Written by Mr. Mouseburger 1st Mar 2006
Kindly submitted by The Doctor
John Wisdom is a lad with a felony on his record and as a result, he is unable to get a job. This leads him to become a criminal FOR the people. His modus operandi (M.O.) is to go to various banks with his girlfriend Karen, and destroy the loan documents they hold on people. However, all good things must come to an end.
John is finally cornered in a high school football field. Having disposed of his ammo (as his intention was never to hurt anyone), he obtains a sandwich from a nearby trashcan. Holding the empty gun while munching on the sandwich, he sits on the bench on the field (. "He's on the visitor's side" an agent observes.
The FBI read John his rights and Wisdom decides to give up. Rising to his feet, an agent lets out a warning about the gun, but before he can say that the gun isn't loaded, Wisdom is shot twice. One of the agents runs up to him and says to Wisdom "You didn't give me any choice." Wisdom's reply and his last words are, "You didn't leave me one either."
This would have been a great way to end the film, but the film dissolves to a shot of Wisdom sleeping in the bathtub, revealing that it was a dream.
I would give it a higher rating if it wasn't for this and choose to believe that this ending was added at the request of the studio, as we needed happy endings in the 80s.
Thanks for the write up "The Doctor"
i have to say i would feel conned if i watched the film only to find out it was all a dream like that. The original darker ending seemed to fit better with the film (or at least the write up).
I have added in the cheating death category.
Mouseburger
Thanks, Mouseburger.
I don't know if Estevez (who wrote and directed WISDOM) had it end that way in the script or if the studio forced him to tag it on along with the (self-defeating) end narration, but I'm going with the gut and saying it was possibly tacked on. If it see the light of DVD day with an Estevez commentary, we'll probably find out.
I highly reccommend the film, MB. There's some bad dialogue but it's to be expected for someone's second script. Estevez, to me, really hit his stride as writer/director with his second outing as both: MEN AT WORK. WISDOM was unfairly overlooked and deserves to be seen.
That, and the Danny Elfman score kicks major ass.
Submitted an updated version of the writeup.