Noreen let me down. Spoilers

You make a good point. I had a similar reaction.

Ditto. I really liked the film but the ending didnt set right with me.

Madsen was insane and the more dangerous of the two killers in the diner, so I'm not disappointed at all that she picked "Smith" over Madsen. Smith was a cold assassin; it was a job. Madsen's reasons for killing people, however, had no rhyme or reason at all. Plus, Noreen had bonded with "Smith" throughout the night, so once finding out he's a killer, he's still hard to hate and he's an ally when facing the bigger threat.

“It's mercy, compassion, and forgiveness I lack. Not rationality.”

I don't think her aim was to save his life. She was essentially saving her own. She knew Madsen would kill her once he finished Smith (couldn't leave any witnesses), so when the opportunity presented itself she went for it.

As for being on John's side, she was probably confused and not in the right frame of mind after slitting someone's throat. It wasn't until she had the handcuff key in her hand that her brain fog cleared.



It's all fun and games until someone gets caught. Then it's larceny.

Smith was handcuffed to the chair. It made sense for her to attack Madsen since he was free and had gun in his hand. Deal with that fool first and then finish up with Smith. Plus I think there was an outside chance that she thought he had been lying to Madsen inorder to save his life.

I was hoping that Smith would try to downplay everything he told to Madsen's character, basically try to make it out to be a made-up story to keep Madsen distracted so Noreen could get the drop on him. Then after she freed him, he kills her and the movie ends. Personally, I would have liked that ending better even though I liked Noreen.

I agree. But part of me wondered if she wasn't really that appalled by it, but intrigued. She's a small town girl and hasn't been around anything exciting in her mundane life. I'm not saying murders are exciting, but they must light up some sort of thrill in her, some sort of dangerous thrill that breaks the monotony.

That's why she was talking about the murder so much to people. And why she thought that Doe was the killer immediately. I mean, even the deputy didn't think about the story they heard on the radio even more after they heard it.

She also had no problem killing Smith at the end.

I was expecting John to pull the old, "You believed the crap I was telling him? I'm a salesman. I was just telling him what he wanted to hear, buy some time and keep him from killing me."