There are only a few

Rating: Null/10 (7 September 2004)

There are only a few truly original stories of this kind in literature. Two of Agatha Christie's come to mind immediately, and she may be credited even with a third. This screenplay has one of them, and after that 'that's it'. There are no more. And it's actually very hard to be this original: there are only so many ways you can do stuff like this.
I remember when I first got this movie (on video, not at the cinema). The guy in the store told me to not get distracted while watching as otherwise I'd miss the plot. And I still kept working at home, watching the movie out of one eye, and I worked a long time that night and rewound the tape several times until I just got plain frustrated and figured I'd better lay off the work and sit this one out. At that point I was halfway through spin #4.
So I sat down, away from my work, and watched, and I'd seen enough by then to pick up the pieces pretty quickly - but was no wiser for that, others might want me to add.
Until the very very end that is - when suddenly it hit me like a freight train, and I stopped the movie, rewound a bit, checked out a scene or two again, and then uttered something to myself along the lines of '!!!!!!!!', rewound the tape to the beginning, and finally watched the entire movie as had been suggested, and watched very carefully. And when you realize the full portent of the movie, of what you've just seen, you might get up and applaud, right there in front of your own television screen.
McQuarrie got a lot of grief for this screenplay. He also got an Oscar, so go figure. But the objection all along from the studio was that the screenplay was too difficult. McQuarrie was adamant and refused to give in, and we have him to thank for that today.