Impossible Ending


There is no way Matt Weston (Ryan Reynolds) would be able to walk around free on the planet after exposing do many people. He would be an Edward Snowden, only in real life.

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uhh....hmmm.....

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EASY GOER

Apologies for the previous typo. Thank you for the reply seriously. I went a little overboard with the comment, as Weston's character obviously had a different motive. "Safe House" is a pretty close to the real world of the CIA, I believe. I mean, who can say for sure? It reminded me in many ways of "Three Days of the Condor"(1975), which I saw when it was first released. A very young Sydney Pollack directs Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, Max von Sydow and many other great actors in this film. It was the first film I saw an Israeli Uzi used in a movie, btw. Now 40 years old, so films have copied the premise and characters in this brilliant thriller. Last week I saw Espinosa's "Easy Money"(2010), starring Joel Kinnaman. It is English subtitled, as several languages are spoken; primariliy Swedish. Besides Joel Kinnaman, Fares Fares and several other actors from Espinosa's "troupe" are in it. Kinnaman nails his role in a breakout performance. In America, most people only know him from the "The Killing" (originally a series from Denmark), and of course last year's "Robocop" remake (sorry, not my thing). I do strongly suggest watching "Easy Money"; it is definitely worth it.

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Yes! Easy Money is the first movie I saw from Espinosa and it was awesome. Easy Money 2 is also one of my favorite movies of all time. It is seriously good - definitely give it a watch if you haven't already. Easy Money 3 was decent but nothing special, in my opinion.

Fun fact: all 3 have different directors. :P

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It's definitely interesting to think about. First of all, it says on the news reports that Weston leaked the files anonymously, so the media and general public wouldn't know his identity.

The only person who might suspect Weston is Whitford. But in the scene where they are debriefing, Weston basically manages to convince Whitford he doesn't know anything about the file, and then adds at the end: "I'll take it from here, sir." He subtly mocks Whitford and shows that now he is in control. You could kind of see Whitford make a confused face as Weston is walking out of his office, like he knows something is up but isn't really sure what to do.

(I also saw that as a nod back to the scene where Weston is at the second safe house and the handler there says to him "Long day, huh? I can only imagine. Tobin Frost. That man's a legend. I hope you picked up something. You ain't gonna find a better education." Basically: Weston picked up Frost's skills at manipulating people and used them perfectly on Whitford at the end. Maybe I'm reading into it too much but I thought that was a great bit of scriptwriting and something not a lot of people may have picked up on.)

So I think the intention of the story is that Whitford believes Weston, and if that's the case then the only other possibility I see is that Whitford has to suspect that Frost was able to get the files out to a co-conspirator or the media when he escaped from Weston. I don't think there's really any other explanation for how the files would have leaked to the media. (A small plot hole is illuminated here - it seemed like Barlow was trying to kill Frost at the end of the movie, when he really should've wanted to take Frost alive and interrogate him to find out if he gave the files to anyone.)

Nonetheless, if Whitford does suspect Weston, which I think is entirely plausible since a) he had a lot of contact with Frost, and b) he quit the CIA (we don't know for sure but it seemed to be implied), then Weston has to hope that the leak is damaging enough to all of the intelligence agencies that they wouldn't assassinate him. In my opinion, that's a pretty big gamble; even if all the corrupt and rogue agents were arrested or forced out of their agencies, I still think that they wouldn't take too kindly to a former colleague who leaked all their dirty secrets. It doesn't just have to be the CIA either - Whitford could spread Weston's information to the other agencies. If this were the case, it might actually be more beneficial for Weston to go public because then the intelligence agencies probably wouldn't risk trying to harm him lest they draw any more suspicion unto themselves.

Interesting to think about, eh? ;)

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Snowden took credit for what he did. Weston leaked it without admitting he is the source. He also (mostly) convinced the head of the CIA that he doesn't know where the file is or what happened. He could theoretically walk around free though he'd probably be looking over his shoulder for a long time.

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EASY GOER

Good reply, theoretically. However, I don't think it would make any difference what the CIA director believed. In the real world, anyone and everyone in all of the intelligence gathering communities on the planet would know Weston was the only person left alive after the incident. Therefore, he would be the most logical choice to have leaked the story. It would not take a genius to put 2 and 2 together to come up with this fact.

BTW, Snowden is not walking around free on the planet. He would be a dead man if he attempted to do so. He is in Russia; and, most certainly living in extreme protection (for this very reason).

Look at Snowden objectively; I'm not not the only person around who believes what he did took a lot of guts.

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