why did William H Macy's character have to die?

@ShriekoftheVulture Come on, we're talking about William H. Macy here - the ultimate sad sack. You can't expect him to get off scot-free.

I wish WHM lived in this movie but was dinosaur chow in Jurassic Park 3.

I felt bad for his character too, but then, in real life you don't get a pass just because you are noble :) Crap can happen to anyone.

That part bothers me too.....

I agree with your take on it, Shriek, but ultimately it's Hollywood shorthand -- they didn't have a spot in the script to give the Traitor a motivation or explanation for his actions, so they deal with it by simply making him a turd of a person and having him kill one of the good guys unreasonably. Most of the audience goes out of the cinema without giving it a second thought.

If there'd been some kind of epilogue, I'm sure he would have been mentioned. But by that point the film was running low on fuel as well, so I guess they opted for the quick close.



You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

I didn't feel sorry for him for many reasons:
- ever since the hi-jacking started, he knew his life was hanging on a thread
- he didn't flinch, he kept eye-contact with his killer and tried at least a last desperate move in the name of duty, anyway, he faced death and died as a hero
- it was a situation where only one man could be saved so he was willing to let the President go anyway... and die, so by the time of his death, his chances of survival have considerably shrunk, and maybe he would have died a much painful death hed he stayed in the plane and ... waited. I

But the reason why I didn't feel sorry for him is because I felt much sorrier for the poor guy who was rescuing them, in fact, I couldn't put his death out of my mind for the rest of the film ;
- here's a young man who's saving people and is doing one hell of a job at that
- he probably pictures himself receiving a medal with Dad, Mom and his brother Joshua in the audience
- he knows he's risking his life but he expect a 'natural' accident, the rescue belongs to the 'resolution' part, terrorists were killed, so he didn't really consider the possibility of being killed
- he didn't even have time to see his death coming, one second he's asking the President to come, and the second after, a bullet ejects him from the plan, and he vanishes into the sea like a Kleenex thrown in a trashcan. WTF

For some reason, at that point I didn't even care for anyone to die or survive, I know innocent people ought to die in such movies, but that very death upset me.

Darth Vader is scary and I  The Godfather

By that point, his fate was sealed. He was already going to die since they only had time for one more trip before the plane crashed into the water. If it weren't for that, Gibbs wouldn't have revealed himself to be the traitor and thus, he wouldn't have been killed.