Okay, I watched every minute of The Last Enemy, enjoyed some of it, etc etc etc.
BUT it ended and I STILL don't know what the heck was going on. Three questions, to start with:
1) Why did Russell kill Michael at the end? What was Russell's story, anyway?
2) Who was the guy who got killed on Russell's electric fence? Who was he working for?
3) Who was the "last enemy"? Russell?? WHY?
thanks for any insights.
Glad you opened this thread. I have the same questions. Hope somebody will answer them!
1) Russell's job was to find ALL the loose-end evidence and destroy it. That's why he killed Michael, Cooper, etc. Probably Yasmin, too. Russell was a high-ranking undercover government operative on the level of the two ladies. His job was to get rid of all the evidence that this fatal tag experiment ever happened.
2) I forget. Porbably someone the black operative (who wasn't as high-ranking and wasn't told all the info) sent to track the fugitives. Also, it served to perpetuate the scenario that Russell wanted to perpetuate -- that he was being hunted and that he wanted justice for his "stepdaughter."
3)Don't know, but my suspicion is, the govenment itself. You know, Big Brother and all that.
. . . . . . . .
I have tons of questions myself, but I might help a little with your questions. I think the show used Russell as one big red herring, because up until the very end, you think he's a good guy trying to do the same things that Stephen and Yassim and Michael are doing. There are many things he did and other things that happen that don't jibe with his story as just a hitman, and here are some:
1. Why did he need to see Nadir (his supposed step-daughter)'s body? Somebody dug it up and burned it, and we can assume that the government did it, and Russell knew it. So, why would he go through the trouble of digging it up?
2. After dropping Stephen and Yassim off in their blue outfits, why did his helper tell him that they were going to be in trouble if Russell didn't go back there to get them. It was then that we were made to think that Russell was a good guy--it looked like he cared.
3. If he was an assassin working for the gov't, then who were the other two Russian (I'm assuming they're Russian b/c it sounded like they were speaking Russian) assassins? Who hired them? They could have easily have killed Russell, too. That's a big whole in the story, unless it's just a huge red herring.
4. Russell was outfitted with great technology. It looked like he had his own TIA system in his original outpost. How come no one asked him about it? The fact that they didn't hurts the story a bit.
Your question #2: the guy who got killed on the fence was definitely the Russian assassin, b/c he saw them just before, and, like Michael, followed Stephen to the hideout.
Your question #3: As I was watching the earlier episodes, I thought that the "last enemy" was going to be "oneself". By this, I mean that England, in trying to seek and destroy its enemies, in the end would turn on itself. Wait, this is what they did. The last enemy is the "self". England's enemy is itself, because they've in effect gotten rid of all others, and so must watch its own population to make sure that they don't catch on or rebel or blow the whistle or whatever.
One good indication that Russel was not who he said he was, or that something
was fishy was that when the old guy who liked art, the one who finally killed
himself in the museum hot the pictures of his supposed daughter being
cremated ... when his door was painted and he was being harrassed.
How would Russell have had access to all of that if he had not been working
for the government all along?
This movie started out sort of smart but it quickly got over its own head,
I guess it was its own last enemy! ;-)
It was pretty good though, I enjoyed it.
"This movie started out sort of smart but it quickly got over its own head,
I guess it was its own last enemy! ;-)"
TY for that and amen and LOL!
It was a *beep* ending.
Scriptwriters lost control and jumped overboard.
I'm inclined to this explanation. I heard or read an interview with the author (I think on NPR or WGBH site), and he said he plotted it out very carefully. Hard to believe. Russell could have killed the three actors any time - what happened that caused him to do it? Russell actually enables the actors to investigate. Why do the three govt people try to kill Michael (in opening scene) then have Russell cooperate with him?
However... the last enemy is Stephen. Eleanor says "you are the last person we want for an enemy, Stephen". Now, whether that is - to the audience - ironic is the question.
for #2 He was a hitman, Bulgarian or Romanian, they said but I forgot. Anyway, Barbara hired him anonymously so the man doing most of the dirty work wouldn't know who he was working for and would be expendable.
I've got another question. Who was the third conspirator, George Gibbon, the guy who shoots himself in front of his painting? Is there some special reason Barbara wanted Russel to un-nerve him?
And, why the scene where Russel tracks down Nye's operative in Afghanistan? Just to check if Nye was really on their side? Why wouldn't he be?
