MovieChat Forums > The Eiger Sanction (1975) Discussion > WTF?

WTF?

posted 18 years ago by ELGuard51
9 replies | jump to latest

SPOILERS

So did he intend to make those guys fall of the mountain in the end? or was that just bad luck?

[–] Thomasco 18 years ago

I think it was all SNAFU or "sh*t happens". He did not take them out. Letting Dragon believes what he wants means he will get paid. And of course if we the viewers have doubts it adds more mystery to the film.

[–] c-huddleston 18 years ago

***MORE SPOILERS!

The book and the movie match on this: the Eiger kills the others and nearly takes out Hemlock too. Dragon assumes that - as the killer "had to" be one of the climbers (neat assumption) - Hemlock must have engineered their deaths because he couldn't figure out which one of the three it might be. And it lets the real killer off the hook: not perhaps so much because of friendship as being tired of killing.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Halmyre 18 years ago

The man that Hemlock throws out the window in Zurich was Wormwood's killer. Ben is only present at the scene, and you actually hear him say "did you have to kill him?". In the book C-2 think it's the French climber who was the second man.

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] psychorobotape 16 years ago

I think it is clearly supposed to be left to the viewer's interpretation but I like to think that Hemlock did sanction all three. He could have easily killed the first climber while everyone was sleeping. And the other two climbers died when one of the anchors that Hemlock placed gave way - he conveniently positioned himself out of the way and drove another anchor into the ice to which he fastened himself right before the fall.

[–] copykill 16 years ago

now that you lay it out like that is makes sense..
i noticed him placing the other anchor shortly before the others fell, but didn't interpret it like this.

[–] schumithecat 16 years ago

I just watched it and it was pretty clear to me the others' deaths were accidents. He went out of his way to try to save the one guy which almost got himself killed, when he knew the pinton was loose. He could have just waited for it to come out rather than risking himself. He was lucky to fall in such a way that he could be reached by the others from the window opening in the mountain, and it would've been virtually impossible to plan to fall to end up there when he was hundreds of feet above.

[–] z99 15 years ago

what i did not get was his mate telling Jemima as if he wasn't supposed to return from the climb while Dragon was satisfied with the result -- this just doesn't click.

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