MovieChat Forums > Grand Canyon (1992) Discussion > Otis under the stairs...SPOILER!

Otis under the stairs...SPOILER!


When Simon finds Otis under the stairs, and Otis' shirt has blood on it, which isn't his, are we to surmise that Otis killed someone? It was very ambiguous, and I wish that Simon had pressed on what had happened. Simon just backed down on trying to find out what happened after Otis started to cry.

Any ideas?



The plural of mouse is mice. The plural of goose is geese. Why is the plural of moose not meese?

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I think Otis and his gang killed someone.

Building webs is for suckas...

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I haven't seen it for a while, but I had the impression that while Otis was present when the killing occurred and that's why he was so freaked out, he didn't kill anyone himself.

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Same here. That scene needed some follow-up. Same for the secretary applying for a new job, and Steve's girlfriend wanting to have a baby. And maybe a lot of other pieces of story that never went anywhere.

Seems like the storytellers were overambitious, and started to tell too many stories for the time available, and took an ax to it in editing.

Ironically, I saw this movie because of seeing a clip from it in a documentary about film editing. The clip was from the scene where Steve is reviewing a movie in production, and jumps up and says, "Where's the shot?". Indeed.

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That scene needed some follow-up.


But why? I learned all I needed to know from that scene: Otis learned the hard way where the path he'd chosen led to. It was far more dangerous, frightening, and real than he'd realized until that event. I didn't have to see or know exactly what happened to get that, and I liked that it wasn't all spelled out.

Same for the secretary applying for a new job, and Steve's girlfriend wanting to have a baby. And maybe a lot of other pieces of story that never went anywhere.

Seems like the storytellers were overambitious, and started to tell too many stories for the time available, and took an ax to it in editing.


This film revolved around the intersecting of the lives of many people, within a short period of time, in the same area. The secretary leaving her job and applying for another, and Steve Martin's girlfriend wanting to have a baby were ends and completions to their stories in themselves, as far as showing this slices of their lives needed to take them.

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