Assassin at Lisa's home not necessary for Rippner's plot
Why bother having an assassin outside Lisa's home? Rippner convinced her that there was an assassin, without actually having an assassin there. So why bother actually having on there?
shareIt was actually explained in the movie that if Lisa made a foul move or if she would not agree to what Rippner is asking, he'll call up the assassin at dad's house and would have dad killed. Also, if the assassin at dad's house doesn't get a confirmation from Rippner that Keefe's hotel room has been changed, then the assassin would automatically have her dad killed.
shareThank you, Percy, but my question remains (for what it is worth.) I know Rippner explained to Lisa that there was this assassin who would kill her father if she disobeyed Rippner, and Lisa totally bought that.
So why actually HAVE an assassin there at all? The point was to get Lisa to cooperate, which Rippner sought to do by "telling" Lisa about the assassin. Having an assassin actually at the house, did nothing to persuade Lisa, so far as I can tell.
He wasn't bluffing though. He really was going to have the father killed if she didn't go along with the plan, and he even tried to track her down and murder her when everything went wrong. I think that says enough about his character.
shareI had a problem with the whole "confirmation" issue; Rippner goes back and forth about whether the guy will act if he doesn't hear from him. When he's talking about their leaving the plane and getting lattés, she worries that he won't call the guy soon enough to stop him, and Rippner says he's a "good dog" who won't act without his "command" that he do so. But this is just after he'd warned her, in the restroom, that if the plane were diverted (for his arrest) the guy would learn about it and kill her father.
My head was spinning; were we supposed to figure that she could trust nothing he told her on the issue - and not wonder why she didn't question his contradictions? Just not, as an audience, notice them, as she seemed not to?
If I were in her shoes, I probably would have annoyed him with "But wait, you just saids" to the point of his strangling me out of frustration and saying to hell with the assassination. (Then he'd have to kill his client - and accomplices? - to protect his reputation, and we'd have a sequel/even more convoluted movie.)
Obviously if the plane landed someplace else, it would be safe for the assassin to assume that Jackson was caught so there is no way for him to get in touch (wait for master's voice).
And as someone else pointed out, he needed the dog to give feeds of the father and steal the vallet.