MovieChat Forums > Old Henry (2021) Discussion > SPOILER question about ending.

SPOILER question about ending.

posted 3 years ago by [deleted]
5 replies | jump to latest

I'm a bit confused on why the guy he was taking care of killed him. So he saw a brand on the guy's arm. Doesn't change the fact that the guy had done nothing against him to piss Henry off, so why would he think he needed to kill Henry?

[–] John Kyle (680) 3 years ago

He said it, to be the guy that killed Billy the Kid

[–] [deleted] 3 years ago

I knew he said that... but the way the thing played out he seemed to be concerned that Henry saw the brand... which seemed to be the catalyst. Sure he could say he wanted to be the one that killed Billy the Kid after he's already killed him, but it just didn't seem like that was the reason he shot him to begin with.

[–] Andy91042 (85) 3 years ago

I agree. Curry already realized who Henry was, saying that Pat Garrett must have helped him escape, before the big shootout. The ending felt more necessary than organic to the script & characters. After all, Curry was sincere when he told Henry & Wyatt to leave while he held off the gang. No, it was definitely Henry having seen the brand that prompted Curry to shoot him. One can only guess that he assumed Henry would insist on turning him in. Recall he told the Mexican guy he'd take him to the local sheriff (of course that was in Spanish & we've no reason to assume Curry understands it).

It was linking Unforgiven to High Noon to Road to Perdition.

Let us only hope Wyatt doesn't wind up getting ground up in Great War...

[–] Wuchak (8774) 9 months ago

The ending felt more necessary than organic to the script & characters. After all, Curry was sincere when he told Henry & Wyatt to leave while he held off the gang. No, it was definitely Henry having seen the brand that prompted Curry to shoot him. One can only guess that he assumed Henry would insist on turning him in.

I doubt Henry would've turned him in to authorities since he'd want to keep what went down at the homestead as low-key as possible in order to keep his real identity secret.

I don't believe Curry's actions were inorganic though. He was still recovering from his wounds and traumatized by the gunfight. I chalk his rash shooting of Henry up to paranoia and survival instinct: He knew Henry's discovering of the brand would blow his backstory and Henry might not take too kindly to being lied to; better to be safe than sorry, he figured (in the one second he had to make the decision).

[–] whynotwriteme (7725) 3 years ago

When Henry was feeding the first dead gang member to the hogs, he saw the same brand on the dead man's wrist. He knew then that Curry was actually in the gang.