MovieChat Forums > The Contract (2007) Discussion > Freeman was good, what was everyones fav...

Freeman was good, what was everyones favorite plot hole?


I thought Morgan Freeman did a good job with what he was given. That's the best compliment I can come up with. This movie reminded me of a high school student writing an essay on the bus ride to school that is due first period. It had poor dialouge and there is no way it could have been edited. There were sooooo many mistakes and plot holes that were easily picked up without even looking for them. What was everyones favorite mistake/plot hole.

I had to laugh when the trackers open fire with automatic weapons even though the man they are trying to save is inside. Then if that isn't enough to get you laughing, when he enters the cabin, he ditches the gun and goes in weilding a knife. One of many errors.

Also that was almost Naked Gun'ish when they crash the helicopter and before the dust even settles, they hop out injury free and pissed at each other.

reply

Maybe I missed it but how did Morgan Freeman manage to come up with the rifle that he attempted to use at the funeral.






http://shops.half.ebay.com/djn19851_W0QQ

reply

They dont say where he got the rifle but one would logically assume someone in his profession would have a stash of equipment or have access to buy equipment from other contacts he would have had.

reply

I was thinking the same thing!!

You mean we missed the scene where Morgan stops the sheriff, steals his vehicle, presumably to go to the nearest walmart to trek back to the gun section and pick up none other than a high-powered, military caliber sniper's rifle! Yeah - those are readily availabe on the shelf at any discount superstore LOL

Or, maybe he just ran over some random hitchhiking, now drug-addicted ex-army soldier (who was carrying a sniper rifle no less) and stole his piece from him.

We should be counting our blessings that they didn't try to explain that one - it would have made a remarkably poor movie even poorer (as if that were possible).

I was playing solitaire on my laptop less than halfway through the movie, while it played on in the background as I "watched" with complete bewilderment - it was such riveting, a-class material - NOT!

Makes you wonder what Cusack and Freeman were thinking when they read the script. I mean, were they doing someone a favor or something with this film? Maybe they had their assistants read the script for them (which would explain a lot). I kept finding myself, throughout the whole movie, wondering if someone had morphed in the faces of 2 a-list celebrities into a b, nay c, rated movie.

Totally bizarre from start to finish and on SOOOO many different levels. Glad I didn't buy it or rent it - just got it free from the library.


"It's like the planet of the clangers in here!" - Vicar of Dibley

reply

Most likely in the apartment he just rented at the beginning of the movie. That's where he left Ray's son. This was not a plot hole...

That being said, this movie was terrible for so many other reasons.

reply

Most likely in the apartment he just rented at the beginning of the movie. That's where he left Ray's son. This was not a plot hole...

That being said, this movie was terrible for so many other reasons.

reply

My favorite plot hole was when they bashed the coffee in Washington State. That's like bashing the oranges in Florida.

reply

[deleted]

My favorite plot hole was when they bashed the coffee in Washington State. That's like bashing the oranges in Florida.

LOL


A list of every movie I've seen:
http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=20984254

reply

I agree!

reply

What's worse is that he brought the coffee in mugs!!!
Seriously? Coffe mugs? From Dunkin Donuts? To go? In a national forest???

I was cringing throughout most of this movie at how bad it was.

reply

The kid can't get cell phone reception, but the bad guy with the laptop following them seems to have no trouble with Internet access.

reply

I was thinking the same thing. A throwaway line about a satellite uplink would have solved that, but alas that was not the case.

reply

excellent catch! he gets streaming video too!

reply

omgi thought the same thing. how does this kid not have cell service but the guy has crazy wifi? wtf??

follow me on twitter Ill follow u back!~~nikki_isfree2011

reply

What I thought was funny is that Mr. Small Town Police Chief couldn't look at the 2 cars in the parking lot and say "Hey, my friend Ray is out there, maybe he needs my help."

reply

[deleted]

I am not sure they are really plot holes - though there are certainly lots of those!

Both of the examples you give: about breaking the bridge, and getting out of the chopper, are kind of stupid things to do for those characters, but hey, people do stupid stuff that gets them in trouble all the time.

Breaking the bridge probably would have slowed the chase only a bit, but actually the chasers were in a chopper. However, at the time, Ray couldn't have known that. The cop was dumb to get out of the chopper, but if it was your buddy who had just collapsed (and the cop couldn't have known he was dead at that point) wouldn't most people at least think of going to check out what happened?

reply

Exactly. Almost everything stupid about this movie was the typical Stupid Movie Problem: Writing character actions that no sane person would do, and which are not supported by the characterization we see. I can live with the big motivations, but every small action is dumb and not what any of us would do or say.

