MovieChat Forums > The Next Three Days (2010) Discussion > Everything planned, even a street parade...

Everything planned, even a street parade?


Crowe's character, John, planned a lot of stuff in this movie and most was believable. but exiting the building and walking into the street parade..... that by itself is possible but highly unlikely. Then he turned his jacket inside-out and he just happened to have the right colours and then he put on a cap with just the right logo. This part was quite implausible for me.

reply

I don't think it was a parade, they were going to some sports game. He had a P on his jacket and the yellow colours, and the cap, it was a team, Penguins. He must have known there was a game on.

reply

It was a Steelers game. The fans for Pittsburgh are rabid, not hard to believe at all if he planned to get her out on a Sunday.

reply

He also knew he would get her out on that day, because the planned for the little girl's birthday party, among other things.

reply

As a matter of fact it was a Penguins (NHL) hockey game.

reply

It was Pittsburgh Penguins, the hockey team. The people were all walking to the arena.
And I'm pretty sure he brought that jacket in his backpack because he knew there would be a game at that time.

Regardless, the whole time I kept yelling at them to slow down and try to blend in more.

reply

For your info, not everyone in the world lives in the USA. I don't live in Pittsburgh. I don't live in the USA. To me, the parade was just some random street parade and I had no idea what the colours meant. Americans need to realise that not everyone in the world lives in America or knows American stuff.
I have no idea about those teams, (presumably that's what they are), and would have no idea about their colours or even what sport they played.
USA is not the world.

reply

PITTSBURGH!

Come on, I don't live in the US but even I understood that theres a game on and these are fans making their way to the stadium. I see it and am part of it in England on the weekends there are thousands of people on the streets in their teams colours going to see a football match.

Sticking feathers up your butt does not make you a chicken

reply

Don't know what the original poster said but don't take things so personally man.

I don't live in Europe or Asia but it's pretty obvious to me when it's a street parade (random outfits, etc) vs. a sports venue (all wearing a similar logo+color) even in a foreign country.

Not sure I get your comment "USA is not the world." There are some things that are multi culturally understood and people gathering for a sporting event is one of them lol.

reply

lets just imagine that it was a parade and not a football game on, it is not out of the question that Crowe could have planned the escape during a parade. Would not be hard to know when a parade was on.

so yes he could have planned to have it during the parade, this didn't mean he planned the parade itself.

reply

I live in Germany and it was clear to me that those are fans going to or leaving a sports arena/stadium.
Looks the same over here when theres a soccer game taking place in town.
Lots of fans dressed in their team's colors. Just theyre louder here.

---
Lincoln Lee: I lost a partner.
Peter Bishop: I lost a universe!

reply

I've never lived in the USA and I knew it was some sports game. I didn't need to know what the colours meant.

I choose to believe what I was programmed to believe

reply

I know this is an incredibly late reply, but I would just like to mention that when I was but a wee lil' girl, Pittsburgh Penguins was my favourite Hockey team and I'm from Sweden where we have our own teams as Hockey is kind of a thing here. Yet still, for some reason I ended up rooting for an American team. It was a massive nostalgia trip for me to see the colors of their jackets. :>

reply

. Americans need to realise that not everyone in the world lives in America or knows American stuff.
USA is not the world.


I don't think anybody was in any way rude or demeaning to you, or putting you down for not knowing what was going on. They all nicely explained what was happening. over sensitive much???

reply

Nothing to do with it being the USA. How, in any country, is a bunch of people all wearing the same colours likely to be some "street parade" and not a sports game. You will see the same sight all over the world at various football games and it always looks the same. A ton of people, lots of them dressed in the local teams colours, all walking in the same direction.

reply

didn't you see the Jagr jersey?

reply

They were going(or coming from)a Penguin's hockey game, easy to plan around that!

reply

Judging by the direction the crowd was walking, in reality, it would have been after a game had ended.....but i think for the movie it was supposed to be a crowd walking to a game cause it was very early in the afternoon.

reply

I seem to be the only one who can see the implausibility of that scene. His timeline had been changed, they were being chased but they still ran out into the parade and turned their coats inside out. Yeah sure.

reply

A lot of stuff in that movie was implausible, but in regards to that scene.....IT was NOT a PARADE!!! It was simply a crowd of people coming from or going to a Pittsburgh Penguins hockey game! His timeline changed when his wife was scheduled to be moved upstate but it wouldn't have been implausible for him to realize that there'd be a lot of people in town going to the game that day.....hence he wore clothes that would blend in.

reply

His timeline hadn't been changed. He was out in 15 minutes, as planned. Being met in the elevator by the detectives caused him maybe a 2 minute delay, max. It takes much longer than that for a game to assemble or for a crowd to disperse.

While they were being chased, he stuck to the plan completely, which is why he stops the subway car and goes through the fence ending where he'd intended to. They make it a point to show you this was pre-emptive before the whole scene starts. Some of his plan was redundant but assumed police response could be varied and that he'd have to deal with pursuers.

The fact that they were detectives hunting him down via the meth lab caper was unfortunate, but ultimately superfluous once he juked them in the elevator. While they proved formidable, ultimately they were the same "possible pursuers" you would expect to show up in such a situation. Local police, jail staff, hospital staff, whomever may have an interest. It was not inconceivable to believe he'd thought someone would take interest in his actions.

