# Someone explain "Basic" to me! (SPOILERS) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [August 4, 2003, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-basic-to-me-spoilers/192816 "2003-08-04T02:22:35Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-basic-to-me-spoilers/192816/1 "2003-08-04T02:22:35Z")
I did a search on John Travolta to see if this has been discussed before, and all I got a thread on was celebrity scientologists. I just watched this movie, and I don’t get it at all. There were too many confusing twists packed into too short a space of time. Can some nice, kind folks please just explain the movie (specifically the ending) to me? ---
**Author:** ![herwono](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/9f8e36/32.png) [@herwono](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/herwono)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 2:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-basic-to-me-spoilers/192816/2 "2003-08-04T02:45:41Z")
[Movie spoiler](http://www.themoviespoiler.com/Spoilers/basic.html) Roger Ebert’s review: > [@](#): > > I embarked on “Basic” with optimism and goodwill, confident that a military thriller starring John Travolta and Samuel L. Jackson, and directed by John McTiernan (“Die Hard”), might be entertaining action and maybe more. As the plot unfolded, and unfolded, and unfolded, and unfolded, I leaned forward earnestly in my seat, trying to remember where we had been and what we had learned. > > Reader, I gave it my best shot. But with a sinking heart I realized that my efforts were not going to be enough, because this was not a film that could be understood. The movie doesn’t make sense. ---
**Author:** ![Lisa-go-Blind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/l/7c8e57/32.png) [@Lisa-go-Blind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lisa-go-Blind)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-basic-to-me-spoilers/192816/3 "2003-08-04T06:14:34Z")
Ah. That’s what I figured. ---
**Author:** ![Mojo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/85f322/32.png) [@Mojo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mojo)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 7:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-basic-to-me-spoilers/192816/4 "2003-08-04T07:35:29Z")
The GOTO statement did it. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![OESGal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/ecae2f/32.png) [@OESGal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/OESGal)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 1:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-basic-to-me-spoilers/192816/5 "2003-08-04T13:12:26Z")
I agree, the movie makes no sense. What is with making a movie like that? I consider myself to be a fairly astute movie watcher, but this seems so confusing that most people wouldn’t really get it, so why make it, to make people feel dumb? to make them think the military is evil? Maybe we need to have a director’s cut for this one to really know what is going on here. ---
**Author:** ![mecaenas](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/91b2a8/32.png) [@mecaenas](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mecaenas)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-basic-to-me-spoilers/192816/6 "2003-08-04T13:54:20Z")
What I gathered from watching Basic that the ending was rewritten in the last 10mins so that it would be a happy ending - all the good guys are alive and happy. When staging a sting operation there’s no way on earth they would develop such a convoluted plan, it would have been completely unnecessary and doomed to failure - too many people had to remember too much detail. I have a feeling that in my theoretical “original” ending the squad is actually dead and Travolta is the drug baron - it was all his plan all along. ---
**Author:** ![Caprigenus\_Chevre](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/34f0e0/32.png) [@Caprigenus\_Chevre](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caprigenus_Chevre)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 3:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-basic-to-me-spoilers/192816/7 "2003-08-04T15:08:44Z")
I found the movie made sense and I could keep my head above water… until the last scene… you know the one. It totally turned the movie on its head. It was okay for the 5 minutes after the movie finished, but when I got thinking (a dangerous passtime I know) and trying to factor that last scene into the rest of the movie it was like “but how come…”, “but this doesn’t work with this scene…” Estentially it is the preverbial cart before the horse. The tried to exploded the mountain before they lit the TNT. ---
**Author:** ![DMark](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e68b1a/32.png) [@DMark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DMark)\ **Post date:** [August 4, 2003, 4:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/someone-explain-basic-to-me-spoilers/192816/8 "2003-08-04T16:50:44Z")
I will join in here to say it didn’t make a whole lot of sense, but to me what was more annoying was the fact that it was all shot in the dark, in the rain, with fake lightning that looked like a bad disco strobe light in the background. I have a 36" tv and for over half the film, the picture was one big black blob. Couldn’t see a damn thing. “Basic” was a badly filmed, confusing, waste of time.