I loved this movie but I never understood how Rice could see Jack Flak when he had Davey cornered and was going to shoot him. If he would have shot into the bushes or something like that it would have made sense but why would he shoot the brick wall?
shareHe didn't see him you knucklehead...Rice was reacting to Davey's incessant talking to the Jack Flack character - who was standing at the wall; the premise is that Davey was SOOOO convincing while he was talking to Jack Flack that Rice became spooked and figured someone was there...so he sprayed the area with bullets...! End of story! ;)
shareThat has to be one of the stupidest plot tie ups I have ever heard. Other than that one dumb idea, the movie is great.
share**SPOILERS!!!**
I don't think it's a *stupid* plot tie-up. I mean, it's a little too convenient, but this whole film is filled with simple convenience. (Like, how the hell did his dad get out of the plane AND back to where Davey was in the time we see on screen? I mean, getting out at the last second, I could buy....but the plane blew up at the far end of the runway. Dabney must be a hell of a sprinter)
But the thing with Rice, I think, makes perfect sense. All through the movie, especially in the mall, we see people giving Davey the eye when he's talking to Jack. So, Davey keeps looking over to Jack (who Rice can't hear) and Rice has got to wonder, "Who the hell is Elliot looking at??" Then he shouts, "Jack, no!" and Rice assumes someone has snuck up on them. Seems fair.
I think the confusion comes when Davey says, "He could see you." He might have THOUGHT Rice could see Jack, but I think Jack puts it best: Rice probably didn't have that much imagination. More likely, he just shot where Davey looking.
It seems pretty obvious.......it wasn't some bone head error, or lame "tie-up".
It was a very plain idealistic point made by the writer and/or director about the power of the human imagination. A big meaning from the movie (there are always multiple in any movie) was how becoming engrossed in something, letting your mind be free to consider "unrealistic" possibilities can be a great gift. It gave this boy the skills to negotiate his friend's release, escape a car trunk TWICE, as well as a bunch of other brilliant moves for a kid to make to stay alive and win the day, with some help from the real Jack Flack. They were kind of tipping their hat to potential of a free mind, which many people leave behind when they think that they have to be "realistic" about life at some point.
Nit picking movies is a total waste of time. Obvious mistakes are by definition going to clear to most everyone, and lesser errors are fine if they go unnoticed by most. You get more out of a movie if you can kinda figure out where the creators are heading with their intent and join them for the ride.
Well, almost. The three-fingered spy was lifted from a classic film that _everyone_ knows. They could easily have picked a more original clue.
shareI watched the DVD last night and paid special attention to this scene. Nothing
Davey says gives any real indication that he's talking to an imaginary friend.
Remember, Rice had lost contact with Davey for some time before he finally caught
up with him. It was well within the realm of possibility that there was someone
else there, hiding in the shadows. The trouble here is that the piece of wall
that Rice fired at was pretty well lit. (and why is Jack transparent when he
stands in front of it? I could never figure that out) But I think that's a case
where the actual film doesn't match the script it was made from.
Okay, this will certainly sound far-fetched, but it's the assumption I always made--right or wrong--about Rice being able to see Jack Flack: Jack admits that he used to be Hal's (Davey's father's) Cowboys-and-Indians playmate when he was younger. I saw Jack as a sort of free-spirit that became a friend when someone needed one. Therefore, it might not be off base to say that Jack might have been Rice's friend at some point. Despite the fact that Rice decided to sell American military secrets and give them to the "Nazis . . . I don't know, maybe they were Russians," he's also a video game programmer for Textronics and probably had an active imagination at some point in his life to lead him to this career. (Maybe Rice even programmed the Cloak & Dagger game and thereby created Jack.) I always thought that Rice could actually see Jack Flack and that Jack was wounded by the bullets because Davey's constant talking to Jack "reminded" Rice of his own childhood and allowed him to see his old imaginary friend (or adversary?). In more simple language, I think Rice and Davey could both see Jack and that Jack was wounded because Rice shot his old playmate, not just the air. Of course, this runs contrary to Jack's own statement to Davey that, "You were always on your own," so . . .
