MovieChat Forums > L'homme du train (2002) Discussion > The Heist *****Spoilers*****

The Heist Spoilers

posted 18 years ago by thatsnumberwang
6 replies | jump to latest

Will someone please explain to me the rationale for the guys betraying Milan at the end of the heist? It looked to me like Milan was the one at the safe getting all the money...so it's not like they made it away with money (unless there were some in cashier drawers.)

I guess maybe there is a backstory there that we will never know. Maybe Milan sub-conciously knew that these guys were going to screw him somehow. I just don't understand going through the whole rigamarole of a heist only to finger someone. And it looked like they got away scot free and weren't taken in by law enforcement. Usually if you cut a deal like that it's for a lesser penalty, not to get away without punishment.

Like others have mentioned, I think the ending was a damn shame to a finely nuanced character study. I think for writers the temptation to leave things unresolved or blurred at the conclusion, really just amounts to hubris. Like they're worried we haven't excercised our brains enough, so by golly they're gonna make us!

Comments?

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] minalex 18 years ago

Indeed it looks like a plot-hole and I don't see why the included it. There are many natural ways for a heist to go wrong.

[–] tintin-23 17 years ago

I don't believe anybody betrayed Milan. While Milan and his partner were inside the bank, Milan's other two partners, the look-out and the driver of the escape car, were outside. When the police swat team arrived, these two guys just took off to save their own necks, abandoning their two partners inside the bank. It is that simple.

Also, Manesquier did not rat on Milan's enterprise. How the police got wind of the heist is totally irrelevant: it just had to happen.

By the way, one commentator stated that the French police would not dispatch a swat team for such a bank robbery. I beg to differ: there are many bank robberies in France, and the French police take these "things" very seriously. They do use their swat teams in such occasions.

[–] StefL 16 years ago

The police were already staking the bank out before the robbers arrived. Remember that we are given a shot of numerous snipers with rifles tralied at the bank soon after the robbers have entered.
Furthermore, it is after Milan has examined a banknote that he suddelly calls so his associate (Luigi?) 'Let's get out of here'. I think he may have noticed that the money in the vault has either been replaced with counterfeit or marked, and then draws the conclusion that they have been set up.

[–] ashogo 16 years ago

I think it is explained, or pretty clearly implied in the film what happened. One of the guys in the robbery team (the driver who never talks) ratted them to the police, so it was basically a big setup. Luigi was arrested after Milan was shot.

[–] southrules 16 years ago

When is it explained the driver ratted them out? Do tell, please.

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