Disappointed. Took me about 10 minutes to get that way, as it had promise even once it started playing, but it kept being stupid.

reply

What I was wondering was why Cardin didn't just sit down. I don't think Cusack's character would have shot him. Also, what was the big deal about knocking don the bridge over those rocks. It slowed the bad guys down by about 5 minutes, less time than it took to knock the bridge down.

reply

AAARRRGGHH! I was thinking the same thing for the whole movie, I watched it with my dad and we couldn't believe how ridiculous the whole premise of the movie was, with this hitman doing whatever this 'nice' father figure (who was clearly not going to shoot him in front of his son unless his life was in danger)tells him to do. I love Cusack and Freeman, but this was the worst movie I have seen in a long time, it was so bad I felt sick when I looked at the case the next morning and my dad- who picked it at the video store over Danny Boyle's Sunshine! Why dad? Why?- has banned himself from picking movies.

reply

WTF was with the guy playing chess when they herd the helicopter?? They duck down hiding for like 20 seconds and he decides to pull out his laptop and play chess with some dude!! WTF??? I was thinking that it might have some relevance later but no!!

reply

[deleted]

I thought about the same thing. Cardin as old as he was could have said "I broke my leg and I can't walk". The teacher would never shoot, 'cos he didn't know how dangerous Cardin was.
But no... Cardin decided to walk away from the river and lose his friends

Very very dumb.

reply

Or just holler out "I'm over here guys !!" (after they shot the driver in the parking lot scene). Its a father and son bringing a bad guy in to the authorities... it ain't like the father is gonna shoot the dude in cold blood, in front of his son no less, for yelling out. That scene should have been the end of the story right there. Well actually, It was for me - its when I shut it off :-)

reply

Like another one mentioned in here, my "favorite" was how the kid never got a signal for his cellphone, while at the same time one of the hitmen (Jonathan Hyde) was constantly surfing the internet (even playing online chess) in the forest on his laptop, I mean wtf...

reply

I admit the movie has a really bad screenplay, though it didn't bore me, yet there weere like 10 times I said "whats...?" The worst moment for me was when morgan freeman aproaches to the FBI woman and said "if anything happens to ray or his son I'll come after you" (or kinda) WTF?!!! Why would his character do such an idiotic thing... meaning, what does he gains by doing so? It surprisses me, Cusack and Freeman are those actors that like of garantee a good movie, this time I dont think they even read the script, was like a "ok pay me, where do I act?"

Darth Side of the Moon

reply

The hitman always plays against his chess-program, not online.
When they came closer to the cabin, he is online. The question is: what phone use Frank taking the pictures/clips? The boys phone or the brokers?

reply

The main plot itself, the whole thing about ex-cop, gym-teacher with his son in tow taking that professional assassin through the woods to a police station climbing down rocks and shooting people. Okay... there might be people into that stuff, but seriously, who would've tried it when he'd notice there are 4 armed men after them... he doesn't even stop when they're being shot at FROM A CHOPPER and hunted through the woods with military grade weapon... he just leaves his son alone and goes a-hunting after the bad hitman guy.
There were so many times Freeman could’ve likely escaped yet he didn’t try anything. Only worse ending I imagined was that Cusack succeeds killing all the bad guys and hands Freeman to the cops being a hero and all… Also why did the two tourists have to follow them and get shot? The hitmen weren’t even after them and there are always 4 directions in any wood (except ones with steep mountains etc.). Also funny how the chick got over her friend being shot in a matter of minutes.

reply

Yeah, I just didn't get why Freeman didn't just stop where he was.
Whats Cusak going to do to make him move?
Shoot him in the leg?
That'll sure make him move fast.
And killing him would defeat the purpose of him working so hard to get him to the police.

reply

My favourite is definately after he shoots down the chopper with his newly-acquired assault rifle, he gets rid of it and goes back to the pistol!!! WTF???? Did it not occur to him that a gun that can bring down a chopper might be handy against the FOUR HITMEN hot on his tail???????

reply

Something heard about ammunition? Would you carry a gun with no bullets left in the magazine. All possible rounds for this gun are gone! Count it if you want to.

reply

yeah, I thought the same thing when reading that guy's post. Still a stupid move using up all the ammo shooting at the helicopter like that, but that seems like believable stupidity to me, just inexperience. Personally I would have shot in bursts, actually trying to AIM, until they left so I'd still have use for the thing

http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=Ace19444&view=videos
music videos I've made^

reply

I hated...

