Twist at the end of "State of Play"... did you get it?

[Sarah_W]

I didn't understand what Collins invovlement was in teh whole thing. His wife knew about Sonyas pay offs, so Collins did also hence Cal goign to see him, but what exacty was Collins role in the whole thing? It all made sense until that final scene!

[IROC-Z]

Sarah_W said:

I didn't understand what Collins invovlement was in teh whole thing. His wife knew about Sonyas pay offs, so Collins did also hence Cal goign to see him, but what exacty was Collins role in the whole thing? It all made sense until that final scene!

That threw me too, seemed a pretty unnecessary twist since it was good story up to that point. Good film though, I thought! Jason Bateman is a much better actor then Ben Affleck IMHO.

[Sarah_W]

Phew... glad I'm not the only one who can't follow the twist! Had a look on web to findout what's going on, but can't! I ended up racking my brain a lot after Mulholland Drive trying to suss it out only to find it's not supposed to make perfect sense!

[Big Bad Ben]

Sarah_W said:

I didn't understand what Collins invovlement was in teh whole thing. His wife knew about Sonyas pay offs, so Collins did also hence Cal goign to see him, but what exacty was Collins role in the whole thing? It all made sense until that final scene!

Wasn't the twist that we THOUGHT that the military nutter bloke was working for the big nasty company, trying to kill Collins to stop him from investigating them. HOWEVER, he was actually working FOR Collins, investigating Sonya and 'defending Collins' honour' (and repaying his debt to Collins) by bumping off anyone who might expose Collins' affair...

Something like this:

• Collins is looking for ways to prosecute big nasty company.
• Big nasty company finds Sonya, gets Collins' mate to recommend her as his new assistant
• Sonya starts working for Collins & reporting back to big nasty company.
• Collins gets his end away with Sonya.
• Collins hires ex-military nutter to investigate her.
• Sonya fancies Collins & stops reporting back to big nasty company.
• Ex-military nutter has his metal briefcase stolen, shoots everyone who might have seen the contents.
• Ex-military nutter's case contents show Sonya & Collins affair - anyone that might have seen the photos is shot so as to protect Collins
• Ex-military nutter finds out Sonya's reporting back to big nasty company, tells Collins
• Collins tells his wife (presumably this is how she knows about the "$26k a month" which she blabs out later)
• Collins tells ex-military nutter to bump off Sonya so it looks like the big nasty company did it when she stopped reporting to them (perhaps this is why Collins goes SO mental when he finds out Sonya was pregnant)
• When Collins was sure that everyone bought the idea that the big nasty company killed Sonya, he has enough leverage and goes public with his info that they're forming a conglomerate and they're big and nasty.
• Collins' wife blabs about "$26k a month"
• Russell thinks: "How does she know that Sonya was working for the big nasty company?"
• Russell thinks: "Collins must have told her. But how did HE know? What else does he know? Is it HIS fault that lots of people have been killed?"
• Russell confronts Collins, Collins admits investigation.
• Ex-military nutter goes after Russell, police arrive just in time.

(The stuff in bold is the stuff we find out at the end in the twist)

Edited by Big Bad Ben on Thursday 7th May 10:53

[IROC-Z]

As I remember it, Collins didn't want his nutter mate to kill Sonya. Why would he jeopardise the investigation into the security contractors by showing such an emotional response to her death? After all, this is what caused all the fuss in the first place because the media picked up on it and started rhomours of an affair.

I understood the twist, I just didn't understand why they put a twist in because the story was pretty sound up to that point. I thought the showdown would be Collins and/or Crowe's character being confronted by the nutter bloke and hopefully a car chase or two!

[Big Bad Ben]

IROC-Z said:

As I remember it, Collins didn't want his nutter mate to kill Sonya. Why would he jeopardise the investigation into the security contractors by showing such an emotional response to her death? After all, this is what caused all the fuss in the first place because the media picked up on it and started rhomours of an affair.

I understood the twist, I just didn't understand why they put a twist in because the story was pretty sound up to that point. I thought the showdown would be Collins and/or Crowe's character being confronted by the nutter bloke and hopefully a car chase or two!

