ending - Shadow Dancer (2012) Discussion

[–] tom-1674 11 years ago

I'm guessing because she thought Mac was responsible for the death of her mother, which he was anyway since for sure MI5 tapped her phone, and probably the PIRA as well.

Come to think of it, maybe MI5 killed Mac...

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] bogwart-1 11 years ago

No, it was her brothers. That was made clear by Connor, who confirmed that the job had been done. And killing Mac was for the reasons given by MystereK below. MI6 was not involved in any way. The white hats were MI5 and Special Branch.

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[–] billpeter 11 years ago

Sorry, Why did who do what?

I'd rather have a bottle in front of me than a frontal lobotomy.

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[–] MystereK 11 years ago

I think that, after the phone call, the mother sacrified herself to save her daughter. Denoucing herself clears Colette. And probably Colette also would have died instead of her mother, so she wants revenge for her mother death caused by this phone call.

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[–] 11 years ago

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[–] S-Sadler1 11 years ago

What about this theory; IRA aware of a mole in the organisation,send Colette on London mission as a smokescreen her real purpose is to help find out who the real mole in the IRA is( remember she did not set timer on bomb in tube),hoping to draw M15 out and ultimately reveal the real mole whom IRA are aware that it is someone close to Gerry ( Colette's brother) ;Once IRA discover that the real mole is Colette's mother and kill her,they then set up the killing of the M15 officer ( Clive Owen),probably by the woman with a dog

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[–] Nemesis42 11 years ago

Nice one ... it could be !!

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[–] gdemers 11 years ago

The back scenes of IRA wouldn't make sense if this was the case, they wouldn't have torture Connor just for the viewers (there are no viewers in real life ;) ).

I think it's Colette's call, nobody was to get hurt.

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[–] pfgpowell-1 11 years ago

Sorry, don't buy it at all. The film stands very well as it was made, and anyway if what you say were true, there would have been hints in the film. There weren't. I suspect she didn't set her timer because she didn't want to kill anyone. She was pretty much reluctant about it all.

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[–] carljoe 11 years ago

So that must have been the kiss of death she gave Mac.
I thought they had developed feelings for each other, and she knew Mac was trying to help her to safety. Why would someone kill the person trying to help them? Senseless murder of revenge, or maybe she thought he would hunt her down to have closure. It left too much to the imagination, for my taste in movies.

Sorry but I think the mother should've been in the car at the end. Four could've started a new life, just as easy as three. They could've inserted a synopsis at the end stating, "Mother, brother, sister, child, moved to America, and now living happily," as so many of my Irish friends here in America, are doing.
What happened that we don't know is, an unidentified body from the morgue was placed in the car and then bombed, and Mac took the trip with them at the end. It was all a setup. Mac is in America now, also. She wasn't going to leave without her new love.

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[–] modman-2 11 years ago

Of course she had feelings for him, but that was before he got her mother killed.
Why do you think she allowed herself to become a solider it in the first place? revenge for her brother.
To that end i suspect that's why mom informed - she blamed the army.

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[–] sulkat 9 years ago

Colette kissed Mac to substantiate the idea that she was meeting up with "a boyfriend" in case anyone was watching her meeting with Mac out at the quay.

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[–] tango09212 11 years ago

thats the winner s- sadler , it was triple cross , i agree just saw it tonight and that was my take except for the fact the guy torturing the brother did not know ? which takes away from the triple cross theory

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[–] jorgelafayette 10 years ago

I've just finished seeing the movie, and that's exactly what crossed my mind.
I believe you've nailed it.

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[–] gabriela_zayas 9 years ago

I thought so too, but didn't think of the woman with a doggie as the perpetrator.. Nice tip!

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[–] spookyrat1 11 years ago

..."she wants revenge for her mother death caused by this phone call."

Yes! That's right! Remember the key provision on Colettte's part was that no one was to get hurt.

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[–] 9 years ago

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[–] macktan894 11 years ago

Mac found out that MI5 had recruited Collette's mother, which is why he had been excluded from meetings. Apparently, Collette would have been sacrificed as an informant as a result. So Mac called Collette's mother and told her. Mom wasn't going to let her daughter die, so she outed herself to Kevin and he killed her. Mac had swore to Collette that no one would die, but in fact Brendan died, and then her mother. She told Connor, her brother about Mac and where she was supposed to meet him at the quay, and he got someone to plant the bomb in his car--I think that woman in the blue coat who was walking her dog. Then they all got the heck out of Dodge!

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[–] looker7 11 years ago

Completely agree with macktan894's post above. That was my interpretation of what happened.

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[–] Adina_IMDb-March-2006 11 years ago

You have the ending exactly right, in my view.

The car bomb at the end was a shock, although I had a bad feeling when he was heading towards his car and his cell phone started ringing in it. I had been thinking that Gerry might be the informant so I was surprised to find out that it was their mother. Saving her daughter by outing herself to Kevin was to be expected after the phone call from Mac. Good movie, in my opinion.

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[–] jacowium 11 years ago

100% correct.

Your view is the one in which all of the dots connect.

Please click on "reply" at the post you're responding to. Thanks.

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[–] sneak64 11 years ago

Exactly right. It's simple. They killed her mother. So she killed Mac.

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[–] sulkat 9 years ago

The mother of Colette, Connor and Gerry had been a spy since the '80s. Discovering this wasn't the reason Mac was excluded from the meetings. He was excluded because he had taken a protective stance toward Colette, an attitude for which MI5 had no use.

