Question: Gaear gets the kidnapping job from his friend Shep. He can choose anybody he wants to help him do it. Why does he choose Carl, a person he obviously can't stand? They don't "fall out" - Gaear hates him from the get-go. And don't say that Gaear deliberately chose someone he disliked because he planned to kill him all along. Yeah, right... Planned to bring an axe to a gunfight. Great plan. Granted, it worked. But that was not planned. Anyway, Gaear is all ursine impulse, not organized forethought. So why Carl?
raywest
7th May 2014
Fargo (1996)
4th Apr 2006
Fargo (1996)
Question: Are we ever told exactly why Jerry needs the money? His $750,000 deal with the parking lot falls through and he owes GMAC $320,000. He is going to give the kidnappers $40,000, but then it's increased to $80,000. But he sets the ransom at only $1 million. So what is the deal?
Answer: This is incorrect. Jerry had already devised the kidnapping plot before his father-in-law refused to loan him the money. It's never stated why Jerry needs the money. He owes $320,000 to GMAC but why he took that money from GMAC in the first place is never stated. Jerry is a greedy person who got himself into massive debt. He even balks when Carl demands they get $80,000 instead of $40,000, when, if the plan works, Jerry would still get $920,000. He's greedy and desperate and is willing to do foolish things for money. That's basically the "moral" of the story.
Jerry's balking when Carl demands $80,000 could be acting on his part. That amount is supposed to be the entire ransom, so Jerry had to pretend as if Carl's demand was unacceptable. Jerry may well be greedy, which could be why he's in financial trouble to begin with, but in the movie he needs money out of desperation, not greed.
Answer: The business deal didn't actually fall through. Jerry needed $750,000 to proceed with it. He tried borrowing the capital from his father-in-law, who refused to lend it to him. Instead, the father-in-law wanted to invest in the deal himself and to give Jerry a small finder's commission. Outraged, Jerry devised the phony kidnap scheme so he could get the money to invest in the parking lot. (He never intended for his wife to be harmed.) Presumably he planned to pay off the kidnappers and partially repay GMAC with some of the $1,000,000 ransom money, and use the rest for the investment deal.
This is incorrect - he meets with the kidnappers before visiting Wade (the father-in-law) about the loan for the deal.
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Answer: Gaear would choose who he thought was the best person to help him pull off the job, regardless of whether or not he likes him. He's not particularly intelligent, and Carl is the smarter of the two and that would be an asset. Gaear also appears to be very anti-social and it's doubtful he has any friends, or at least any that would participate in such a plot, and this may be the only person he knows of who will go along with it. His choice really has little to do with liking someone and everything to do with getting the job done. Gaear may very well have intended to kill him later to help eliminate any ties to the crime and to keep the money. It's easier to kill someone he doesn't like.
raywest ★
All good points! I might add Gaear was "mostly brawn." His limited intelligence ("dull normal" at best?) and lack of basic communication skills ["Where's pancakes house?"] would interfere with his ability to engage in constructive conversations with Jerry to arrange the kidnapping. He'd also have difficulty making a plan and following through on his own. Gaear wouldn't have any problem overpowering a person to be kidnapped, but needed someone like Carl to make the before and after plans.
KeyZOid