MovieChat Forums > Sliver (1993) Discussion > Did anyone understand the plot?

Did anyone understand the plot?

posted 19 years ago by ediaz8
24 replies | jump to latest

I just resaw the movie for the first time since the 90's as the movie wasn't released on DVD until now, and hasn't been shown on TV for years. A lot of things puzzled me as to what was happening in the movie.

1. Jack Lansford was a psycho killer? He just killed because he was crazy?

2. Was Gus Hale murdered? by whom? what motive?

3. Were Jack and Zeke working together? He had the murder of Naomi Singer recorded so why didn't he report it to the police?

4. There was an unexplained connection between Vida and Jack. Why did they deny knowning each other at Carly's party? Vida looked terrified while looking at Carly.

I would appreciate anyone explaining these details to me, thanks

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ediaz8 19 years ago

Thanks for that, I appreciate it. It seems as if the movie had a lot of alternate scenes filmed for it but they were cut at the last minute. I'm sure there's more to the Vida and Jack story that was filmed but suddenly cut. She looked terrified at Carly when she said: "I thought you two knew each other." Gus Hale only said that Carly looked like Naomi and what happeend at the apt., the only eyes and ears of the building was Zeke because there was a scene where the video room was first introduced and an excerpt of Gus Hale's convo with Carly was heard. Jack was a thriller writer and had a taste of recreating his scenes to life but there was no motive or evidence that he was crazy, except for his odd attitude. When Carly closed the door of the video room, Zeke was taunting her by saying "Oh Carly" with a killer sounding voice as if he was supposed to be the killer. Most of all, with all that technology, Zeke was never curious about who killed Naomi? Jack's face was so clear and he had the video hidden in his closet so he had to have known. The movie would've made more sense if Zeke would've been the peeping tom/killer, killing his women after playing with them. I never understood Jack's role in the movie, he wasn't wooing Carly or anything, he wasn't in the picture but just doing the killings. "Sliver" had the potential to be a great movie but it wasn't. I like the movie but it's hard to believe that the editing was terrible. The movie probably was pieced together from all the elements they shot in a short period to meet its release deadline, seems as if it was supposed to be a longer movie.

[–] TruckDrivingMagicMama 19 years ago

This may sound stupid of me, but I had always thought Zeke knew that Jack was the killer until I watched it again recently. There is the moment where Zeke walks toward the screen, as if he had never seen it before. He did mention that he doesn't watch ALL of the tapes he makes. I thought it would have been better if he did know, though, because it would make him out to be more of the villian. He knows the killer, but he won't tell anyone because they'd find out he had all of that video equipment. It would be like he was keeping this horrible secret just to serve his own sexual, voyeuristic desires.

The Vida and Jack thing, I'm not sure. Maybe he was paying her to sleep with him or maybe it had something to do with drugs. Either way, they didn't want anyone to know about it. I own the "Sliver" book, but I haven't read it in ages and can't recall if there's a mention of the Jack/Vida connection.

Jack's reason for killing, I'm not sure about that, either. They did keep bringing up the fact that he couldn't "get it up," so maybe he killed them to keep his sexual secrets.

I'll have to skim over the book later and let you know if I notice anything.

Black man! Black man! Where did you come from?
Black man! Black man! Where did you go?

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] ediaz8 19 years ago

That's true, the movie had to have Baldwin as the killer originally but it was changed at the last minute. Having Zeke "deny" that he didn't know who killed Naomi and Vida with all that expensive equipment is impling that he was covering himself and didn't expect Carly to find out till the end of the movie. I thought that by watching this movie again now as an adult on DVD that it would make more sense since I last saw it in the 1990's but it didn't. This movie hasn't been shown on TV in years and didn't make it to DVD till 2006. Probably Paramount was trying to forget that this movie existed. It's not the first time that a studio disowns a movie because it was a disaster. Paramount should've released a Director's Cut of the movie with restored footage of what the movie might have been like before the final version. The Unrated Cut is an exact copy of the VHS version released in 1993, nothing has changed.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] all_about_kike 19 years ago

In the dvd version, in the beggin, when Naomi is murdered if you make a zoom you can see it's william baldwin the killer.... make this when he open the door and walk to the window... you can see him like 4 seconds...

