Movie "The American" question (spoilers)

[hoyaguru]

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BTW, there are spoliers in this post...

Just finished watching "The American", the new George Clooney movie that recently came out on DVD. Let's just say I'm more than a little confused. Here's what I got out of it: There were three main people, Clooney, the old man (Clooney's boss), and the woman (the hit woman, not the prostitute). Now it seems to me that the old man hired Clooney to build this special gun to give to the woman. The woman then was supposed to use the gun to kill Clooney. The old man then killed the woman just before she killed Clooney. Then the old man tried to kill Clooney, but Clooney killed the old man, but Clooney was fatally shot by the old man. Everybody dies.

My questions are: WTF? Did I totally miss the point of this flick (I'm guessing I did, or I wouldn't be posting this). Why build a super special gun to kill Clooney, the woman got close enough to him several times to just pull out a gun and kill him. Why did the old guy hire the woman to kill Clooney, then kill her right before she does the job, then try to kill Clooney himself? Why not just let her kill Clooney, THEN kill her if that was necessary? What was the deal with the prostitutes, Clooney reads in the papers about prostitiutes getting killed, and near the end of the film it looks like some guys are showing pictures (I'm guessing of Clooney) to his current prostitute. Was that all a red herring, or was it an important part of the movie?

I don't know, I don't usually get lost in a movie, but I totally missed the point of this one, guess I need someone to point out the obvious to me. Thanks in advance.

 

[KeithTalent]

Clooney rigged the gun to kill the girl because he suspected something was up, it exploded in her face when she tried to shoot, she was not shot from elsewhere.

They wanted the gun for the other job, so they needed the gun to be completed.

Killing Clooney was just to keep things clean because he had been discovered earlier, hence his hiding out in Italy. With him out of the way, there is little to tie them to the other job and nothing to reveal the old man's activities.

KT

 

[poncherelli2]

I don't think the gun was built to kill Clooney. The old man had been trying to kill Clooney since the beginning (in Sweden) and when that failed, he tried to send Clooney to some little Italian town with a cell phone so he could kill him there. When Clooney bailed on that town and headed elsewhere, the old man had to "hire" him for one more job so he could keep up communication and locate him. When he finally located him, he sent an assassin, who Clooney ended up killing.

Clooney then realized what was up, told the old man he needed an extension, modified the gun to backfire, and then met up with the woman to sell her the gun. He knew things weren't right, so he packed his gun and bailed from the meetup early, so the woman couldn't kill him.

She tracked him down and tried to use the new gun to kill Clooney, but it blew up in her face. Clooney then shot the old man in the head but got shot in the gut himself. I wasn't sure if he died or not at the end.

 

[EvilYoda]

KT to the rescue!

And might I add...what beautiful women in that movie. Italian countryside didn't look too bad either.

 

[Printer Bandit]

i believe the hit woman killed herself when she shot the special gun. clooney had figured that she was going to use the special gun he made to kill him, so he rigged it to backfire on her.

 

[KeithTalent]

KT to the rescue!

And might I add...what beautiful women in that movie. Italian countryside didn't look too bad either.

Beautiful looking film. I picked up the Blu-ray just to see it in all its glory again.

KT

 

[gar3555]

Spoiler

Spoilers Tag?

 

[Vette73]

Yea I liked the movie a lot. Thought it was way better then it was going to be.

Its not a movie for M.Bay fans or those that need some very long drawn out story. Think of it a short story that was made into a movie.

 

[pontifex]

the old man didn't kill the woman...

it was pretty boring movie though.

 

[KeithTalent]

Yea I liked the movie a lot. Thought it was way better then it was going to be.

Its not a movie for M.Bay fans or those that need some very long drawn out story. Think of it a short story that was made into a movie.

The scenes where he is actually putting the gun together and making the bullets were awesome. Very slow and methodical, but the precision of it and the way they were shot was just awesome.

KT

 

[Vette73]

the old man didn't kill the woman...

it was pretty boring movie though.

Don't worry, transformers 3 should be right up your ally. :biggrin:

 

[hoyaguru]

OK, thanks, that makes more sense now. I didn't realize the gun was set up to kill the person shooting it, I thought someone had shot the woman with the gun, and the only one around to do it was the old man. If they wanted Clooney dead, I still don't see why they had to go through so much subterfuge, but I guess it was to make the story more complicated.

 

[poncherelli2]

OK, thanks, that makes more sense now. I didn't realize the gun was set up to kill the person shooting it, I thought someone had shot the woman with the gun, and the only one around to do it was the old man. If they wanted Clooney dead, I still don't see why they had to go through so much subterfuge, but I guess it was to make the story more complicated.

They didn't know where he was hiding out and he was already on edge because the Swedes were after him.

 

[M0oG0oGaiPan]

I thought this was about the Michael Caine movie which was pretty good.

 

[suzonka]

Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers ***** Spoilers

BTW, there are spoliers in this post...

Just finished watching "The American", the new George Clooney movie that recently came out on DVD. Let's just say I'm more than a little confused. Here's what I got out of it: There were three main people, Clooney, the old man (Clooney's boss), and the woman (the hit woman, not the prostitute). Now it seems to me that the old man hired Clooney to build this special gun to give to the woman. The woman then was supposed to use the gun to kill Clooney. The old man then killed the woman just before she killed Clooney. Then the old man tried to kill Clooney, but Clooney killed the old man, but Clooney was fatally shot by the old man. Everybody dies.

My questions are: WTF? Did I totally miss the point of this flick (I'm guessing I did, or I wouldn't be posting this). Why build a super special gun to kill Clooney, the woman got close enough to him several times to just pull out a gun and kill him. Why did the old guy hire the woman to kill Clooney, then kill her right before she does the job, then try to kill Clooney himself? Why not just let her kill Clooney, THEN kill her if that was necessary? What was the deal with the prostitutes, Clooney reads in the papers about prostitiutes getting killed, and near the end of the film it looks like some guys are showing pictures (I'm guessing of Clooney) to his current prostitute. Was that all a red herring, or was it an important part of the movie?

I don't know, I don't usually get lost in a movie, but I totally missed the point of this one, guess I need someone to point out the obvious to me. Thanks in advance.

 

[suzonka]

question why did clooney say that there was no connection to the killing of the swedish girl in the snow in the beginning of the movie