Narrative technique · used in 5 films
Driving the plot with a hidden infiltrator or a suspected partner, so characters must test loyalty while trust and identity are constantly in doubt.
Examples
Jean-Pierre Melville · 1969
Every member of the group could be a traitor. Gerbier and his comrades check, test and sometimes kill people they suspect, and the question of whom to trust never lets up.
Where to see it: The informer: the group learns that a young recruit named Dounat gave up Gerbier to the police, and they decide he must die.
William Friedkin · 1980
Steve Burns takes a new name, John Forbes, and an apartment in the Meatpacking District. The deeper he goes, the harder it is to tell who is a suspect, who is a friend and who is a victim. Trust is always in doubt.
Where to see it: Burns moving into the apartment. He takes the name John Forbes and befriends his neighbor Ted Bailey.
Kathryn Bigelow · 1991
Utah fabricates a family tragedy to get Tyler to teach him to surf. As he masters surfing, he is drawn to the surfers' lifestyle, to Bodhi's philosophy and to Tyler. By the end, arresting Bodhi costs him something.
Where to see it: The Bells Beach ending: Utah finds Bodhi in Australia during a record storm, and when Bodhi begs to ride the once-in-a-lifetime wave, Utah lets him go knowing he will not come back.
Martin Scorsese · 2006
Costigan is a cop pretending to be a criminal. Sullivan is a criminal pretending to be a cop. Anything in the plot that threatens one of them threatens the other. Scorsese cuts back and forth between them, so you end up watching 2 versions of the same trap closing.
Where to see it: The phone call after Queenan's death. Sullivan calls Costigan from a dead man's phone, and each is trying to work out who the other is.
Robert Zemeckis · 2016
The Special Operations Executive tells Max his wife may be a spy. They set a trap in which Max writes false intelligence at home. If it turns up in German transmissions, he must kill her.
Where to see it: The blue dye test: Max writes false information at home where Marianne can find it. He waits to see if it appears in intercepted German messages.
Questions
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