I really wanted this to be good, but between the anachronistic computer nonsense and the blatant preachiness, I couldn't enjoy it. When the street market bombing happened, you'd think maybe one of the characters might have at least had second thoughts about trying to undermine TIA. It would have made for better drama if it wasn't so obvious from the start where judgment would fall.
Russell was paid, or compensated in some way to kill Michael. Michael could not be
allowed to live because he had the evidence and knew what was going on, and if it
got out it could bring down governments, etc.
I believe the guy who was fried was the hit man who was stalking Stephen and
who killed the microbiologists to tie up loose ends for the politicians.
The last enemy ... who knows ... I guess it is us, the people and the government
who are going to bring this madness around one way or another.
[deleted]
As to #3, "Who was the "last enemy", the writer explains it as:
Who is the last enemy?
In a sense it's Stephen, because he is the compliant man who turns around and stands up to the state. In the eyes of the state, the last enemy is the individual. After all, it wasn't a country that sent airplanes into the Twin Towers. It was a group of individuals. The suicide bombers here in Britain were individuals. But when the state starts targeting individuals as the enemy, we need to be alert to protect the rights of individuals. That was the dilemma I wanted to write about.
I have read the other threads, and i think you are completely right about Russell truthfully being Yasim's stepfather.All the reasons you cited are correct imo. As further evidence,when cooper was let out of the van he screamed "will somebody plse tell this guy [russell] that i had nothing to do w/ his daughter's death", referring to the ranting that russell had been doing against cooper after russell kidnapped cooper. Also, russell found yasmin in the coffee shop and thanked her.Another poster said that before the cooper murder, russell had bargained with barbara that she would give him cooper (creator of the tag/virus that killed russell's daughter)if he would kill michael.and russell wouldn't have killed cooper before when he had him in his van because it was not until cooper revealed his part in the virus experiment that russell realized that it was cooper who was 'the one who killed' hi daughter. i think that this last trade w/ the govt. would be russell's last interaction w/ the govt. His goal of killing his daughter's killer had been satisfied. but if russell was as anti-govt as he appeared, why he killed michael is a plot hole imo.
on further reflection, i think russell played a strong part in ending the whole virus/experiment/fiasco because russell was the one who did the 'burn them all' graffiti that caused the prime minister to shoot himself, and the invasion of the black guy's home/ copying of all his computer files etc.I think russell was key to everything actually but there were too many holes in the plot for him to be fully clear to me.
The way to have what we want
Is to share what we have.
I think Russell didn't kill anyone unless he got the order to proceed (from the two ladies, the blonde one turned out to be Home Secretary, right?). Michael was allowed to move about because the government wanted to know the extent of his knowledge about the virus and to see who else was involved who could potentially expose the government about the fiasco.
Russell was never Nadir's stepfather, it was just a plot to inspire trust or sympathy. Notice as soon as he was done killing the last scientist involved in creating the virus, access to the main frame from the computer in his lair was suddently pulled.
I didn't get the part about the Russian killers either!
I do think Yasmin was spared as she didn't have any proof of anything without Michael. As a non-national it would be very easy to keep her out of the UK. Stephen was allowed to live. Probably to learn if he had planted some kind of disruptive computer virus in the computer system and also because no one thinks he's got the guts to fight back. He is shown broken and in tears but at the same time I feel that after the initial shock he could pull himself together and even fight the system from within.
It would have been interesting to see if he could, but I don't think there will be a sequel. I believe Stephen is the Last Enemy simply because he is the last person government think will fight the system: a powerless, dutiful, compliant citizen.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result"
well, now i've switched thinking again, thanx to you. (will you plse stop confusing things with the truth?!!)
The way to have what we want
Is to share what we have.
well, now i've switched thinking again, thanx to you. (will you plse stop confusing things with the truth?!!)
Hey, just trying to help.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result"
Hej Cacri,
fancy meeting you here!
Just watched TLE over the last two days, and I think it all became clear at the end...
- except for the Russian killers!
Who hired them? What were they supposed to do?
And if someone else (another government who wanted intelligence about the whole 'Tag Me' or whatever it was called operation?) was interested enough to hire two hit men in the first place, then why not follow it up to the end? That whole storyline fizzled out (bad choice of words I guess) at the electric fence. It seemed it was just thrown in to create more suspense and mystification - but isn't there some screenwriting 101 rule that says you at least have to explain it... a bit?
