Most people seem to like this, but I'm going to write about three topics based on some reviews that have popped up that run contrary to them.
1. Nicholas (Douglas) goes through intense and extensive psychological tests as a prerequisite to becoming a client. They obviously do an assessment and analysis of his personality, strengths, weaknesses, and then they use that to make predictions of his responses. Conrad, his brother, also probably gave them insight before referring him to the company.
That's how they can make predictive analysis to his responses, but the most important detail that people seem to miss is his flashbacks to his father's fate. This seems to be the whole point of why Van Orten is the way he is at the beginning; he is still traumatized and dealing with suppressed feelings, perhaps feelings of loss, guilt, anger, and idealism to not meet the same fate as his father. So Conrad probably understands this is still affecting him and causing him to retreat into isolation, maybe even worriedly end up the same way. That's how they could, at least possibly (it's not impossible), predict the contingency plan that they may need the safeguard cushion at the end. The whole point is to get him to face his fears, and to stop living in fear because of his father.
Lots of people keep echoing the taxi scene together, but you have to assume that they had divers and first aid medics around in case he didn't escape that scene.
2. Unpopular opinion- this is actually Fincher's second best movie behind Seven. I can even see how some people might think it's better. His other popular movies are good, too, but this and Seven are his best.
3. Recapping, the reason why he reacts the way he does at the end is because he realizes the psychological relief, or release, it has been so he is awakened to the therapy it has provided him, like the same way people enjoy bungy jumping or a roller coaster ride....
In the end, I can understand many peoples' confusion and dislike of such an unexpected ending and perhaps the arguments proposed about the plausibility of the events, but if this was a sophisticated organization that had mastered their services, they could be good enough to pull it off and also have him sign off on a contract when he joined that would release them of liability or culpability if anything went really wrong (he does have to fill out paperwork with his application and tests). And this is one of the ironies of the whole thing that may have some thematic meaning, or significance of the whole corporate argument cliche where they only care about money and prey on their customers- it's just business to them. Once he signed the contract, he relieved them of legal liability.
Anyway, I literally laughed out loud several times at the negative reviews that mention some of this stuff, since I think one of the biggest ironies of all is how this thriller turns into a dark comedy because of all of this stuff in addition to Michael Douglas' character. It's kind of funny when you think about it just as entertainment, but that's not to say it's not a seriously good movie and awesome thriller.
1. Nicholas (Douglas) goes through intense and extensive psychological tests as a prerequisite to becoming a client. They obviously do an assessment and analysis of his personality, strengths, weaknesses, and then they use that to make predictions of his responses. Conrad, his brother, also probably gave them insight before referring him to the company.
That's how they can make predictive analysis to his responses, but the most important detail that people seem to miss is his flashbacks to his father's fate. This seems to be the whole point of why Van Orten is the way he is at the beginning; he is still traumatized and dealing with suppressed feelings, perhaps feelings of loss, guilt, anger, and idealism to not meet the same fate as his father. So Conrad probably understands this is still affecting him and causing him to retreat into isolation, maybe even worriedly end up the same way. That's how they could, at least possibly (it's not impossible), predict the contingency plan that they may need the safeguard cushion at the end. The whole point is to get him to face his fears, and to stop living in fear because of his father.
Lots of people keep echoing the taxi scene together, but you have to assume that they had divers and first aid medics around in case he didn't escape that scene.
2. Unpopular opinion- this is actually Fincher's second best movie behind Seven. I can even see how some people might think it's better. His other popular movies are good, too, but this and Seven are his best.
3. Recapping, the reason why he reacts the way he does at the end is because he realizes the psychological relief, or release, it has been so he is awakened to the therapy it has provided him, like the same way people enjoy bungy jumping or a roller coaster ride....
In the end, I can understand many peoples' confusion and dislike of such an unexpected ending and perhaps the arguments proposed about the plausibility of the events, but if this was a sophisticated organization that had mastered their services, they could be good enough to pull it off and also have him sign off on a contract when he joined that would release them of liability or culpability if anything went really wrong (he does have to fill out paperwork with his application and tests). And this is one of the ironies of the whole thing that may have some thematic meaning, or significance of the whole corporate argument cliche where they only care about money and prey on their customers- it's just business to them. Once he signed the contract, he relieved them of legal liability.
Anyway, I literally laughed out loud several times at the negative reviews that mention some of this stuff, since I think one of the biggest ironies of all is how this thriller turns into a dark comedy because of all of this stuff in addition to Michael Douglas' character. It's kind of funny when you think about it just as entertainment, but that's not to say it's not a seriously good movie and awesome thriller.