Ok so this might sound like a stupid question but how the hell did Mel Gibson get sick? Did he drink the milk? Was it from being in close contact with his daughter?
At one hour and twenty-two minutes, Mel's character is shown in his kitchen with a Geiger counter, which measures radiation. He opens the refrigerator and scans the contents until he reaches a bottle of milk, which sets off the Geiger counter. The bottle of milk is about one-third empty, indicating that Mel had already consumed part of it. Cut to a close-up of Mel's face, his expression indicating that he realizes he's already been poisoned. From then on, he knows he's going to die.
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Okay -- so it WAS his daughter's kitchen? I thought it was when I saw the movie (just this weekend 'on demand'), but everyone on this board was saying the milk in question was at Mel/Cravin's house.
I was thinking the Crown Royal, as well.
oh well, i enjoyed the movie, sad though it was....
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Talking monkey, yeah, yeah. Came here from the future, ugly sucker, only says "ficus"
Various theories posited here but I'm not sure it really matters. The point is that we know it was done and we assume they found some way to do it. It could have been the shaving cream but it just as easily could have been something he ate for breakfast off screen; it's ambiguous and that's fine.
shareThinking from the top of my head here. What about the burger? We see Thomas Craven eating the burger first, before he sees Jack Bennett's two bodyguards observing his movements. They could have somehow poisoned the burger since we don't exactly know where he got it from.
shareHE. DRANK. THE. MILK.
He found it in his daughter's apartment. He knew it had been irradiated. He knew it's what Northmoor had given her. He knew it would be suicide. He didn't care. He had nothing left to live for...
As Jrochelle says...he drank the milk.
I can't belive there are all these stupid theories about this. The only poisoned item that we know about is the milk. The film makes a point to show us this. Mel also forces it to the main bad guy and he knows what it is as he goes straight for some antidote. As the bad guy says on the phone when he is told to stop the hit on mel, its too late, the milk is already poisoned.
So it was the milk, not really hard to see that from the film...dont know what the fuss is about...IT WAS THE MILK. When Mel saw the milk was poisoned he knew he was already dead.
'just lost the last thought in my head...what happens now?'
He didn't drink the milk. That's just stupid. He uncovered and confirmed the source of her poisoning and that she hadn't been contaminated at the same time as the others.
He hadn't finished his mission or meted out justice to those responsible at that time, so he sure as hell wouldn't just go and kill himself at that point.
As already referenced, it was mentioned in the film that he had already been taken care of, meaning that something had already been done to him that couldn't be undone, not like just calling off a hit man.
Given the attention given to his application of the shaving foam in the film, I thought at the time that it had been interferred with before he got sick, regardless of the mechanics and accuracy of absorption v ingestion of the substance and assuming it was the same substance based on thr symptoms.
- "Yeehaaa, just like f%^cking Saigon eh slick"?
- "I was in junior high dickhead"!
He did drink the milk.
Everything about the poisoning is to do with the milk. He had the milk in the bottle for a good portion of the film, he saved most of it up to give to the main bad guy.
No one mentioned hit men, the 'hit' is to poison him, but its still a hit.
His attention with the shaving foam is to do with a special memory he has of his daughter, at no point whatsoever is the foam hinted to be poisoned. So if it was the foam, then the film is poorly edited as that should have been made clear. What the film did do was tell you they poisoned milk, everyone has milk.
'just lost the last thought in my head...what happens now?'
I dont know much about radiation but to my knowledge its done on a cellular level and can not be transfered. In other words just because a person has been subjected to radiation does not make him radioactive. Radiation must have a source and a set of conditions for it to work. So daughter could not have spread the radiation on to the father.