Does anyone have any idea?
@vertigothic70 -I'm all over the place.
Another question: were the Russian killers the same that lured Stephen into the homeless shelter to donate blood, then attacked him and placed the tag on him?
The above spoiler banner is for those who haven't see the whole thing.
I don't think so... the guys who attacked him after he left the shelter planted the UnaS tag in his arm didn't they? That was shown in a flashback at the end when the blonde explained it. So those thugs must have been working for the British government. And the Russians didn't have anything to do with the cover-up... right? They had a different agenda... whatever it was!
Will watch Hawking one of these days. When shall we two meet again, I wonder?
I guess I was dead wrong about "the Russians". I just can't figure it out then. I give up. I think the writer threw those two in there to muddle up the plot.
I watched Hawking on Youtube (it is not available anywhere else!). I'm a big fan of Hawking and of course I'm so used to seeing him in the wheelchair and all that I'd forgotten he was once a young man with dreams of love and family.(snif!)
I tend to watch all kind of weird of movies. You'll probably see me lurking about the Blake 7 board as well.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result"
I was determined not to think about these vexing Russians anymore, but suddenly something occurred to me (often happens when I'm in the bathtub).
Turning my previous argument upside down - if they were the ones who planted the chip inside Stephen's arm, I suppose they would have been working for Eleanor. Since Russell was hired by Turney - the Geraldine James character - one hand might not have known what the other was doing. Turney only told Nye about 'the sweeper' (= Russell) fairly late in the game, so even he didn't really know what was going on.
Also, someone must have been writing those "Burn Them All" messages to Gibbon, who was driven to suicide, either because of his guilt or out of the conviction that the cover-up wouldn't succeed. I'm not on solid ground here, but I got the impression that he was someone quite important - the Home Secretary, and Eleanor 'inherited' his post? Or do I turn her into a far too sinister character...? Anyway, what motives would Russell have had for scaring Gibbon? And it wasn't anyone else. (?)
The Russians weren't out to get Stephen, they wanted to get to Yazim, right? Eleanor also offered him a 'golden' way out several times, so it wouldn't clash with her apparently genuine concern for her ex.
We weren't given any information about someone from the outside involved in the whole story, also it wouldn't make much sense - in that case, Michael's murder wouldn't be the last loose end. Therefore the Russians must have been working for one of the main players we saw, it can only be Eleanor - she clearly was the one who came out on top after the whole mess.
...or am I completely befuddled by now?
* * * * *
I tend to watch all kind of weird of movies.
Who doesn't? Although rather than sci-fi, vintage horror is more my thing. But I have a weak spot for dystopian stories. Since you're a Hawking fan and sci-fi buff, I've been thinking of trying to lay my hands on the 2007 mini-series Masters of Science-Fiction. Have you watched that by any chance? It looks very interesting. (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0772139/)
I really thought the Russians were following Eleanor's order, but I can't tell anymore. I will have to watch the whole thing again. But I swear that if I cannot get a better idea of who those two are I will have to think the writer just threw the Russians in as a useful/useless diversion.
My best ideas come to me when I'm running errands which is pretty much the only time I get to myself these days (sigh). I haven't been in a bathtub for more than 5 minutes since... bl00dy h3ll I can't remember the last time. Moving on...Moving on...
I can't believe that I haven't heard of Masters of Science-Fiction. Must check out asap. I find dystopian stories so grim. I'm more into works which explore future societies with complex sociopolitical structures (like Dune). I think this is why I was interested in TLE. I thought it would explore a future society and all that. In a way it did, I guess.
p.s. sorry about the typos. I should really pay more attention. Mea culpa.
I couldn't possibly watch TLE again! Not soon, anyhow.
Those awful yellow sex flashbacks alone, ugh. Just getting a clearer idea of what the hell was going on wouldn't be worth it...
Dystopian stories have a positive effect on me - paradoxically, perhaps. Especially stories which reinforce my convictions about the value of individuality and personal freedom. That makes me sound a little simple-minded, I guess, and rather pompous, but there it is. However, stories like that are usually a quite obvious criticism of society as it is or what it easily could become. I suppose imagined worlds with very different societies can be a lot more fascinating to more enterprising minds.
LOL. I didn't say I'm going to watch TLE right away or anything.
