MovieChat Forums > Finder's Fee (2023) Discussion > Plot hole in ending? (spoilers)

Plot hole in ending? (spoilers)

posted 21 years ago by weaverx
47 replies | jump to latest

Despite the plot contrivances, I found myself enjoying this film very much, which made the twist ending such a frustration. Why must good movies blow it all with a twist ending just for the sake of having a twist ending? It reminds me of "Frailty" a couple of years ago.

Anyway, the ending doesn't make sense to me. If the man at the door is the real Avery, then who is James Earl Jones's character? The only likely explanation is that he is Victor, the brother-in-law, which would explain why he knew the granddaughter's birthday. But if that's true, how did the real Avery show up at the door only a minute after Victor left? Surely Victor wouldn't have told him about Tepper's message if Victor's plan was to acquire that lottery ticket. What did I miss?

And another gripe about the ending: All through the movie, no one can get into the building (except the cops of course) without being buzzed in with the intercom. Yet the real Avery just knocks on Tepper's door, because of course if he used the intercom first, the twist ending wouldn't happen. Blah.

[–] ffprick 18 years ago

I agree that sometimes movies do put in twisted endings for no apparent reason, but that isn't the case in this movie. I just felt throughout this movie that something had to happen. "Finder's Fee" implies to me that the main character was going to end up with a cut of the winnings and I think we were all expecting that JEJ was going to end up splitting the winnings with Tib for his honesty in the end. However, the director wanted to make this a pshcyological thriller and most of these types of movies don't end with a happy ending. They are meant to make you think and this movie really succeeded. Throughout the movie we see the main character trying to pull a fast one on JEJ and the point of this movie was to show that JEJ was smarter and really pulled a fast one on him.

[–] DocEmmettBrown 18 years ago

There are some great points here but I think there's some over complicating. The way I read it was this:

JE Jones was Victor, Avery's brother in law. He got the message from Tepper after having seen the Lotto numbers on the TV and recognising them as the numbers the real Avery has played for the last 10 years so sees this as an opportunity to swipe the ticket.
He goes over there and when Tepper gives him the wallet he looks through it, he sees that the ticket isn't Avery's and realises Tepper swapped it. This is why he's so keen to stay even though Tepper is clearly trying to get rid of him. This also explains why he's watching Tepper like a hawk and knows he's got a ticket in his top pocket.
The reason Quigley goes crazy and bottles JEJ is that, like Fishman suggested, he checked the Lotto numbers before he came up therefore knowing that the winning ticket was in the pile.
At the end when Tepper hands JEJ the ticket and he leaves he is so 'high' on the con he pulled that he gets cocky and calls the real Avery to tell him where his wallet is just so Tepper knows he wasn't Avery at all. It is assumed that Tepper found the wallet nearby so it's not unlikely that Avery could be over to Tepper's apartment in minutes to collect it.
The hole with this is the likelihood of JEJ being able to claim the ticket and get away before the real Avery caught up with him but I think we've established that there's going to be a hole whichever way you look at it.

--------------------------------
"Why are you wearing that stupid man suit?"

[–] chriscaulder 11 years ago

This is definitely what happened. It's completely logical, seriously.

One thing you forgot to mention is that Quigley didn't call for the numbers before they all met up...... he called when he was pretending to call his daughter. That's why there's a close-up of the "redial" button, before he hands the phone to Tep.

The plot hole you mentioned at the end is a minor one, unlike all the plot holes people keep pointing out, because they don't fully understand the plot.

Definitely, this explanation makes the most sense out of anyone's... thank you, DocEmmettBrown.

There are some great points here but I think there's some over complicating. The way I read it was this:

JE Jones was Victor, Avery's brother in law. He got the message from Tepper after having seen the Lotto numbers on the TV and recognising them as the numbers the real Avery has played for the last 10 years so sees this as an opportunity to swipe the ticket.
He goes over there and when Tepper gives him the wallet he looks through it, he sees that the ticket isn't Avery's and realises Tepper swapped it. This is why he's so keen to stay even though Tepper is clearly trying to get rid of him. This also explains why he's watching Tepper like a hawk and knows he's got a ticket in his top pocket.
The reason Quigley goes crazy and bottles JEJ is that, like Fishman suggested, he checked the Lotto numbers before he came up therefore knowing that the winning ticket was in the pile.
At the end when Tepper hands JEJ the ticket and he leaves he is so 'high' on the con he pulled that he gets cocky and calls the real Avery to tell him where his wallet is just so Tepper knows he wasn't Avery at all. It is assumed that Tepper found the wallet nearby so it's not unlikely that Avery could be over to Tepper's apartment in minutes to collect it.
The hole with this is the likelihood of JEJ being able to claim the ticket and get away before the real Avery caught up with him but I think we've established that there's going to be a hole whichever way you look at it.

[–] Cyberbengan 18 years ago

If infact JEJ's character was Victor, and he knew the real Avery was coming, why did he stick around to play poker and dart? I mean, if it was me who stole 6 million bucks I'd get the hell out of there as soon as possible.

[–] ss5mmyers (160) 6 years ago

He knew the ticket had been removed from the wallet and had to play along to figure out what happened to it.

[–] The_Dim_Reaper 10 years ago

Also, didn't Tepper ring somewhere and get told that Avery didn't exist? No record of that name? Yet he's got parking tickets. Errrmmm.