1) How the police chopper pilots don't notice anything odd about a hiker in a business suit, and on top of that how the 2nd chopper pilot, seeing his friend topple over, STILL doesn't think there's anything wrong about a hiker in a business suit AND his friend toppling over, so he gets out to see what's up.

2) How that one guy who was pointing at Freeman's character ends up shooting the boyfriend hiker right through the heart because of a helicopter jolt - the probability of that happening is infinitesimal!

3) How the hiker girl got over the death of her lover in minutes. And how she starts falling for Cusack's character almost immediately.

4) How the bad guy with an SMG misses Cusack, who doesn't even try to avoid the bullets (just holds his hands up). It's not like the trees around him stopped the bullets - the bullets just spray around the fictional distortion field around Cusack.

5) How bad the acting was, especially around Freeman's goons, the FBI agents, and the small town Cops.

6) After confronting Freeman at the funeral, and stopping him from killing the businessman, why didn't Cusack warn the police so that the businessman was better protected? Days later, the businessman "dies in an accident", with "no suspicion of foul play." Assassination attempt + open contract = Suspicion!

7) It's never clear what endears Freeman's character to Cusack and his son. Him confronting the FBI/Military woman at the end was prompted by no established character motivation.

8) Horrible dialogue.

reply

How about this scene? Freeman gets into car accident and is put in the hospital. The sheriff sits down with him and then tells him he's going to have two men on him through the night and leaves.

Now the camera shows a window behind the sheriff and the bed Freeman is in on the right side. As the camera pans out while the sheriff is leaving the room, you can see the hallway on the left and the room on the right (as if there was no roof).

Okay, so...if the hallway is on the left, what is that window for? To see in the next room? Shouldn't the window be where the bed was and the bed be where the window was?

I know that it really doesn't matter but I had to laugh when I saw that. I like the minor things.

Overall, this movie was bogus. The first scene between son and father was just downright embarrassingly written.

reply

oh my goodness, I just LOVE the black guy's quotes
"I hate *beep*' scenery" and
"Even a blind hog finds acorns sometimes"
That was the worst actign I've ever scene. THe two small-town cops were WAY overplaying they're stupid small-towness

Here is what I think happened:
*Cusack's phone rings*
"Hello?"

"Hey, it's Morgan Freeman. What are you doing this weekend?"

"Not sure, maybe I'll act in this movie i have a script for. Wanna come?"

"Yeah, I'm bored. Sounds good."

they obviously didn't look at the script or anything b/c why would people like them agree so this kind of thing. THey sure fooled me into thinking it would be great! Actign like it's a good move...That was the best acting right there!

reply

haha half way through the movie i turned to my friend and said "that character is the most token black guy in the history of movies." another gem was when he made what im assuming was a joke about not being able to fly the helicopter. so terrible and so hilarious.

the helicopter crash made me laugh as well.

one that i don't think has been mentioned is in the beginning when the marshalls are trying to escape in the car and the one guy shoots the driver, causing the car to go over the edge. two things that were terrible about this, the first being that i'm fairly sure the shooter fired from his hip with a machine gun and the driver is killed with a single bullet to the head. secondly, if you're trying to save your friend in a car, maybe don't shoot the driver as he's swerving toward a cliff. shooting the tires would have been just fine. i would have loved for that to happen because then the movie would have ended there.

reply

Neither of the two guys in that scene were wearing a suit of any kind...

reply

Friend? It was her husband!

reply

I liked when the FBI woman asked for a croissant, and the cops said no one in town knew what it was. I've never been to Washington state, and it may have been a small town. But I can't think of anyone, let alone a whole town, not knowing what a croissant is. I mean, they're even at fast food places now.

reply

The cops were just yanking their chains, playing up the dumb hick angle that the FBI people had them stereotyped as.

reply

See... what I got from the small town cops was that they weren't as dumb as they looked. Oh sure they were dumb (not taking Ray's call at the end). But the whole coffee and croissant thing I took as them mocking the FBI agents. The FBI agents just swooped in and acted like pompous *insert bad word of choice here*. Hell, I'd be pissed too.

*Knocks coffee onto agent* "Oh! Sorry! We country folk are awfully clumsy!

See, everyone else seems to see it as him really being that moronic... but i feel like by that time they were intentionally acting like country hicks just cause the agents were being asses...

Then again, i watched the movie in the middle of the night so i could be interpreting things completely wrong.

reply