MovieChat Forums > The Mighty Quinn (1989) Discussion > The Ending? (Spoiler)

The Ending? (Spoiler)

posted 18 years ago by Bacardi1
6 replies | jump to latest

I also like this movie, & have it on DVD. It brings back fond memories of my marriage/honeymoon on St. Lucia (not that there were any murders involved - lol).

That said, I can't make any sense whatsoever as to why "Maubee" (Robert Townsend) grabs onto the helicopter as it's lifting off. He's already put the poisonous snake into the moneybag, so knows the "bad guys" are going to die. And he must also realize that when they crash, he's probably going to die too. There's absolutely no intelligent reason that I can think of for him to do this. And then the "mysterious" last scene with the footprints & the $10,000 bill - as if no one on the island would know that he didn't die after all?

Anyone have any insight?

[–] borkabrak 18 years ago

Dead men don't go to court/jail for mutilating corpses and stealing large sums of money. I imagine he still wanted to escape even the possibility of arrest.

He'd have to be a quick thinker and time it right, but I guess if any reason for him to jump the chopper makes sense, this is it.

Assuming this to be the case, his original plan could have been to hang onto the chopper until the snake did its thing. Then he could jump into the ocean as it went down. Risky, but feasible ('movie' feasible, that is). When the "fat American" shot at him, he realized he'd better go ahead and drop before he died for real. You don't actually see him on camera taking any bullets.

Just a guess.

[–] DreTam2000 18 years ago

...you've got something all wrong. I'm not here to comment about the rest of your post, only one particular aspect of it.

You appear to be under the impression that Maubee is responsible for the snake's presence on the chopper. This isn't the case. The snake found its way into the chopper. Now whether or not it is by coincidence or by the power of voodoo is up to the individual to interpret, but the snake definitely found its own way into the moneybag. That was the whole point of the witch telling the "fat American" that she was going to kill him, even if he killed her first.

Remember, the snakes were her's. The movie is giving the implication that her magic killed him. That's the point of the snake in the helicopter and the "magical" (supernatural) resolution to the film. This film has been a favorite of mine since childhood; I'm not surprised that many missed this point though..

I'm not a control freak, I just like things my way

[–] ash_sinner 15 years ago

interesting :)

[–] madameduran 14 years ago

Why couldn't Maubee be the one to put the snake into the bag (perhaps while he's on the rooftop of the abandoned building)? The movie doesn't give any clear, specific indication of HOW the snake got there so it's left up to the viewer's interpretation. It's possible that the old witch adopted the form of the snake after her death to carry out her curse (if you believe that sort of supernatural thing); maybe the snake crawled in there on its own. Who knows for sure? Also, why didn't the snake bite Maubee as he was pulling dollar bills out from the bag and throwing it up in the air? If he knew it was there, maybe he would've been more careful in handling the bag.

[–] DreTam2000 14 years ago

Also, why didn't the snake bite Maubee as he was...

Because the curse wasn't on Maubee. The curse was on the person whom the witch said she was putting a curse on.

Remember the guy earlier in the movie who Maubee is accused of killing..? Remember when we find out through the chief's inquiry with the coroner expert that the man did not die from decapitation, but that he in fact died of a snake bite..? Remember later in the film when Maubee finally relays the whole tale to Quinn of just what happened..?

Maubee says that the guy was sleeping with the witch's niece and that he got her pregnant. Because of this, the witch put a spell on him. Maubee says that the spell didn't work. But guess what? It did. The man was killed by a snake! No one notices this connection, however. Perhaps after the end of the movie, Quinn has an autopsy done on the fried body of the helicopter pilot and finds out that the man died of a snake bite. Maybe he can then link the snake to the witch's curses; but this is doubtful, since he wasn't around to hear the witch put a spell on "the fat American" just before he killed her.

Unless it's a coincidence that the two characters in the film who have spells placed on them by the witch die from snakebites, or by incidents directly related to snakebites, I think it's a connection intended by the filmmakers to indicate the curses of the witch as effective magic.

I'm not a control freak, I just like things my way

[–] transmentalist 12 years ago

one minor point:

Maubee said Ubu Pearl's spell DIDN'T work on Pater. Then she consulted her magic, which told her to put the snake in his room.

It wasn't magic, she was just good with poisonous snakes.

The last snake is either "magical" coincidence or, possibly, another of Ubu's snakes that she put in the bag before she was killed. That seems unlikely, but since Maubee had been coming around her hut, it's not impossible.

Either way, I agree that the snake only makes sense if it's connected, dramatically if not literally/magically, to Ubu Pearl.