Whether or not that elevator juke was planned could be interpreted as well - it seemed he expected resistance. The fact that they were detectives made no difference to him as the plan was the same.

This is also made evident by the fact that while the detectives say "We have the whole place surrounded" he still leaves via the lobby elevator assuming there was no chance the police could have surrounded the place so quickly. Perhaps he noticed that these men were detectives and not jail or local police, perhaps he just assumed based on the fact that he'd gotten away clean up until this point, it didn't matter. His timeline was still followed in an orderly and a conceivable way.

I will admit it would seem he was very fortunate at many points, as well as having planned a level of impressive forethought... but while it is outlandish, it is neither impossible nor inconceivable. There would have always been risk, the movie shows you this many times when he fails, but it's not outside the realm of possibility that it could go down similarly.

Perhaps there were simpler ways, such as hiding in town or leaving the country by boat, sure, but the movie showing you "the button" makes sure to point out that there's always another way. He never once thought to actually look for the button his wife told him to - if he had, this whole thing would've turned out differently. It's a wonderful humbling point if you construe it that way.

reply

i live in greece and if you believe it or not can clearly see that this was a sports event..thats because i have IQ higher than forrest gump...you made a stupid first comment about this been a parade and all you had to do was to say oops sorry guys my mistake i didnt thought this through but no you are keep coming back with more stupid comments......they were chased for 3 minutes...what timeline has been changed??how can you not see that from the beginning his plan was to turn his coat to be one with the fans....i was started to get angry while writing this....and than i saw that you rated Paranormal Activity4 with 10....Man of Steel with 9.....Godzilla with 9...hahahaha...so in the end you made my day...thanks!

reply

I seem to be the only one who can see the implausibility of that scene. His timeline had been changed, they were being chased but they still ran out into the parade and turned their coats inside out. Yeah sure.


even if he hadn't planned on all those people being there to blend in with, IT IS NOT implausible that he would have already owned a reversible jacket of his team's/town's colors, and he PURPOSELY chose to bring THAT jacket THAT day, so he could reverse it thereby throwing off the description they had of him. I personally thought he should have brought wigs for himself and his wife.

reply

Maybe you live with your head buried in the sand? Around here it's widely publicized when there's going to be a parade or large sporting event.

Knowing there is a parade, one can pretty easily figure out what the local attire would be.

Essentially what you are saying is you couldn't plan perfectly so you feel it is implausible that someone else could do better. Think about it. If you knew there was a parade, why NOT take advantage of that? Besides, losing your adversary in a parade is a classic Hollywood situation. Better to ask, why don't most chase sequences end in people disappearing in a parade or better yet, why don't more chase sequences involving parades end up with the bad guy catching the person fleeing right in the middle of the parade then the parade goers get all ghetto and whip his azz... we want something realistic, right?

reply

[deleted]

No it's not implausible. It's funny you find that part implausible when so many other things are much harder to accomplish right after an escape as he does, with luck.

Time and planning. If you have that much time on your hands to coordinate plans around your environment and use objects, variations, and diversions to alter the environment to your advantage it's amazing what a little planning will do. I can't tell you to do go it because it would be a huge waste of months of your time. Given something you want badly enough, the plan is key, and who you know, which accordingly is also part of the plan. Deception plays a large part of this plan. It shows a lot of process in this movie which makes it good.

Since we're on a movie forum I'll Recommend "Safe House" how he creates the diversion at the baseball game saying "The man has a gun! he kidnapped me im an American". That's a diversion tactic.

When I was young, and foolish, I used the "cell phone diversion" it creates a blockade between you and a potential accuser since our natural instinct is to avoid interruption or inconveniencing somebody during a "conversation" even when much much larger events are at play. It plays on basic psychology, you walk out the door of a retail store with a new outfit not too conspicuous but just enough that somebody might notice, and that fake cell phone conversation eliminated staff talking to me every time.

Also, when you've done something stupid and it's bad enough you find yourself having a conversation with a police officer. Say you just had a fight with your "girlfriend/boyfriend" consider the police officers sexual preference but 99% just go with straight... EVERYBODY can relate to the breakup breakdown, feign breakup life out of control and you will instantly get any ticket lowered. I've even gotten out of what should have honestly been a felony with this one. I've been really lucky, and always been able to think clearly and smart in a pinch, it's gotten me out of a lot, when half my friends growing up had DUIs I should have gotten at least 2, without a doubt in two states but talked out of them, and got really lucky again with having an old address on one ID and being right down the road from it saying my house was 1 block away.

I'm not bragging, I was a complete idiot from 15-23 In my 30s now looking back at the luck I've had and its amazing. I've had my share of bad luck too though, none of it on paper at least thanks to say but it all goes back around yin and yang. Anyway, im not posting more here about stupid things I've done in the past but trust me an amazing plan cross referenced for all possible outcomes down to unlikely to nearly impossible and having backup plans to backup plans is how you get things done right.

reply

[deleted]

Well, the colors are easily explainable... it's Pittsburgh! The only reason question is how he timed the street parade so well.

reply