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Literature: And Then There Were None |
"Ten little Indian boys went out to dine;
One choked his little self and then there were nine.
Nine little Indian boys sat up very late;
One overslept himself and then there were eight.
Eight little Indian boys traveling in Devon;
One said he'd stay there and then there were seven.
Seven little Indian boys chopping up sticks;
One chopped himself in halves and then there were six.
Six little Indian boys playing with a hive;
A bumblebee stung one and then there were five.
Five little Indian boys going in for law;
One got into Chancery and then there were four.
Four little Indian boys going out to sea;
A red herring swallowed one and then there were three.
Three little Indian boys walking in the zoo;
A big bear hugged one and then there were two.
Two little Indian boys were out in the sun;
One got all frizzled up and then there was one.
One little Indian boy left all alone;
He went and hanged himself and then there were none."
Any serious mystery fan knows this one by heart: Ten people, strangers to each other, are summoned to an island. There, a mysterious recording accuses each one of being the cause of another's death, and one by one, murders start cropping up among them, each one executed in a fashion similar to those in the "Ten Little Indians" rhyme. The remaining ones come to the only possible conclusion: the murderer(ess?) must be one of them. Paranoia and suspicion run high, as each person tries to outwit the killer at his or her game. Which one of them cannot be trusted? And how long will it be before the next Indian is offed...?
The ten victims are, in alphabetical order:
- Dr. Edward Armstrong, a doctor. Accused of causing the death of a patient by operating on her while drunk.
- William Blore, a former policeman who tends to be too bold for his good. Accused of causing the death of an innocent man by planting false evidence and landing him in prison where he died.
- Emily Brent, a dour and staunchly religious woman. Accused of causing the death of her maid Beatrice by firing her and turning her out of the household when she became pregnant and thus driving her to suicide.
- Vera Claythorne, a young former governess, now gym teacher and secretary. Accused of causing the death of her lover Hugo's little nephew, Cyril, by encouraging him to swim out to sea alone and drown, so that Hugo could inherit his brother's (Cyril's father's) estate. Hugo actually adored the kid like a son; he broke up with Vera and almost went insane with pain and guilt, finding solace in booze.
- Colonel Philip Lombard, a cool-headed and intelligent man. Accused of causing the death of 21 natives by abandoning them in his brief career as a mercenary in Africa.
- General John MacArthur, a retired World War I general. Accused of causing the death of his wife's lover by sending him on a war mission that virtually guaranteed his death.
- Anthony Marston, a handsome and vain youth with little concern for others. Accused of causing the deaths of two children by accidentally running over them with his car.
- Mr. and Mrs. Rogers, the couple who accommodates the other eight guests. Both accused of causing the death of their former employer, an old and sick American lady, for monetary gain.
- Judge Lawrence Wargrave, a retired Hanging Judge with a no-nonsense attitude. Accused of causing the death of an accused murderer by steering the jury into sentencing him to death, despite evidence supporting his innocence; he claims that the preponderance of the evidence pointed toward the guilt of the accused, and he only kept the jury focused on the facts of the case.
Of course, one of them is the killer. But which one?
Written by Agatha Christie and later made into several play and film adaptations, all of which revised the ending. (Which makes sense once you know the book ending.) There also was a videogame featuring an additional character as an investigator that has Multiple Endings, one of them the same as the movie, as well as the original ending as lockable content after finishing the game. The original title was actually Ten Little Niggers, which was later renamed to Ten Little Indians or alternatively, And Then There Were None. So it goes.
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