Although the film as a whole gives the old tailor a God’s perspective, allowing him to design and guide the final curtain of the whole event with such omniscience, he can only speculate on the actions of others with reasonable cause, and cannot control the other characters in the play in the form of a puppet – he has neither that kind of motive nor that kind of ability.Before the old tailor dropped the tape, he had to take into account that several parties involved had to know about the existence of the tape and its importance: 1. The Boyle family had to know in advance when the tape was dropped, otherwise the relevant information could not be passed to Mabel through Ritchie in time, and thus the Lafontaine family had no way to start the fight for the tape; 2. Mabel had to know in time that Ritchie and others had gotten the tape and where to take it The first thing is that the Boyle family cannot hear the contents of the tapes, otherwise they will be able to know where the wire is placed, and thus the old tailor and his receptionist will not have a good end.
To design and guide the course of events, the old tailor must have enough information, or as he puts it: what about him can you observe. For several parties concerned, the old tailor can obtain information through direct or indirect means, but in order to remove the falsehood and keep the truth, close observation or for the core, indirect means can only be used as a means of verification. This is also evidenced by the film’s use of the not-so-strict “Three Identities”. Moreover, the old tailor only observes, he does not interfere, that is, he can only reasonably speculate on the extent to which his subject is inclined to adopt a particular behavior, but that must come from the free will of the subject. As mentioned above, let’s see what kind of information the old tailor gets or may get in the movie: 1. the Boyle family has a strong will to join “the outfit” organization, which can be verified from the street information, and this strong will makes Boyle not hesitate to escalate the firefight with another gang; 2. Mabel and the Boyle family The big son of the Boyle family Richie mixed together, and Richie will leak the core information of the gang to Mabel; 3, Mabel is the one who sold information about the Boyle family to the LaFontaine family. From the indirect situation on the street, the old tailor can infer the core degree of information that Mabel sold to the Lafontaine family, thus inferring the degree of Ritchie’s trust in Mabel; 4, Mabel had contact with the FBI agents and accurately knew the existence of the wire; 5, the old tailor knew some general information about the Boyle family, such as Ritchie’s relationship with Francis; 6, the Lafontaine gang and some other general information.
According to the above analysis, let’s see how the movie shows, or the possible plot will let the whole event develop, it is not with some sense of inevitability, this inevitability to be able to let the old tailor, at the very least to help Mabel escape the gang’s revenge.
Ex: The Boyle family has a conflict with the Lafontaine family, and Mabel uses this conflict to profit from it, but the Boyle family senses the existence of a traitor, and Francis grabs the action to clear the traitor. It was only a matter of time before Mabel was exposed. So, the old tailor through the fake “the outfit” organization’s order (encouragement), let the Boyle family and the Lafontaine family war escalation, hoping that through this means to let both sides lose, or at least serious damage to the Boyle family, so that Mabel can successfully escape. The old tailor’s actions were at least ineffective, and Mabel sensed her own insecurity, so she brought in the FBI. but in a tailor’s store, what important content can the wiretap tap? Perhaps it is because of the failure to record fatal evidence, so the old tailor threw out the “tape”, thereby triggering a showdown between the two factions. (Due to the film editing relationship, it is difficult to distinguish the appearance of the FBI in the first, or the old tailor faked “the outfit” in the first, here assume the latter.)
Now let’s look at the “tape” before and after the appearance of the timeline and logical line, to see whether this plot development has a rational.
The old tailor informed Boyle of the existence of the wire and the tape through “the outfit”, and informed them that a copy of the “tape” would be delivered at a precise point in time. At this point, a. if the characteristics of the information that Rich told Mabel are not observed, then the “tape” cannot be dropped, otherwise everything will be exposed. b. if the characteristics of the information that Rich told Mabel are observed, then the “tape” will be dropped as a “bomb”. “bomb” is dropped. There are several other possibilities.
b1, Mabel has all the relevant information, and pass it out in time, the two factions fire, Lafontaine has the advantage, and thus get the “tape”, then Lafontaine will find that the “tape” does not have the content of her concerns. In this way, b1a, the conflict between the two factions continues, that is, the “tape” does not play the role envisaged, nor does it play the opposite role; b1b, in the process of grabbing the “tape”, Rich and Francis die, the conflict escalates infinitely, and finally the Boyle The family is wiped out, thus saving Mabel from Boyle’s revenge. But will Lafontaine be angry or suspicious of Mabel because of the “tape”, which has no real value, but has cost him dearly? The fact that the “tape” exists is itself a concern of Boyle’s. Will she use it as a bargaining chip to make a deal with Boyle? If the deal is successful, it will hasten the disaster of the tailor store.
b2, the two factions to grab the “tape” in the firefight, Ritchie’s side has the advantage, or escape, then the “tape” of the truth will be clear. In fact, in the plot of the movie about this possibility, just by chance, Francis took the shot Ritchie hide in the tailor store, and again out when the “tapes” left there. The design of this plot is really too strong, is the plot of the hard set, otherwise the old tailor died several times.
In short, the old tailor has done his best, the movie seems to be reversed and reversed again, but it does not have the basic logic that can make the story stand. The old tailor is not based on the optimal solution to make the parties into his design inevitable, instead, he relies on probability, whether it is for the behavior tendency of Mabel, Richie, Francis, or the direction of the event itself, even if the probability is greater, it is only probability, and in the path of interlocking, the probability will only multiply smaller and smaller. There is no way for the old tailor to design beforehand an inevitability that the “tape” will be actively or passively destroyed, nor can his design necessarily include old Boyle, whose store will always be in danger as long as he is alive. Of the various possible outcomes, the likelihood of an outcome that is unfavorable to him is significantly higher than the likelihood of an outcome that is favorable to him. So, if you were the old tailor, would you tell the Boyle family that he was bugged?
But there is no denying that the movie is really well edited, and perhaps it is this editing that masks the irrationality of the logic.