[–] billycan 19 years ago

Well that's total crud!! You can't see a damn!! The killer's face is never shown.

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 19 years ago

[deleted]

[–] muellerlght 18 years ago

Succintly, the reason that none of the film makes sense is because several alternative endings were filmed after the original went down like a lead balloon at preview screenings. Remember the excruciating line, "I'd like to fly into one someday," that Zeke says, referring to his volcano ornament on the coffee table. Originally Carly found out Zeke was the killer but went off with him anyway. They escaped the building, flew into said Volcano and released their seatbelts at the last moment apparently. (When these scenes were shot the crew nearly died - must have been annoyed when they weren't used).
In the book Vida's a transvestite but I can't remember what happens to her character.
Gus Hale slips and dies in the shower according to the film. In the book he's murdered by Zeke.
Jake and Zeke weren't working together. You're just supposed to accept that Zeke hadn't seen Naomi being murdered.
The Vida and Jack thing might have been more tied up in the original script. I remember reading that the producers wanted them to pose in a S and M shot when they re-shot the endings but Tom Berenger and Polly Bergin refused.
I'm a brit so we had the full uncut version at the cinema and on vid. The sex scene to 'Unfinished Sympathy' is a lot longer and more explicit, ending with Zeke on top of Carly doing..well, it looks very real. Check it out on the unrated dvd. The later sex scene is also a lot longer. The masturbation sequence in the bath is the same in both versions. Apparently, Sharon wanted it to be 'subtle' and 'convincing'. Then, how come her hands never go between her legs and she still manages to have a massive orgasm? Hmmm.
Hope this clears things up, babe. I quite like 'Sliver'. It's a terrible, terrible move but I like it anyway.

[–] lhobbs1 18 years ago

i hadn't watched this movie in a while, but it was just on HBO. i remembered that it was kind of far-fetched, but also that there were hot sex scenes...so i watched again. wow. i think i'm in love with billy baldwin. haha. i need to see the extended scenes on the dvd.

some of my thoughts on plot:
i think vida was a high-class call girl. in the beginning when carly helps bring in vida's bags, vida gets a phone call and says it's her 'agent' but it sounds like she's given a hotel room to 'report to' for service...maybe jack was a client. i doubt anyone could seriously get away with blackmailing someone about being impotent?? i mean, was jack paying off every woman he tried to get intimate with?? doubt it.

zeke totally should have remained the killer as he was is in the book [i haven't read the book]. he was a sick, obsessed dude...with issues with his mom, resulting in fixation on women who looked like her [naomi & carly] and threated by people who tried to get close to them or who could get him caught [gus, vida, jack]. and who else would've have known vida was in the staircase? weird, that jack was found over the body ..but if the movie was consistent throughout, and consistent with most who-dun-its...this part would've been there just to throw the audience off. zeke obviously had control over the wiring in the building, so he was behind all of the lights going out.

the video of naomi's murder was hidden under his shoes in the closet along with his sex tapes...i think he saw it and that's why it was hidden. it almost looks like jack's face was superimposed on the body...like, zeke couldn't have done it with his computer 'skills' or like, the movie editors did [a *beep* job]...

yeah...so obviously lots of glaring holes in this plot, but it's a hot movie and i [voyeuristicallly]enjoyed it.

