Can somebody please explain, or at least offer an explanation, of what went on with the recording Harry made of the couple? Who wanted the recording made?
The Director? The Assistant?
Was the couple in on it? They might have been, in order to lure the Director to the motel and kill him. But then why would they go on tape saying "he'd kill us if he got the chance"?
The Director hired him, at the urging of the Assistant, and with the Assistant acting as a go-between. The latter part is pretty normal when dealing with a high-level executive. The former is mentioned briefly in some dialog. I don't remember it exactly, but the Director said something to the Assistant that made it clear that hiring Harry and going after the couple was the Assistant's idea.
The couple was in on it, at least to some extent. The may not have known all the details. "The Line" requires a little bit of suspension of disbelief. Among other things, it really is a different line reading and a different recording that we hear at the end. Presumably, she said it because it was in character and on point; it wasn't until Harry knew what happened that it took on a different meaning.
Yeah, my understanding is that the Director hired him to spy on his wife (following encouragement from the Assistant) as he thinks she is cheating on him (which she is) but she realises that's what he's doing and so plants a trap in her conversation to get him to the hotel so that she can kill him.. That's my understanding but I found the film quite dull so it's possible I've misunderstood. I don't quite understand why you would go through all that complication to kill your husband who you presumably live with but I guess there wouldn't be a film if she didn't.
shareHarry didn't "know" what happened: he went insane and imagined a nonexistent murder plot.
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The Director. Later when the Director and the Assistant are listening to the tapes in his office, The Director says to the Assistant, "You WANT it to be true!" i.e., he thinks the Assistant wants the Director's wife to be having an affair.
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