I wondered about that too and I wasn't sure about suggesting that bit - however, could the emotional response have been deliberate? Without drawing attention to Sonya's death it wouldn't have been front page news (Russell kept telling the blogbird to do the Sonya bit while he worked on the 'more important' stuff) and therefore would have been more difficult to use her death to implicate the big nasty corporation (and back up his story that they'd stop at nothing to get the security contracts)... Could be wrong though, it was only when I was thinking about it just now that I thought that Collins'd ordered the hit, rather than the nutter bloke having a weird idea of loyalty.

[Sarah_W]

Big Bad Ben said:

Sarah_W said:

I didn't understand what Collins invovlement was in teh whole thing. His wife knew about Sonyas pay offs, so Collins did also hence Cal goign to see him, but what exacty was Collins role in the whole thing? It all made sense until that final scene!

Wasn't the twist that we THOUGHT that the military nutter bloke was working for the big nasty company, trying to kill Collins to stop him from investigating them. HOWEVER, he was actually working FOR Collins, investigating Sonya and 'defending Collins' honour' (and repaying his debt to Collins) by bumping off anyone who might expose Collins' affair...

Something like this:

• Collins is looking for ways to prosecute big nasty company.
• Big nasty company finds Sonya, gets Collins' mate to recommend her as his new assistant
• Sonya starts working for Collins & reporting back to big nasty company.
• Collins gets his end away with Sonya.
• Collins hires ex-military nutter to investigate her.
• Sonya fancies Collins & stops reporting back to big nasty company.
• Ex-military nutter has his metal briefcase stolen, shoots everyone who might have seen the contents.
• Ex-military nutter's case contents show Sonya & Collins affair - anyone that might have seen the photos is shot so as to protect Collins
• Ex-military nutter finds out Sonya's reporting back to big nasty company, tells Collins
• Collins tells his wife (presumably this is how she knows about the "$26k a month" which she blabs out later)
• Collins tells ex-military nutter to bump off Sonya so it looks like the big nasty company did it when she stopped reporting to them (perhaps this is why Collins goes SO mental when he finds out Sonya was pregnant)
• When Collins was sure that everyone bought the idea that the big nasty company killed Sonya, he has enough leverage and goes public with his info that they're forming a conglomerate and they're big and nasty.
• Collins' wife blabs about "$26k a month"
• Russell thinks: "How does she know that Sonya was working for the big nasty company?"
• Russell thinks: "Collins must have told her. But how did HE know? What else does he know? Is it HIS fault that lots of people have been killed?"
• Russell confronts Collins, Collins admits investigation.
• Ex-military nutter goes after Russell, police arrive just in time.

(The stuff in bold is the stuff we find out at the end in the twist)

Edited by Big Bad Ben on Thursday 7th May 10:53

Thanks - this seems to work well, still a hard film to get your head around though!

[IROC-Z]

Big Bad Ben said:

IROC-Z said:

As I remember it, Collins didn't want his nutter mate to kill Sonya. Why would he jeopardise the investigation into the security contractors by showing such an emotional response to her death? After all, this is what caused all the fuss in the first place because the media picked up on it and started rhomours of an affair.

I understood the twist, I just didn't understand why they put a twist in because the story was pretty sound up to that point. I thought the showdown would be Collins and/or Crowe's character being confronted by the nutter bloke and hopefully a car chase or two!

I wondered about that too and I wasn't sure about suggesting that bit - however, could the emotional response have been deliberate? Without drawing attention to Sonya's death it wouldn't have been front page news (Russell kept telling the blogbird to do the Sonya bit while he worked on the 'more important' stuff) and therefore would have been more difficult to use her death to implicate the big nasty corporation (and back up his story that they'd stop at nothing to get the security contracts)... Could be wrong though, it was only when I was thinking about it just now that I thought that Collins'd ordered the hit, rather than the nutter bloke having a weird idea of loyalty.

I will bow down to your superior memory at this point! I agree with your points although I still think the twist seemed a bit out of place, maybe its just me!


The plots all explained here;

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/State_of_Play_(film)