MovieChat Forums > Funny Games (1998) Discussion > They had a chance of Survival

They had a chance of Survival

posted 16 years ago by LiveForever00
23 replies | jump to latest

This part baffles me: When the mom walks out with the killer to greet the neighbors on the boat, she just introduces Peter/Paul and doesn't let on that anything's wrong. This was after her dog was killed and her husband clubbed. I mean, it was the one guy against herself and like 2 or 3 friends on the boat. Not to mention that he didn't have a gun or anything, and his accomplice was separated from him in the house. If it were me, I would've said "Help, this guy and his friend are attacking us!" and we could've tackled him. Then, I would've used their phone to call for help and run inside and tie up Fatty. That was her only chance to ask for help. Once you isolate yourself with a killer, you have less of a chance of survival. I don't think at that point the killers had a gun, only gulf clubs in the house. The guy was disarmed when he went outside with her; I don't get why she acted like everything was fine.

Also, how do they not know the phone number to the police? Isn't there a 911 in Austria? They took their sweet time in the house after the killers left. Just sitting there, then slowly changing clothes, then drying off the phone, blah blah blah. I mean seriously she could've run, brought the hairdryer to the husband to dry the phone and gotten the hell out of there!

This movie was definitely more realistic than other thriller/horror movies in that the guy was totally unheroic and incapacitated - it remind me of What Lies Beneath when Michelle Pfeiffer manages to save herself from drowning in the tub and drag herself out even though she had been totally numbed with no leg usage capacity. In American movies, people sure do seem to fight a hell of a lot harder for their lives. The only time this family tried to do something was when the mom grabbed the gun.

[–] 16 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Phibrizoq 15 years ago

Well, the fact is the family didn't really have any chance of survival, they had to be tortured and killed. Remember that Paul rewinds the movie when Peter gets killed.

So yes, you might be right, but you're kinda missing the point of the film, which is that the whole thing was constructed just to satisfy the spectators' morbidity.

[–] gans_fans 15 years ago

And also, if you think about it, the family IS completely stupid, on purpose.
Haneke shows us where or mass-consummering has lead us to: a family of clumsy, ignorant and pathetic fool.

[–] AsaNisiMasa_63 15 years ago

I agree. I was kinda pissed off at first, since all the wife had to do was push Paul in the water. Yell, "CALL THE COPS, HE'S TRYING TO KILL MY FAMILY," get some kind of weapon from the neighbors and run-off. But as we later figured out, Peter and Paul had total control over the "game." So it probably wouldn't have made a difference and would have went against to what the director intended.

[–] a1_andy_11 15 years ago

Phibrizoq: you may be right in that they were doomed no matter what.

SPOILERS

HOWEVER you are wrong in thinking that the film can therefore have glaring implausible events as we lead up to the final act. The viewer HAS to believe there is hope, this is why there are hints that the family can escape the whole time (knife on the boat, kid with the gun). This is to make you really think the family has a chance, so that at the end of the film the director can go "HAH! no way".

[–] shayneferry 15 years ago

It was so dumb how they didn't know the number to the police...honestly!

[–] Can_a_bitch_get_a_donut 14 years ago

What's the number they should have dialed, ShayneFerry?

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\o/ STEVE HOLT!

[–] claudecat 14 years ago

I agree-everyone knows emergency numbers, especially parents. They drill it into themselves, their kids, and all relatives and babysitters. I thought this was totally unbelievable, and since it happens so early on in the film, it made it impossible for me to buy into most of the movie.

[–] dangus 12 years ago

Maybe the 112 universal emergency number hadn't been implemented yet (Wikipedia doesn't say which year in the 1990s Austria got it).

[–] Erin-Leigh-14 11 years ago

ah, see, 112 is not a universal number.. in north america, it's 911 - but still, i know a lot of areas in ontario don't have 911 coverage, including a fair portion of 'cottage country'. for people there, they need to dial the police directly, and therefore would need to know the full phone number for their local police station. it's possible, seeing as this was the family's summer home, that they are in a similar situation of not having an easy, well-known emergency number to dial.

[–] Karskoya 15 years ago

You just brought up one of the 3,009,872,076 ways the family could have survived. They were so stupid. I can guarantee that if I was one of them, both of those guys would have been slaughtered, unrecognizable, and already at the bottom of the lake within 2 minutes. And not because I like gore or anything else this film tries to perceive about me, but because I wouldn't let anyone screw with me like that. Ever.

"Am I missing an eyebrow?"

[–] thebucketrider 14 years ago

Cilleka, I'll bite. What would you do if two intruders had bound you and broken your leg? How would you slaughter them under those conditions?

[–] Karskoya 14 years ago

I wasn't waiting for someone to bite, but if I was under those conditions I would figure it out. I promise you, I would find a way, and I would kill them.

"Am I missing an eyebrow?"

[–] Spellbinder888 14 years ago

What disturbs me aboout your post isn't so much your presumption that you would be a hero in that circumstance, it's whether you think people who are (for whatever reason) unable to overcome their attacker, deserve what is coming to them?

[–] z_noland 14 years ago

You would try your darndest.

[–] thebucketrider 14 years ago

We don't see Paul make any provision against some attempt by Anna and her friends but it's hard to believe he didn't make any and that Anna just acted that way spontaneously. I think it's entirely plausible that he threatened her with dire consequences if she alerted her friends. He could have told Peter to keep a watchful eye on them from inside the house and to make sure Anna's husband and child paid the price if she and her friends tried to subdue him.

[–] iuokere 14 years ago

well do you remember at the beginning of the film when the family was talking to fred and eva? peter and paul were standing next to them at the time, possibly feeding them things to say, or telling them they had better act normal. im also gonna assume that Sissi was dead by then, to Fred and Eva could have been in shock. thats what i thought of when anna was talking to her friends at the boat. it was basically the exact same situation

[–] georgegates 13 years ago

well it was very realistic in terms of how people would act and react, especially in many parts of Austria/Bavaria.

they also didn't know these were killers, after their sons horrible death they were shellshocked.

Actually you can dial 911 in the EU. This movie is older though, but I think this was ploy in the script was to show how dysfunctional these people became after the trauma.

As for the phone, it is 15yrs old and the sadists knew it had virtually no juice left.

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Life's too short for mediocrity.