MovieChat Forums > The Numbers Station (2013) Discussion > Why does the girl have to die?

Why does the girl have to die?


They go to great lengths to explain that the codes are constantly changed, that she cannot undo the broadcast, etc. Why not, at the very least, tell him to off her if she is in danger of being taken to extract her knowledge? She might even be valuable in figuring out what was done with the broadcasts and codes. And why the hell don't they tell the outside that 15 broadcasts have been made, much less the targets. How did they get in in the first place? Why can't they get a squad of marines there by helicopter from the numerous U.S. bases sprinkled throughout the U.K. They're not in the middle of Siberia. You could almost drive the whole country north to south in four hours! Dreck, and unworthy of Cusack.

reply

The first question....they do tell them that, and they retell it several times.

Half the questions you ask are answered in the movie that the bad guys have cut off all communication, including the emergency line. The broadcast line would not only be something not trusted, but would divulge secrets if they broadcasted other information on it.

reply

Actually, why not just broadcast, in clear, "The codes have been compromised and all transmissions this morning are false"?? Might at the very least cause the operatives in the field to pause and try to confirm their orders.

And actually, I think that the whole premise of the film is faulty. One-time-pad cyphers really are unbreakable, and I don't see any need for any sort of analyst or broadcaster at a facility like this. One copy of the pad of course belongs to the agents in the field, and the other copy is in the hands of their masters in Washington, Langley, Ft. Meade, or wherever. Having another copy at the transmitting station, or any sort of enciphering/deciphering capability, or any sort of cryptorapher/analyst, would definitely compromise security. So all that hand-waving about hidden codes from Meredith to unlock programs that encipher the messages (or whatever seemed to be going on) would be total nonsense.

The spy bosses use their copies of the pads to encipher their orders, and send the numbers to the various stations, where a synthesized voice reads them out. Certainly there would be a need for minders to keep the transmitters safe and the transmitter tubes warm (so to speak), but not much use for any computer stuff outside of a speech synthesizer. (In addition, any sensible outfit running such an operation would try to pad the transmissions with null messages around the clock, so any listeners would be unable to detect whether the traffic is increasing; this might be a little hard on human broadcasters.)

reply

"You could almost drive the whole country from North to South in 4 hours"

Really?
You must give me your route maps - it takes two hours to drive across London these days!

reply