Confused about poisoning

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It's a gigantic plot hole and ruins the movie.

great questions. I watched it a second time because I thought I missed it.

Thet decide to kill craven with radioactive thallium although plain old thallium will kill just as easily,

Emma was killed with radioactive thallium. They decided to use it one craven as cross contamiation but you don't see it. Is there a scene between the order to contamiate him and when the abort order is given? The shaving creams seems the only possibility but even if he cut himself he would not die from that type of contact.

It's a screw up. Maybe they coulnd't come up with anything that made sense and hoped no one would notice.

Maybe it was in the hamburger he ate before backing up into the guys following him

I don't know.

Shaving cream makes no sense as it would barely effect him and I never saw any other way he could have and forget about the milk, they would not hope he found it and drank it doing their dirty work for them.

Update

Okay I actually did research including and old chemistry textbook.

Thallium is extremely deadly even in it's stable(non radioactive)isotopes

Thallium has about 40 radioactive isotopes of which about 37 are harmless having havelifes of less than 1 hour. However the thallium will still kill you because stable non radioactive thallium is deadly. Only about 4 isotopes have half lives of more than 12 hours the probably minimum to cause radiation sickness and only three have halflifes of more than three days.

It is deadly however the thallium would kill you before the radioactivity.

Craven did shave after the go ahead to give him thallium was okay

Thallium is easily absorbed through the skin

He did get the thallium from the shaving cteam

Why didn't he always keep the gieger counter on and with him.

It's like when the guy escaping never picks up the guards gun/

Wouldn't you have

Again, there are SPOILERS

I re-watched the movie yesterday after reading this thread. To me, the real question is why the director left the poisoning so ambiguous? I'm going to go through the list of possiblities mentioned in this thread.

Ginger Ale - Bennett asks Craven if he'd like something to drink and Craven replies Ginger Ale. Bennett then sends his secretary to go fetch it. The ginger ale never comes. We never see Craven drink it. Are we to believe that Bennett has thallium just lying around for his secretary to put in drinks? Bennett creeps Craven out and he leaves. I personally don't buy it. Such a substance is extremely toxic and would require careful handling. But more importanly, we don't see Craven drink it. That goes against basic rules of filmmaking.

Toothpaste - Ditto the toothpaste. There is no scene that I saw yesterday where Craven brushes his teeth. If it was in a previous version of a script that did not make it to the screen, well that would just be plain unfair.

Crown Royal - Both Craven and Jedburgh drink the Crown Royal. That would mean that Jedburgh is just as poisoned as Craven and he displays no sign of that in his last scene before he kills the Senator and the other 2. It's not the Crown Royal.

Blood and the Ashes - Since others came in contact with those substances, that would mean they too were subject to contamination. People at the crematorium and the forensics lab. Perhaps, someone with expertise on radiation exposure could answer this. But in the absence of that info, I am personally leaving them out. Way too complex and again, the film doesn't introduce it as a concept.

Milk - Craven finds the contaminated Milk in Emma's refrigerator, but we never see him drink any of it. Some have suggested suicide, but again, there's no concrete evidence that Craven was thinking along those lines. What we do know about Craven is that as a bereaved father who happens to be a cop, he is hellbent on finding out ALL the people responsible for his daughter's death and bringing them to justice. I doubt he wanted to die before he could accomplish that. And in fact, when he realized he, too, had been poisoned, he then went and killed Bennett and his goons before he died. At that point he felt he had no choice but to do that. I don't think the milk poisoned him.

Shaving Cream - After Craven visits the lawyer, the Senator and Robinson, Moore calls Bennett from the car in a panic telling him that he must ABORT the hit on Craven. Bennett tells him it's too late. CUT TO: Craven in the bathroom with full shaving cream on his face. He then has a "visitation" from Child Emma who wants to shave, too. It's clearly a memory of something that must have happened. When the memory fades, a grief-stricken, Craven shaves slowly. It appears that the shaving cream has been on his face a very long time. Plus, when you shave, you are opening your skin's hair follicles, making penetration that much quicker. The next scene he's on the bed and begins to cough lightly. Before this, no signs of contamination. The bell rings. Craven listens to Whitehouse who has sold him out. During this scene Craven remains adamant that he is not going to back off, he then turns and begins to vomit in the kitchen sink. When he is done, he rinses his face and as he is drying it, he stares out the window and has a brief moment of realization... that they have poisoned him some how. The confusion for the audience begins when he is abducted by Bennett's goons. Why?

They abducted him because he was getting ready to blab to the media. The Senator was backed into a corner and wanted Craven taken care of. In truth, Jedburgh was supposed to have taken care of him, but didn't for some reason. Bennett knew Craven was dying and he wanted to isolate him until then, and dispose of the body in the same manner that he had disposed of the people Emma helped get into Northmoor. That makes sense, because if Craven just dies, there would be an autopsy, which would confirm radiation poisoning and of course, an investigation would ensue. By escaping and then killing Bennett, Craven unraveled the plan. Now questions were sure to be asked.

This is the conversation Jedburgh was having with the Senator at the end of the movie. Even though Craven could not talk, officials were trying to unravel why Craven killed Bennett and why he was exposed to radiation. The meeting was to determine how to spin the Senator's involvement and keep him away from scandal.

In the end, I believe Jedberg grew to admire Craven and decided that since he was dying, too, of some unnamed illness, why not commit a final heroic act and get rid of these scumbags?

According the scenes in the movie, I think it was the shaving cream. Maybe that was supposed to be a scene with him brushing his teeth, but it was decided that a scene with him shaving while having a memory of Child Emma, would be more poignant. And actually it was a better scene, giving us a look into how deep their relationship was and how deep his grief was at having lost her.

It was the shaving cream.

I don't think Craven was poisoned before they took him to Northmoor. But he may have been the real target when Emma was shot because they would be afraid she would have revealed everything to him before the poison killed her.

So many dumb people let me see he was exposed to her ashes, her blood that was all over his face, he carried her hair around in his pocket hmmm i wonder how he got sick.

MILK.

1. Opens home fridge. Using dosimeter or variant from daughter's bag, reader detects milk is "radioactive". Bottle is only 75% full.

2. Shaving, then pauses at sink, feeling "first wave" of radiation sickness.

3. Backstabbing partner arrives. In kitchen, they talk, then Craven vomits in sink in front of him. Craven realizes partner's been setting him up and that he's been poisoned, like his daughter (in her case, from radiated steam at Northmoor). He's tazed and captured by Northmoor posse and wakes up on gurney, violently ill, in a dark basement. As "technician" in white hazmat suit and mask checks on him, presumably to ensure his death, Craven beats him up and escapes then goes on revenge killing spree, knowing he's going to die.

Craven had already drunk some of the milk. The remaining milk he poured in Noormoor's nutjob CEO's mouth and all over his face.

Radiation cannot be passed from person to person by touch etc. You can be contaminated by dust, liquids, soil, food that has been highly radiated. At high levels, humans will begin to feel the effects of radiation poisoning within 5-6 hours. In severe cases, humans will likely die within 3-5 days but most people recover. Radiation in small amounts is all around us. Cell phones, MP3s, electronic devices, microwave ovens, power lines, WiFi; keep these away from your body. You can by dosimeters onine for personal and home use.