Dystopian stories can be as sophisticated as they come. It is all in the execution. Anyway, try this oldie but goodie: Roger Zelazny's This Immortal. Myself I love stories where the individual has to strain against the restrictions imposed by society (or work around the rules) to assert his individuality and/or gain personal freedom. It makes me sound like a rebel, right? But I guess that is why I was interested in TLE ...except I didn't see the grim ending coming. I hate it when I'm in the mood for a rosy Hollywood ending and instead I get the grim European one.lol.
"Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again and expecting a different result"
I like a Happy End as much as the next person, but - blame it on my European background - I think the ending was the best thing about TLE. It was very bleak, but consequently so. It was a comment not only on what society had become, but on Stephen's character - he didn't want the outside world to interfere with his work, now he can't interfere any longer... "You can focus on your mathematics now, that's what you always wanted, wasn't it?" Saying, in effect, that it's 'apolitical' people like him who passively allowed things to get that far, and when he took a stand, it was too late. When he began caring for other human beings, it was too late. It was his personal tragedy - everything he lost, he had just learnt to value.
...boy, am I glad that Sherlock isn't like this!
Thanks for recommending The Immortal. I read Zelazny's Lord of Light a while ago, I liked it. Like I said, I'm not particularly interested in sci-fi, but I can't resist buying old sci-fi paperbacks from bargain bins. Absolutely love the cover art!
Ahh come on guys, I'm sure that, if you'd just payed close attention to certain scenes from the series, all these questions about Russel would have a fairly simple explanation.
1. First time we see Russel, he is randomly looking around Nadir's apartment, not looking for anything specific, and he realizes that the apartment is being monitored by the BI only after he actually finds a camera. While doing this, however, he picks up a number of family pictures Nadir had in a frame, suspecting they might come in useful at some point.
2. Now the "holy trinity" of BI conspirators get together and review the images of Russel. They immediately identify him as an old intelligence officer who went "off the grid" a couple of years before, and are somewhat scared at the perspective of him not being on their side anymore.
3. However correlating the 2 facts above with what we see later on in the story, Russel having some sort of "hacked in" access to T.I.A from his hideout, also he arranged one of the rooms with a scarf and the pictures he stole from Nadir's apartment, in order to make his "stepfather" claim legitimate, I think I can accurately explain his intentions and actions.
So, at the start of the series, Russel has isolated himself from other BI colleagues and lives in an abandoned warehouse, but he has a way of extensively monitoring outside activity by his remote access to T.I.A. In this way he documents the odd mircobiologists deaths that have been occurring, but he also sees that one of them, Nadir, has recently arrived in the UK, which prompts him to check out her apartment.
It is unclear exactly at which point in the story Russel "resumes" his job for BI. One can see at different moments in time that at the meetings between Turney,Gibbon and Nye they are unsure where his allegiance lies, and perhaps he becomes personally employed by only Turney and/or Brooke as Russel is the one who threatens Gibbon into killing himself and then stalks/breaks into Nye's house, not to mention the fact that he actually investigates Nye's trip to Afghanistan, to uncover the circumstances in which the RPG attempt on the Jeep took place. However, by the end of the series he wraps up the remaining loose ends by killing Cooper and Michael and ensuring the cover-up is successful.
Even though, retrospectively, it might look like Russel had ample opportunities to either kill or hinder the progress of the 2 brothers and Yasim during the series, it's pretty evident to me that he did not do so earlier first because he wasn't in a position to know the full picture of the on-going events, and later on he couldn't act before being 100% sure of catching all of the people who knew about the tagging experiment. It's something that Nye and Gibbon discuss shorty before Gibbon blows his brains out, the plates have to keep spinning until everyone involved is accounted for.
On another note, the 2 assassins(who aren't russian, they speak romanian to each other for some reason) essentially serve the same purpose as a less sophisticated Russel, the only difference being that they were only given a hit order on Michael and Yasim, and they didn't actually know they were working for the British Intelligence Office.
It is unclear exactly at which point in the story Russel "resumes" his job for BI - not really unclear. It was after Turney and Nye saw that video of Nadir's body being cremated. It was alluded when they suspected him and said that whoever sent then a video, wants something, that he will switch sides. Although he was not on anyone's side, really, from what I gathered. I am unsure of his initial motives. If he was off the grid, what was his share in the whole story, then?
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