. . . it might also be a simple plot point required in order to further the action and serve as a means for Davey to escape from Rice and at the same time understand remorse and the consequences of his actions (necessary for character development). ;)
Also, I think Morris', Rice's, and Jack's deaths are interesting given Morris' statement at the beginning of the movie to Kim that "ingenuity and contacts [are] better than bullets sometimes." And the lesson that Davey learns is that the bullets won out.
For the most part, I agree. In fact, thats the way I've always seen it. I assumed that everybody did. I only disagree with the part that the real bullets hit because Rice shot his old imaginary friend/enemy. I think Jack let the Davey see him mortaly wonded because he knew it was time for Dave to grow up. Getting a kid to shoot sombdoy to death should take a bit of growing, and he needed to do it fast. Once he did that, he had to finish out the play time and let Davey go out on his own. Jack knew that Davey needed a real person to look up to and steped aside to let Davey's father take his place, then Jack went on to find a new playmate. Mabey even Davey's kid.
shareThat's a great point! Whether this was the conscious intention of the filmmakers (why, oh why, isn't there a commentary track on the DVD? *sigh*) or not, I think it makes a lot of sense. Regardless, I am a huge fan of films that "show rather than tell." Not to say that _Cloak & Dagger_ doesn't "tell" us its message from time-to-time:
Morris: Yeah, but Flack had ingenuity and the contacts, Kim. That's better than bullets sometimes.
OR
Davey: There were these Nazis--
Security Guard: Nazis?
Davey: How do I know? Maybe they were Russians. Anyway, they killed this man . . . [trying to remember this exchange from memory, so it might not be verbatum]
--but I appreciate that the filmmakers left this exchange (an epiphany in Davey's life) somewhat open to intepretation.
Thoughts?
I remember Jack saying of Rice something like "I don't think he had an imagination anyway" Which proves he didn't see him. I think the movie was trying to imply that Rice thought the kid was talking to someone.
shareI always figured Rice saw jack at the last second. When we see Jack looking transparant, we are seeing it from Rice's point of view, and that is when he starts shooting. I always figured there was more to Jack than just being an imaginary friend, since he mentiones that he was his father's imaginary friend when he was a kid.
http://www.majordamage.org/heroes.html
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I don't quite see it that way, P.I., but I can certainly relate to having such a vivid imagination. Many of us probably can, without taking it quite as far to the extreme that it becomes THAT theatrical, like Davey or Calvin from Calvin and Hobbes.
He was certainly clever in the movie, though, like when he got the bus driver to let him off early by tricking him into thinking he was going to throw up, or when he stopped to older spies at the airport at the last second by saying "Mom! Dad! Please don't leave me!" haha
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Here's something I found really interesting about this movie that I haven't noticed anyone else bring up.
Since Jack Flack is his imaginary friend, who gives him advice on how to survive and slip by the bad guys, all this knowledge must have been inside Davey's head somewhere. This kid would make a great secret agent.
Don't read this sig.
bluetiger's right, and Jack said it himself when Davey said he couldn't do it alone: "You always were alone, Davey. Save Kim!"
Call me crazy, but I think Jack actually had the ability to appear in human form.
He taunted Rice in front of the brick wall. And it seemed like Rice heard him. Remember Rice shooting right after hearing Jack's taunts? Jack knew Davy needed to grow up, and get a real adult to save kim (and save the game basically).
So, Jack basically sacrificed himself. Showed Davy, he needed a grown up. Thus his dad replaced Jack. And he got closer to his dad.
I wonder if the blood from Jack stained the walkway down there? I think it would have been interesting if it showed the investigators (as they were looking at the bodies, picking up Davy's action figure), and they saw a few blood trails that they couldn't explain. And it left you wondering whether Jack was real.
Also, there was something about Jack (appearing in the light) that seemed to indicate that he had done this before. The way he took his hat off and held it down near his waist.
Jack took his hat off because it's bulletproof and bounces bullets back at the bad guys
He did it with the woman spy during the opening sequence
But it doesn't stop "real bullets," so he was able to push his fingers through the holes.