All through the movie Mel is dring gingerale and continuously refuses coffee. Most people drink coffee with milk (unless black) so assuming Mel did not drink coffee throughout the movie.. he did not consume milk. More so... milk was detected to be radioactive in his daughter's house where he has not been (potentially ever) and was already 1/3 empty when he opened the fridge. Entire radiation thing was revealed when he stumbled upon a geigermometer or whatever that device is called. He scanned his daughter's hair which could not have contaminated him that fast. He also scanned parts of kitchen and later the fridge.
in the end shaving cream had nothing to do with his death, neither did the hitman because like his father he was suffering from probably something like altzeimers and lung cancer. So for Mel had to have been poisoned. The only plausible solution is when he got his daughter's blood all over him but since radiation does not make her radioactive... perhaps she was infected with something else?
He was poisoned the second he came into direct contact with her and her effects and transfered to her father without much collateral contamination. When asked during his little meeting with those executives at the Northmoor facility Mr, Bennett agreed. Thats why when he said it was already done he meant Craven was already dying and there was nothing to stop or abort from keeping his death from happening.
shareNo, you don't get radiation poisoning that way.
It is also implausible that the daughter drank milk and her hair got radioactive. Her hair would have to grow out first to contain the radioactive material she ingested with the milk.
Radiation doesn't turn other materials radioactive that fast or strongly, and not all materials even. The damage is similar to standing in an xray machine, but it's not "infectious".
After all, the movie takes some creative license on how radiation works. The shaving cream seems to be the obvious choice, but something else we just didn't see in the movie is more plausible scientifically.
And he obviously didn't drink the milk from her house, he had a mission and wasn't suicidal.
No he didn't.
shareWhy on earth would he drink the milk? Of course he had something to live for--he was hell-bent on a mission to avenge his daughter's death! Doesn't make sense that he would do that to himself mid-effort!
shareI figured it was in the gingerale he got from Bennett, as his last statement to his "friend" at his home was "Never take anything from the bad guys".
shareActually, it is very noticeable that he is using a differently packaged container of milk. His was a half-gallon plastic jug with a handle; hers was an old fashioned type of milk bottle. The labels did not appear to be identical. Personally, I don't really know how he got poisoned--I think they purposely leave that vague, but I don't buy the milk theory. Or the shaving cream theory, for that matter.
shareNone of these theories make sense to me. Craven wasn't suicidal, he was hellbent on getting getting his daughter's killers. Why would he drink the contaminated milk before he's done with his objective. Why would Bennet take the risk of contaminating the man's ginger ale so prematurely on Mel's very first visit, when it's not clear how dangerous Mel is going to be. I think when Bennett refuses to abort the kill saying it's already been done, he meant that the wheels were already set in motion for Craven's buddy to release Bennet's security guard/assassins and sic them on to Craven.
I wish I could say Mel was contaminated while lying unconscious at the facility, leaving us to assume that one round of damage had already been done to him. But he started coughing a bit earlier on in his bedroom.
Campbell just dropped the ball on this one. You can't leave the audience guessing, not in this kind of thriller where every detail is meticulously crafted and counts for something.
Just saw this movie and figured I might chime in because no one's said it yet. In the beginning after Emma is violently shot, her blood is splattered all over Tommy's face and hands. Not to mention the fact that he presses her blood soaked body against his as she dies. Possible poisoning there? He starts hallucinating and hearing voices the next morning (Emma as a child on the bench).
shareOhh, good one, tommjung. Never thought of that. God knows, Bennett leaves it vague enough when he says that contamination can spread from daughter to father quite easily.
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I don't think the poisoning is actually shown. We have all the clues to know that they wanted him dead and a plan was set in motion. When he starts getting sick, we just realize, "Ah, they got to him." It's not really important how.
At least that's my theory and I'm sticking to it.
I have to agree w/ Great-Lakes ...." We have all the clues to know that they wanted him dead and a plan was set in motion. When he starts getting sick, we just realize, "Ah, they got to him." It's not really important how."
If that is the case, then I disagree with the director's decision. I think it is important, especially since the movie is molded around the need to find information and be sensitive to the facts.