MovieChat Forums > Mindhunters (2005) Discussion > Do you think they succeeded?

Do you think they succeeded?

posted 14 years ago by Angel_Buffy
7 replies | jump to latest

I read in the trivia,

'The studio did not cast any character as a lead. Director Renny Harlin wanted no dummy characters or obvious victims and established a sense that "anyone could die at any moment" in the film.'

I was wondering if anyone actually thought they succeeded in that? I frankly always felt that Sara was the lead. Lucas pretty much always felt either like love-interest or killer (and rapidly more and more like the latter, after Val Kilmer became more and more unlikely, either way someone, who if they'd die, wouldn't die until the end) and for the others, they did all feel like they could die...but then they all *did* die except for Gabe. And there were a few obvious victims. The lame man, seemed pretty obvious with his instance on always having a gun, and the other girl, who broke down more then the others.

Probably if I had known which actor Christian Slater was I would have been surprised he was the first to die, but then this was the first movie I've seen him in, so I didn't know what he looked like.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Alinos 14 years ago

yeah i think the issue was that while when they were filming they may not have had a typical lead.

The issue would have been in post production when they cut it in ways that emphasised who was going to survive

[–] Darth_Ravenous 14 years ago

Sara was too hot to die!

[–] diehappy 13 years ago

I think in some way they succeeded with casting the two most well known actors (Kilmer and Slater) in the roles with the least screentime. its the same casting twist Hitchcock used in Psycho (where the apparent lead Janet Leigh gets killed in the first half of the film) and that was re-done in all the parts of the Scream-franchise (where all the guest appearances by a young starlet turn out to be cameos only see Drew Barrymore, Sarah Michelle Gellar etc.)
One would never expect that the bigger names would be the first ones to die and therefore it comes as a suprising effect.
However I agree that Sarahs role was obvious to be the one of the surviving girl quite early. I think they could have put her in the center of attention a little later (not when she falls in water the first time). In the Agatha CHristie story "Ten little indians" on which the screenplay of this film was obviously based on the surviving last person seemed to be more randomly chosen.

[–] Strazdamonas 13 years ago

i think they did. sara was given a lot of screen time, but they all had thier own and i like the way there are no clear leads in this.

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All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is for enough good men to do nothing.

[–] Dinosaw 11 years ago

Sara was definitely a lead to me.

Christian Slater seemed like one too, so they 'succeeded' on making him a 'false lead'.

Life is like a beautiful melody, only the lyrics are messed up.

[–] IMDB_Vits 11 years ago

There's also the fact that in most movies the girl always survives. If there's more than one, then the weak/shy one survives. NICOLE had a sex scene, and according to the SCREAM movies, she's the slut of the group because of that.