CAN SOMEONE EXPLAIN THE ENDING?
WTF? please explain why he is rooting a way younger blonde chick and has 2 kids???
shareHere's my theory, previously posted as a response to another poster who was also understandably perplexed:
After watching the crazy ending a few times, and reading a bunch of the plot summaries that were released to the retailers and press long before the film came out, I think I sort of have an idea of what the ending maybe was supposed to mean before the producers edited the movie into the idiocy we see today. The original plot summaries stated the Seagal's character traveled the world hunting down serial killers and was possibly insane himself and that Memphis was only one of his stops. My theory is that in the original screenplay there was some kind of trick ending involving his twin brother and that King had been operating under an assumed identity all along; the family we see at the end is either his "real" family or one that he's started under yet another identity. "King" goes to a new city every few months, using a different identity, and hunts and kills the killers. That's why he doesn't really follow police rules, too--he's not really a cop, but rather a serial killer of serial killers. And I bet that it was really Jacob who was murdered as a child and the grown up Seagal character is the brother everyone thought had been murdered--his mind cracked when he witnessed the murder and he mentally took his brother's place, starting the trend of adopting whatever identity suited him.
But again, there's noting in the finished film that really supports that. But we can all tell that the movie had the hell edited out of it after Seagal was no longer involved, so it’s not unreasonable to think that what we see now is significantly different than the original intention.
Or maybe my theory is all just crap and I came up with it just because I have a much better imagination than the makers of Kill Switch do.
Your theory would actually make a lot of sense.
Freedom of speech is a wonderful thing... so long as nobody's listening. Lex Luthor
I just watched KS again (on my personal player while on a long flight). And it is even more obvious to me now that the ridiculously extended fight sequences were added not only to add action but also to make up the time lost from the removal of the main plot of the movie. I think that the main plot of the movie wasn't originally Jacob's hunting down of the Grifter or the Hillbilly, but was much more focused on the female FBI's investigation of Jacob, and whether he was using the serial killer cases he investigated to cover up his own copycat murders.
Now, this "FBI investigating King" plot point is brought up, but only briefly and very near the end of the movie. But if you watch the whole movie closely, you can see where lots of dialog has been edited out of the earlier parts of the film--you can just tell because people often seem to be responding with expressions or emotions that seem out of place and/or saying things that have nothing to do with the conversation at hand. I don't think just bad filmmking or bad writing is the reason most of the dialog scenes make no sense or have no point. I think it's because they were editing out any dialog that had to do with the FBI investigation and also shuffling the order of the scenes. Take for instance the scene where King's partner, Storm, makes a late night visit to King's apartment, obviously to tell him something important. Well, he pretty much tells him nothing, has a big drink of bourbon or something, says something incongruous about being paranoid, and then leaves. I mean, what was that all about? Well, I think it was originally Storm telling him about the FBI investigation of him. And I think that the lone scene near the end of the movie where the FBI agent actually states that she thinks King is a serial killer was originally placed much earlier in the film, and then moved to the end later on. AND I think that all the dialog in the next to the last scene, where we hear what Storm is reading in King's goodbye note, was replaced as well. Instead of the meaningless nonsense we hear in the released version, I believe we originally heard King telling Storm that the FBI agent’s suspicions were partially correct. I think in that note, King confessed to Storm that he is indeed a serial killer, but that he is a serial killer of serial killers. And then he tells him that Jacob is not his real name and that he’ going back to his real life, or something. Not sure about that part. But I am sure that he tells storm that he’s a serial killer of serial killers.
AND I’m sure that this was a much more interesting, intelligent and more entertaining film before the studio butchered it. Maybe not a masterpiece, but much better than what we got. I’d love to see the original cut or read the original screenplay.
I think you're giving Steven too much credit here. Would it have been better with better editing? Certainly. But it's still a terrible movie. Looking at Stevens other ventures into director/producer seats, it's pretty clear he keeps it two dimentional.
It was a terrible film, and Steven is way to lazy for a action movie actor. There was a stuntdouble doing ALL his fights. Up to 80% of the fight with the pimp and the guys at the bar, Steven was not involved.
What!? The land of the free?! Whoever told you that is your ENEMY!
Well if you haven't heard. The fights were changed after Seagal left. The producers were nervous about the way the film was going and decided to change it up. Also you can tell in the editing that alot of the story was cut out. The producers get scared when its not like every other action film, example: ATTACK FORCE.
shareWell, don't get me wrong. I'm not saying that the original cut of Kill Switch, with it's original storyline intact, would have been a great film, or even nessesarily a standout DTV movie. Seagal (like Chuck Norris, Van Damme, etc) specializes in old school lowbudget action/adventure flicks, and those do have stock plots and quickly-recognizable characters (or, you could say cardboard stereotypical characters). And the lowbudget action formula is not limited to movies that actually have low budgets--you think a big hit like Fast and Furious has depth?
Whether big budget or low, this kind of action movie is, by definition, simplified entertainment. It's not about character development.
So, it's pretty clear that Seagal is aiming at a different (and some would say lower) target with his films than Coppola did with The Godfather or Nolan did with The Dark Knight. But I think it's also obvious that Kill Switch could have been much better than it was if there had been less studio interference. The current version obviously doesn't even hit the low target Seagal was aiming at. And I don't think it's all his fault this time.
I agree. I think he is taking more time with his movies now and the producers butcherd it.
shareI have to agree with curtis-8. It seems like this movie was totally edited and re-edited into the stone age. That's the only explanation for this total mess of a movie. No one in there right mind would make a movie this intentionally ridiculous and incoherent. It kind of helps explain the sudden appearance of a family at the end of the movie. But methinks, maybe Seagal walked out of the middle of production in disgust or in search of a all-you-can-eat buffet and left the movie in limbo. Still I'd be ashamed to put my name on it and release it. It was really bad.
shareInteresting theory, and it makes quite a bit of sense. It would also explain his surprising lack of emotion over Celine's murder--being a "tough guy" is one thing, but doing "tough guy" dialogue moments after discovering your girlfriend's dead body? It makes a bit more sense if he considered her only a part of his cover identity and not part of his "real life"--stll pretty damn cold, though.
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"Little do they know how little I know about the little there is to know." - Neddy Seagoon
curtis-8,
I saw Kill Switch a few days ago and came here to see if anybody could explain the totally disjointed ending. One minute he's in Memphis, then suddenly he's in Russia (indicated by the kids saying "spasibo" when he hands them their gifts). Truly a WTF moment!
Anyway, your explanation (and the extra info that you provided about the producer's edits) makes a lot of sense. Thanks!
Oh yeah, another thing... Seagal's accent was bizarre! I have family and friends in Tennessee and none of them sound like that. :-P
My theory was that they just took a scene from a completely different Seagal film that was cut out and tacked it onto the end of this movie because they didn't have a finished script when they were done filming. lol
Though hard to win an argument with a smart person. It's impossible to win an argument with an idiot