This week’s meeting of the Charlize Theron Fan Club shall come to order.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at http://www.quartertothree.com/fp/2017/08/21/qt3-movie-podcast-atomic-blonde/
@tomchick we’re surprisingly in agreement on the constituent parts of Atomic Blonde, for me it started coming apart halfway through instead of in retrospect, and when the reveal came I threw my hands up in disgust.
I hate to defend Atomic Blonde’s writing - which is terrible in everything but the surface stuff - but the thing they have to deal with before crossing the border is Spyglass’ wound. He’ll bleed out otherwise. Why that leads to them running into the russians isn’t exactly clear though. Were they spotted?
I highly doubt Boutella’s character knew about Theron being a triple agent. I’m also pretty sure she made the comment about McAvoy before he got his hands on the list. What she does know about is his little trysts with his Russian counterpart.
Kelly’s comment about it not mattering if she’s a triple or double agent is true when it comes to the plotting (it also doesn’t really matter whether she’s just an agent), but not when it comes to character. It’d make no sense for her to try so damn hard to keep him alive when the Russians and McAvoy want him dead, and he’s a liability for her.
Fun fact: according to a comparison article she was a double agent in the comic. But there spyglass also got a sniper round in the head the moment he stepped out the door.
“Only assholes drink Mr. Pibb.”
“Drink up.”
Hell or High Water
C = Control.
You bought the movie back to life for me and I reevaluated it. Therons acting is superb as is the action/violence but the convoluted plot and tone jumps bothered me as did the spot the tune soundtrack. However you make me think I should rewatch it.
You = the man! Now I’m even more intent on seeing Wind River.
-Tom
Ah, that’s what the “we’re going to have to deal with this” line meant! That makes a lot more sense! Thanks, Soren.
But why did they duck into the building with all the bad guys to deal with a wound? Unless I’m missing something, I still say the whole stairwell fight is pointless. Awesome, but pointless.
Actually, you’re right. The scene immediately following whatever Delphine tells Lorraine is Percival getting the list. So she doesn’t know that he has the list because he doesn’t have it yet. Argh! That messes up my timeline then!
If all she has to tell Lorraine is that Percival’s been meeting the Russians, why is Percival meeting the Russians? Did I miss something? He meets with Bremovich after he has the list, of course, which is when he tells them Lorraine is a triple agent, right? But is there some implication he’s been working with the KGB before then? In which case, he might as well be Satchel. Now I’m even more confused.
Specifically, what did Delphine tell Lorraine about Percival that the audience (and Percival) isn’t supposed to hear yet?
By the way, Delphine then provides the photographs, posthumously, Lorraine uses to frame Percival. Were these even necessary? Obviously Lorraine was collecting recordings for a doctored audio tape, but were the photographs just a bonus? Did Delphine die just to give Lorraine’s presentation to the MI-6 a visual aid?
-Tom
So I actually thought, though I don’t think I can back it up with any proof, that Percival wasn’t going to give the list to MI-6 or he was going to doctor it because it had incriminating evidence on him. My assumption is that he realised that the list had information on him when Spyglass relayed to him who his favourite call girl was and what her real name was. I think that’s why he was happy to also have Spyglass killed who had memorised the list and hope that Lorraine was also taken down as well. That way he could control the information flow.
What about Spyglass’ family members? Did Percival agree to “take them” to lull Spyglass’ suspicions (“He wouldn’t bring THEM if he was going to assassinate me during a parade?”)? Did they live or die? Are they ever mentioned again? Am I dumb?
Percival gets the family out safely and there is a quick scene with him and Kurtzfeld with the family in a room. I like your thinking about him using the family to lull Spyglass. And of course you aren’t dumb.
I’m dumb too. I’ve only seen it the one time 3-4 weeks back, but I recall getting angsty that the fate of his family was left open. I kind of assumed Percival killed them.
EDIT: Thanks, @marquac Didn’t remember that scene. Of course they may have been zombies that only Percival could see…
Having just seen Wind River and looking for a relevant thread here on Qt3 to discuss it and seeing this and researching Hell or High Water AND learning it was written by the same writer as Sicario… now I’M even more intent on seeing Hell or High Water.
Seriously tho; go see it.
I haven’t listened to the podcast yet (sorry!), so maybe you already dismissed the following somehow: The reason they ducked into the building with the bad guys wasn’t to deal with the wounds. It was to deal with the bad guys, since they could not escape through the streets as long as the sniper was around. This is why Theron leaves Spyglass on the stairs at the front door, and takes the elevator to the Nth floor to pick a fight. (She knows which floor to go to, since she saw the gun poking out the window).
Damn. That quick fight after she goes out the window is just a thing of beauty.
-xtien
“You want a pair of jeans? Help yourself.”