Plot hole: When the innkeeper is asked by the rich ex-actress to give her the key to a nice room, he gives her a key telling her that eight is cozy and the key has an 8 on it as well. But a few minutes later, when this woman is about to be murdered, she leaves her room (holding her mobile phone) and the door has a 9 on it. How can a key to the room 8 open the door of the room 9? [Still a mistake, but there's an explanation. In the DVD extras you can see a deleted scene in which she changes rooms because she wasn't happy with 8.]
Identity (2003)
1 plot hole - chronological order
Directed by: James Mangold
Starring: John Cusack, Ray Liotta, Alfred Molina, Amanda Peet, John Hawkes
Revealing mistake: When Ed is driving the limo at the beginning of the movie, the gearshift is in the park position.
Rhodes: All right. You want a plan? Everybody want a plan? Here's the plan, okay? No one's gonna move. We're gonna stay here, like this, in this room until dawn. No one leaves, no-one moves. [Aims at Larry] And if he tries anything I'm gonna shoot him! And if there's something out there and it comes in here, I'm gonna shoot it! And if anyone of us tries anything, I'm gonna shoot 'em!
Ed: We get it!
Rhodes: Good.
Trivia: Pruitt Taylor Vince who plays a killer with multiple personalities in this movie had a similar role in an episode of the X-files in which he played a killer with a slight personality problem.
Question: Could someone please tell me who was actually murdered? I understand that all the characters at the motel were personalities in the mind of Malcolm Rivers, and that the killer was Timmy, who was also one of Rivers' personalities. So if all the people at the motel were not real, why is Rivers about to be executed for murder, and how did the authorities have photos of the murdered people if there were no actual people murdered?
Answer: Since Timmy is the killer here, it would be correct to assume that he blew up the car and took Ginny away during the commotion and killed her in some way that isn't shown in film. Or else blowing up of the car becomes completely pointless and a classic like this won't show a scene that doesn't have a significance. So blowing up the car was actually a part of the plot to kill Ginny.
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Answer: The actual, "real-life" killings happened before the events shown in the movie and are shown briefly in a flashback. The authorities knew that Malcolm had done it while believing to be one of his alternate personalities, but did not know which one, and had to be convinced that the killer personality was dead before changing his sentence to life imprisonment. Meanwhile, the killings we see in the motel during the movie, are Malcolm killing off his other personas, leaving in fact only - the killer.
Twotall