MovieChat Forums > Patriot Games (1992) Discussion > What did the terrorists expect to happen...

What did the terrorists expect to happen?

posted 8 years ago by KingCobra686
5 replies | jump to latest

The whole plot hinges on the fact that Sean Bean's brother was killed by Harrison Ford, and Ford gets stalked and hunted by these IRA terrorists because of that.

What were they expecting to happen in a mission like that though?? They were attempting to assassinate members of British royalty. There is a strong risk of danger and death in a mission like that. If it wasnt Ford that had killed his brother, it could have just as easily been police or bodyguards or military. I find it strange that Sean Bean's character took it so personally.

[–] ShallowAl69 8 years ago

Blood being thicker than h2o?

Family is everything.

What if it was your own flesh and blood?

Sean wouldn't have been much of a brother if he hadn't even tried to avenge his kin.

Family ties cut deep (I may have stolen that from Ghostface)

[–] KingCobra686 8 years ago

Yeah, but Sean and his brother were the ones that willingly got themselves into this situation. They are dumb if they werent expecting the possibility of injury or death.

To me, it seems along the same lines of going up to someone in a bar, punching them in the face, and then being irrationally pissed at them when they punch you back.

[–] gaston_monescu (4) 8 years ago

I see what you're saying but Ford was just there as a tourist who decided to intervene. Sean Bean saw him as a hero Yank getting involved in something he shouldn't have. If Paddy had been killed by a British police or soldier I think he would've accepted it as a failed mission and would not have sought revenge

[–] db20db (17345) 7 years ago

This is exactly why the simultaneous assassination attempts on Ryan and his family made no sense to me. Given that Miller was so consumed with hatred and vengeance, it seems a more gratifying revenge would have been for him to kill Ryan personally instead of cowardly going after his family while a lone assassin goes after Ryan. If the plan had succeeded, Ryan would have been oblivious to their deaths while facing his own. An alternate plan could have been the murders of his family members, leaving him alive temporarily to be tortured with that loss, then finally personally killing him as well.

[–] redban (6558) 4 years ago

The issue is that the whole CIA knows Miller’s face, so it would be difficult to have Miller assassinate Ryan, especially at the military base. That’s why they didn’t have Miller couldn’t kill Ryan personally; tougher for him to do. So Miller went after the wife and kids. Plot-wise, the movie did not want us to sympathize with Miller at all, so having him go after the wife and their sweet child helped vilify him even further.

Ryan didn’t know the white dude who ambushed him; and they almost got Ryan. Ryan got very lucky to notice that dude following him via the mirror. And Ryan was getting his butt kicked before the soldiers bailed him out.

Lastly - if the wife and kid did not survive, I think Miller would have left it alone; he would have been content with that revenge. In the desert, he was aware that Ryan got away, but he thought the wife and kid died. When the guy tells Miller that the wife and kid survived, Miller only then decided to go back.