Line #7 Headscratchers/NorthByNorthwest


1	* The crop duster scene makes no real logical sense: having lured him to a secluded area to meet with a nonexistent person, why would the bad guys try to kill him in this fashion instead of having one of their people he hasn't seen yet walk up to him and then shoot him?
2	** Creator/AlfredHitchcock was fully aware of this during filming, but correctly predicted that the audience would be so invested in the film by that point that they wouldn't stop to think until after it had ended.
3	*** Hitchcock is, after all, the one who first spelled out the [[FridgeLogic icebox moment]].
4	** I always assumed they wanted to make it look like an accident. If Roger is found with a bullet in him, the police would start questioning the last people he spoke to, and their cover could be blown. Whereas if he got killed by a low-flying crop duster....
5	** Obviously, [[RuleOfCool Rule of Cool]] applies in full.
6	** I think the "run Thornhill over with the plane instead of shooting him" theory doesn't work since it's shown that the crop duster is actually equipped with guns and misses shots at him. On the other hand, who expects a crop duster to be packing ''machine guns''? Literally no one. If they had managed to kill Thornhill with it they could have flown away from the murder scene to somewhere miles away with no suspicion at all and it's very unlikely the cops would have ever put it together. On the other hand, pulling up in a car and murdering him with a gun leaves you having to escape the scene in a car, which are conspicuous in such a remote spot.
7	*** Do we know the crop duster actually ''had'' machine guns? Couldn't the pilot -- probably an professional assassin or at least a gangster -- simply have carried one to fire from his seat, in case he couldn't run Thornhill over?
8	* The cropduster scene also makes no sense on another level: wouldn't the bad guys ask themselves why Roger Thornhill is traveling to the middle of nowhere to meet George Kaplan (at a rendezvous he thinks Kaplan arranged) if he really is George Kaplan himself?
9	** Eve knows that Thornhill is Thornhill, and she knows that Kaplan doesn't exist and is a red herring, but she has to make sure Thornhill is out of the picture so her cover doesn't get blown. She probably told Vandamm's men that "Kaplan" was asking her to contact his handler, and the bad guys gave her the phony address to get rid of him. If she helps get rid of Kaplan, then it deflects attention from her. It surely would be unfortunate for Thornhill, but she probably felt like she didn't have much choice.
10	* Why was the real Townsend murdered?
11	** The guy was trying to kill Thornhill; Townsend was standing in the way.
12	** I say that Townsend ''was'' the target. After their failed attempt to get Thornhill to drive off a cliff, and then the encounter in the elevator, Vandamm's henchmen kept a close eye on Thornhill, looking for another chance to get rid of him, because HeKnowsTooMuch. But once Thornhill came into contact with Townsend and started asking questions, Townsend would become suspicious of Thornhill's story, that somebody is impersonating him and occupying his house. Kill Thornhill at this point, and Townsend would become even more suspicious and likely to investigate. Therefore, Townsend had to die.
13	* Was the Mercedes-Benz that they put Roger Thornhill in Long Island stolen? If it wasn't, how was it not traced back to the bad guys?
14	** Yes it was stolen. The Glen Cove cops got the report after they've arrested Roger.
15	* How come they weren't open to the fact that they got to the wrong guy at the beginning of the film? All he did was answer a telephone call when he was paged.
16	** The timing was too good. Who else but Kaplan would raise his hand just a bellboy pages "Mr. Kaplan"? (It was probably the thugs themselves who had Kaplan paged, so they could stand by to see who responded)
17	* If you're going to lure somebody to the middle of nowhere to kill him, why not do a drive-by instead of having a minion attack him from a crop duster? Hitchcock himself acknowledged the scene makes no sense, but justified it since nobody notices while watching the film.
18	* Hitchcock himself developed a case of it for the scene where Eve and Leonard covertly talk using two phones at an airport. He held off filming the scene for a while, then apparently came up with a way it was possible and shot it, though he never told anyone what it was.
19	* Whose dandruff is in "Kaplan's" hotel room?

Context Headscratchers / NorthByNorthwest