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[–] pfgpowell-1 11 years ago

Because she knew it was the Brits fault that her mother was killed by the IRA as a 'traitor'. In short, revenge. What is left unresolved is whether she was off the hook, because MI5 still 'have' her and I can't see them giving up an agent right at the heart of the IRA operation. Incidentally, there's nothing fanciful about the mother being an agent - it is now on record that one of the IRA's top men was turned and forced to work for Britain. He can't have liked doing so very much, but I don't suspect he had much choice in the matter.

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[–] christophe92300 11 years ago

The thing I find questionable is how she brought up to her brothers the fact that Mac was responsible for the killing of their mother without them considering her a mole ? Because from what we see, she isn't one of the leaders and doesn't have access to sensitive stuff, so providing such an info should have raised suspicions.

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[–] dikayakoshka 11 years ago

Conner already knew she was "a" mole, and was ready to die for her. She was the only person he told about the hit on the detective. It was made clear throughout the movie (though subtle) that they were close. Collette would have told him after their mum was killed, but no one else in all likelihood, that she was also a mole. It kinda sucks that Mac had to die when he was only trying to help her.

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[–] gobears87 11 years ago

"Conner already knew she was "a" mole, and was ready to die for her. She was the only person he told about the hit on the detective. It was made clear throughout the movie (though subtle) that they were close. Collette would have told him after their mum was killed, but no one else in all likelihood, that she was also a mole. It kinda sucks that Mac had to die when he was only trying to help her. "

Dikayakoshka, I agree with your interpretation. Connor had surely figured out that Collette was the mole, but he was willing to die to protect her. After mum's death, Collette probably figured that she could trust Connor to tell him the truth about the pickle she was in, and how it led to their mother's death. Connor arranged to have Mac killed for revenge. He then arranged to have Collette and her son spirited out of the country before the MI5 could get her back into custody, and/or force her to continue informing for them. Connor probably went with Collette, too - it was clear he couldn't stand Kevin, and he might have figured out that his brother Gerry had assented to his being tortured for information. {It appears that Connor was never a true believer, but was involved in all of the IRA stuff out of family loyalty. With mum dead, and Gerry choosing the organization over him, the only family Connor had left was his sister and nephew.}

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[–] gottfrid 10 years ago

plus connor was also tortured by the IRA. he was probably against them now, because he realized they are no better than criminals too.

in the ending it is obvious she is cutting relations with both the IRA(by going away) and british government(by having mac killed), because the message of the film is that both sides had done atrocious things. connor is probably going with her, too, because he probably became disilusioned with the IRA as well(for killing their mother and torturing him).

"It doesn't matter what Bram Stoker has told you... dead people don't come back from their graves"

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[–] moizmad 10 years ago

I agree with GoBears and Gottfrid. Connor loved his sister and would protect her. He would have kissed his brother Gerry off after he sold him out to Kevin.
Their Mum had been the mole since 1982 and she turned herself in to Kevin. Connor killed Mac for revenge on his Mum.

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[–] !!!deleted!!! (41638798) 10 years ago

The only line of dots I couldn't connect were about things we viewers saw that Colette and Connor did not. So we cannot make things they did not see or have first hand observation of...a motive.

Connor and Colette knew nothing of the phone call Mac made to their mum.

All they would know is mum somehow ends up dead in a field probably at Kevin's hand.

With Mac waiting for Colette and Colette knowing where he was and when made him a very juicy target for Connor to set up the hit of an Mi5 spook. It seemed like revenge rather than just an opportunity to hit a Spook, though, but how did they make that direct line connection between mom and Mac?

So killing him was a two-fer: get rid of her handler Mac so he wouldn't pursue her (and maybe with mom dead Mi5 wouldn't further pursue her either, as they were all compromised by then and useless to Mi5). And take a spook's life in revenge for mom.

So without Connor and Collete knowing Mac precipitated Mom's confession to Kevin, how did they know Mac was involved in getting mum killed by Kevin?

Without that direct knowledge, it was as though they were at that point just acting on general principles to arrange a hit on Mac.

They wouldn't have known anything about Mac being involved directly in getting mum killed.

The only other theory I had is that the connection Colette and Connor made between her and her mother was that Mac was BOTH their handlers. And that Mac had turned her mom into Kevin to save Colette. Or they did not believe or now mum was an informant and presumed perhaps Kevin had come for Colette and mum stepped in and took the rap.

Of course she really WAS an informant. But C&C may think she sacrificed herself even if she was innocent of it. More reason for them to hate Mi5, because if C&C think mom was innocent but stepped in when Kevin came for Colette, they would see Mac as the driver of the whole thing after recruiting Colette. Ergo, he WAS responsible for her death in their eyes.

Otherwise, there are gaps in the logic between the phone call to mom, which C&C never knew about, and them arranging Mac's hit.

The other logic fail is that Kevin was convinced Colette was innocent after Connor was tortured but refused to say he told Colette anything. Kevin had let him go. So why was Kevin coming for her?

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[–] moizmad 10 years ago

Mum seemed to know who that was on the phone (she didn't question it), Gerry accepted what Kevin had to do, and Gerry would have told Connor & Collette. I don't think Collette was thrilled about doing Mac but I don't think Connor could let something like that go.

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[–] 10 years ago

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