MovieChat Forums > Rendition (2007) Discussion > Easy solution to an easy problem - call ...

Easy solution to an easy problem - call the media


The fake terrorists wife did not know where he was. Ergo she could go to the media and start a search. Create a Facebook campaign and such. Once the journalists see that he was on the plane but never registret into USA they would have a frontpage story. How often does a man goes missing in a freaking airport? The journalistic search for him would be a huge deal. Later she could have done more and not only get a frontpage story but also a story of the year. Just give the journalists all the names she has learned. Who took her husband, who does nothing about it and what politicians are to blame? She has more than enough information to make it a huge story that would last for weeks if not months. We are not talking about low level people that kidnap innocent people from USA and torture them in other countries. We are talking about extremely powerful people that know about it but still ignore it. That's such a huge a deal that I even imagine the president could resign over this.

Instead the CIA guy calls Washington Post when it's way to late. So the thing she should have done after 2 days she did not do. Hell, even Reddit by itself would make it a frontpage story. They love these kind of problems and conspiracies. Is she an idiot or something? Why go up and scream at the people that are responsible for it? They don't care at all about people screaming at them. They care about their image and job and they would all be fired in a single day if the story came out. Why just hold on to all that crucial information. She literary holds enormous power in her hands. And no one cares? Not even the people she is accusing? At worst they would offer her $10m to keep quiet. At worst they would kill her.

I like the movie. But this is obviously a huge hole in the story. No one is that stupid. Even idiots know that the media can help them when the government treats them unfairly.

reply

You make some good points, but I think you're missing a few things, and being a bit naive.

1. He is only imprisoned and tortured for about 1 week.
2. It takes the wife several days to find out that he has been taken, and the name of the senator who is responsible (i.e. the woman played by Meryl Streep).
3. Initially she is relying on her friend - the other senator's assistant, or whatever he is - and it's a few days before she learns that he isn't going to help.

The point of all this being that there really isn't time to go off and give the story to a news outlet. Even if she did, they aren't going to print something as soon as it turns out he's been taken. There was a legitimate reason for thinking that he had some dealings with terrorists. Don't get me wrong, I'm not saying that I agree with what was done, as far as holding people without charge and torturing them goes - in the movie or in real life - or that he was guilty. However in 2006, or whenever this movie was set - it might have been even earlier than 2006 - any news outlet is going to be very careful about what they say about a potential terrorist. If they made some claims against the government and he turned out to be guilty then that would be disastrous. Media careers have been ruined for far less.

So ... I don't think there was a hole in the story, or that anyone behaved stupidly. Um ... I also think you don't understand what the word 'literally' means. If you say "she literary holds enormous power in her hands," then you mean that she actually, really does have enormous power in her hands, which she didn't literally have. No one ever literally holds enormous power in their hands because it isn't possible to hold power in your hands. But I digress! I think you're mistakenly assuming that the movie took place over a longer period of time...

We're from the planet Duplon. We are here to destroy you.

reply

We have fallen even further down the sink hole!

reply