that, now that you mention it



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Once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her Daddy in the bathtub.

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The slit in the duct tape on her mouth. She obviously couldn't have cut it herself so there's only one way it got there.

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Yessss!!!!! Well done my friend!!

Excellent deduction skills. I should get you to read my scripts! :)

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Yes there is a lot of things to suggest he looked in the bat, the slit on the tape, she probably had dirt on her clothes, etc... I'm not in any way arguing that.

What I am pointing out is Frank delivered her in the package, which was in it's original bag. In the trade-off scene they no sooner took the bag from Frank and Wall Street then handed him the bombed brief case. If you revisit that scene there is no way they could have known the bag or anything in it was compromised unless as I pointed out before they had spies on him or something.

Don't get me wrong, I like it when movies make you think and leaving out things is totally fine, but plot holes on the other hand...

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true, true

so it was pre meditated.


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Once there was a Hushpuppy, and she lived with her Daddy in the bathtub.

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Frank had to change his tire; Ergo maybe Wall Street noticed the spare tire and made an assumption since the spare tire would be in the trunk. Frank has a nice set of wheels on his car and the spare rim is different, it would be easy to spot out and put 2 and 2 together real quick. Two precise guys notice things like that.
Btw, did anyone else notice the bikini girl floating in the pool or was that just me?

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The bomb was supposed to be delivered somewhere. It is likely the bomb was set off remotely in the case that Frank did open the package. Otherwise he'd have delivered it to whatever address and the job would be over.

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no, that bomb was specifically made to kill Frank

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Heres the answer it all comes down to body language:

-When Wall Street takes the bag if you pay attention to Franks face you can see him eying the bag the whole time and having a look of regret on his face. After that you see wall street looking at franks face, than looking at the bag(remember this is a movie so everything is controlled) after that he says did you look in the bag. Watch the entire scene again and pay attention to their eyes/facial expressions.

-Also minor things could have contributed to that as well:

-Frank being late( True he had a flat tire) but that would add to any lingering paranoia that wall street might have since franks reputation is very high

-When wall street mentions about frank being late frank simply says he ran into a problem which is another indicator something is wrong

-He also could have been under minor surveillance

-How long was he late because a flat tire on a highly skilled driver should not take very long but if frank was very late for a "flat tire" he is most likely lying( In wall streets eyes) and than if someone is lying what is their reason for lying?


As per the bomb I take it as it was already pre-paired incase something like this went wrong than wall street can simply pass the bomb on. If everything wen't right with no hint of error than the bomb most likely would not have been delivered. I consider the bomb a contingency

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Good reply static_fan! I will have to revisit this and see. But your points all sound very valid!

Thanks

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Did you revisit it? I hope my post were helpful to you! I love reading Body language and that scene was full of it

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Those are excellent observations Static! :)

The only thing I would add to this is that she did not make a single peep until Frank opened the bag to give her a drink. When he pulls her out of the trunk and hands her over to Wall Street, she starts making her "help me" noises. Now watch how wall street looks at the bag, then looks back at Frank and asks"did you open the package?" Later in the film, we find out she was the daughter of the main bad guy, so her life was never in danger. From what I put together, she was being Transported to keep her quiet until the containers were moved, so Wall Street was tipped off by her cries for help. Think about it, as far as she knew, the one transporting her was working for wall street, so there was no reason to cry or beg.

That's how I made sense of it, along with those facial expressions! Frank does not have a good poker face lol.

You know, I've missed your sparkling personality.

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This one is very easy.

Frank delivers the package, and the two henchman pick it up and take it into the mansion. 55 seconds later, another henchman exits the mansion with the bomb/briefcase.

Those 55 seconds provided plenty of time for Wall Street's henchmen to confirm whether or not the package was in the same state that it should have been when Frank picked it up. But clearly they were able to see that it was not.

Here is the evidence that Frank had tampered with the package (eg: that he had opened it):

(1) Frank had cut a slit in the tape on her mouth to let her drink the soda. The henchmen would have easily seen this.

(2) When she escaped from Frank when feigning having to pee, she took the tape off and it fell on the ground. When Frank picked it up, it had stuff on it (eg: dried grass or leaves and/or dirt). When Frank catches the girl, he puts the tape back over her mouth and it still has the stuff on it. The henchmen would have easily seen this.

(3) Again, when she escaped briefly, she fell and ended up with leaves in her hair and dirt and scuff marks on her arms. Frank did nothing to clean her up, so the henchmen would have easily see this.

Basically, Frank delivered damaged goods to Wall Street. It is easy to assume that Wall Street would have assumed that the men who delivered the package originally to Frank would have made sure that she was in pristine condition. When Frank delivered her, the henchmen were able to quickly and easily see within 1 minute that her mouth tape had been cut, the tape had become dirty, and the package herself had become dirty as well. The only way this could have happened between the time the package was given to Frank and when he finally delivered it to Wall Street would have been if Frank had opened the package. So, once they saw that, they gave the nod to the bomb guy and when he came out with the briefcase, Wall Street knew immediately that they had determined that Frank had opened the package.

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I just watched it again. My theory is...

Wall Street asked him to deliver the bomb after Lai was delivered. Then Frank leaves with the bomb, and in the time it takes Frank to leave the mansion and get his soda, Wall Street will have given Lai some closer inspection, and may have found the slit in the duct tape and the fact that the ropes were cut by Frank, prompting him to set off the bomb via remote detonator because the Transporter failed his job and broke the rules. Most likely his way of testing Frank to see if he could trust him for future deliveries, and blowing him up to tie up loose ends when he realized he couldn't.

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The answer is simple. He never knew if he looked in the bag or not.

He was always going to kill him anyway "or try to" getting rid of lose ends... so he'd never speak of the girl. That's it mate.

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That's it alright

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Its a bit of a flaw in Franks carefully designed business model that people can hand him a bomb and he promises not to look at it.

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[deleted]

Ahh right.. my baad ! Just got to the scene you where referring to.

Yep! I see what you're on about now.

Apologies. :)

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