[–] Jeffery_Lebowski 18 years ago

Okay, Okay, Okay - I don't usually post on movies that I disliked but I just saw this for the first time, and boy, does it suck!? Yep, harsh I know, and I don't want to be a hater on it's IMDB board but I'm fascinated with the reshoots and recuts that happened to many films in the early ninties - it was an amazing trend that still happens nowdays I'm sure but maybe with a little more finesse than back then. This film was never going to Hitchcock (even though it desperately wants to be) but I can't think of a film that has been so obviously hacked to pieces and reassembled. The plot makes NO sense. Red herrings that go nowhere, laughable sex scenes (although in fairness, most sex scenes are laughable in films) and a revealation that confuses rather than enlightens. It's not apparent what the hell is going on with any of the vacuous characters. Least of all Berenger, who's character was obviously intended to be set up as the bad guy, but save the day in the end, however - someone changed their mind and decided to make him the killer, while refusing to address the issue of motive. The end is a shambles, I would have preferred a hackneyed explanation from a cop rather than just ending it with 'get a life' - 'get a *ucking resolution' more like it! I'm interested that people have opinions, well-constructed theories even, on this film's plot, but that in itself is pretty damning if the filmmakers force you to have to theorise on the plot of a standard thriller!

[–] Fotip 18 years ago

Remember the scene when Vida is killed in the stairwell?

-You see a pair of black Reebok's that Zeke was wearing in the gym with Carly.

Cut to the scene where Jack is being interrogated by the police -

-He has his foot up on the desk for a moment, his sneakers are gray and white and NOT the sneakers we saw in the stairwell.

It is my theory that Zeke killed Gus Hale for intentions to tell Carly about the affiar between Zeke and Naomi. I also know for a fact that it is Zeke who killed Vida in the stairwell, because she was the only one who could tell Carly that she DID NOT speak to Zeke at Carly's house warming party.

It was Jack who killed Naomi for cheating. But Naomi was the only one he killed. And I quite liked the surprise of the ending.

So watch the flick again and mirror my theories with what you see during the course of the film. It's one of my favorites, it's more complex than what meets the eye. You actually have to listen to the dialogue to figure out the ending. Unlike Basic Instinct, where they just spin you around and around and around and throw you smack up against the wall with your first instincts concerning the identity of the killer. Like Jade, Sliver is a finer thriller.

But concerning Basic Instinct 2, now THAT is one helluva a movie that gets no credit and deserves so much more...

[–] bdhuntr 18 years ago

maybe I imagined this but....

in one scene, where Carly is looking at Vida and Jack in the telescope, you see a street conversation and it appears that money is exchanged.

Later, when Vida is walking down the stairwell, she appears to be sniffing frequently, which in my mind showed that maybe she was a coke fiend (that's an old term!) and that Jack was her supplier (writers in the late 80's-early 90's were big partiers). That would also explain why Vida was reluctant to expose her knowledge of Jack to the police.

This film was tough to follow, although I enjoyed it. You would have thought that after Naomi was killed, perhaps the police would have discovered all the hidden cameras, but of course, they did not.

[–] sannitti 18 years ago

Just saw this for the first time late at night on showtime or something..jsut the last half hour or so because in 93, Sharon Stone was the hottest woman on the planet, shes still ok now and I'm only 20, speaking of being creepy...what are we to think of Baldwin's character in the end? Is he just a sorta creepy horndog who honestly believes his peeping is ok but never corsses the line into anything worse than invasion of privacy? The fact that she didn't shoot him in the end seems to tell em thatats what Stone's character felt...the relationship was over but she didn't think of him as a murderer or anything that warrented shooting.

"I am the cheese. I am the best character. I am better than both the salami and bologna combined"

[–] 18 years ago

[deleted]

[–] elpresidente-4 18 years ago

Me neither. I call this "The movie where Sharon Stone bangs some men".

STOP THE SLAUGHTER OF BABY SEALS - SPREAD THE WORD http://www.hsus.org/protect_seals.html

[–] theotherjenn 14 years ago

hahahahaha and the reason all the clues lead to Zeke...*drum roll* is because he WAS the original killer, the script was only changed to Jack being the killer because of a bad reaction from test audiences.

At the same time, the whole movie is confusing and that little twist, imo, adds to this in a good way :)

[–] theotherjenn 14 years ago

The theory that Jack was Vida's drug dealer would be the perfect fit except that it's Jack giving Vida the money, if he was her supplier wouldn't SHE be the one handing money over? Let's not forget the scene where she's licking white powder off a mirror :)

I speak three languages; English, Sarcasm and B!tch!