MovieChat Forums > Ransom (1996) Discussion > FBI was pretty worthless.

FBI was pretty worthless.

posted 4 years ago by Sandman81 (1509)
4 replies | jump to latest

Every plan or idea they had failed and was wrong. And every time Mullin flipped the script and did what they didn't want him to do, it worked.

The FBI wanted him to just pay the ransom, because most of the time those parents get their kids back alive. Mullin was smart to realize that these people would never want his son to come back alive, since he could ID them later, and during the botched drop off the guy he gave the money too had no idea where his son was supposed to be. Even after that, they still wanted him to just pay the money, but Mullin went public and put up the bounty instead. Then they tried to undermined that by sending his wife with the money, and she then gets beaten up. But in the end, Mullin's plan worked. The kidnappers panicked and turned on each other, and he got his kid back.

[–] davodikum (6198) 4 years ago

That's not really in insight, you're just explaining the plot. And why wouldn't the FBI tell them to pay the ransom? It's a numbers game. Most of the time paying the ransom works better than not paying. Yeah Mel Gibson's plan worked in the end, but it was pretty unorthodox and bloody risky.

[–] Sandman81 (1509) a year ago

Yes, I did point out several key points from the plot to support my point that the FBI was worthless in this movie. They might have been right at first about paying the ransom, but when Mullin comes back from the botched ransom drop and says the guy making the pick-up had no clue where his son was supposed to be, they should have realized that these kidnapers were not going to give his kid back alive. But instead, they insisted he continue like before. And even when he tried to do something different, they undermine him by sending his wife. And just to further complicate the matter, they tell her about his past business misdeeds.

[–] Stratego (30576) 5 months ago

"But in the end, Mullin's plan worked"

Except that was incredibly unrealistic and his plan was stupid as hell (and he was just lucky, it didn't even really work). In real life the FBI would indeed advise to pay the ransom, but hold off a little. The FBI was stupid as hell following Mel with two helicopters and going after Donnie like that. Just ridiculous.

[–] KingBob (2246) 5 months ago

What I don’t get is once they found out Cubby Barnes was in on the kidnapping, why didn’t they start combing the city for Clark Barnes, geez since he and Cubby were considered to be “inseparable” and Barnes was the brains of the family, maybe Clark knows where Sean is.