Motive? SPOILERS


What was up with the green Swiss Army knives? And what was the dad's problem? Anybody know what the motivation behind his actions were?

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Shortly before being shot, he references something awful transpired to him as a little boy. I take it he has trauma from being used as a boy, and somehow the pocket knives were instrumental in that... and then he grew up, he became the mass murder/molester of boys himself, and continue more or less as it was done to him.... isn't that the typical mass murder story? (which again ties to his moment before being killed, as the Frogger say; ”I don't give a shit,” aka it is no excuse, we have heard this before).

The frogger was a victim that got away, a long time ago and was now seeking revenge.

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Spot on.

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I don't think that he was abused as a child.
I think that he was just trying to use that as an excuse (only after seeing Alec's face and realizing who he was), thinking that maybe Alec would feel sympathy for him and show him mercy because he's been through that hell himself.
Before he saw Alec's face, he was saying stuff like "No, you and your friend took those boys," blah blah blah. But once Alec stepped out of the shadows, Bad Guy's whole demeanor changed and he tried to go for the sympathy thing.
I mean maybe he was abused as a child, but I don't think that that's why he did what he did.
As for the green pocket knives, I just figured they were his particular calling card, though it's never explained why.

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Perhaps, but this still leaves the question unanswered. Why did a seemingly normal family dad, a trusted member of society, become a monster? Who knows, but that dialogue just before his end and how the frogger acknowledges it by saying he didn’t care (not that it was an untruth) gives us an answer.... or kind of an answer.

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You're sure he would have identified Alec after seeing his face? How recently had he last seen him?

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I'd completely forgotten about this movie until seeing these notifications, so I'll have to go back and rewatch it one of these days to jog my memory.

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I completely understand, since it is also fading from my memory, but I seem to recall that the cop had victimised the fellow who broke into his house years ago, when the interloper was just a lad.

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I get your explanation but are we expected to believe Mindy was in on it or Alec was using her expertise. And what was his issue with the son? Wouldn’t there be empathy? That final scene showing the killer with some young boy who we’d never seen before was fine in getting us to understand Alec’s motivation but it felt like a tag on.

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The two young boys in the last scene with the abductor were Tommy and Alec. Alec had his dispenser in his back pocket so we would know it's him. I'm not quite getting the green pocket knives, unless the killer wanted all his crimes to be easily traceable back to him when he inevitably gets caught. Like the "Wet Bandits" in Home Alone. That was their calling card and the cops had all the motive and calling cards to make a good case.

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