Question: It was revealed at the end what Rachel Weiss and John Cusack had planned all along, why did they ask Dustin Hoffman for 10 million? They never intended for him to lose, they were out to get Gene Hackman and the gun makers.
Answer: The short answer is because the viewers did not yet know their intentions so, from the viewers point of view, they should be asking both sides for money. Also, even though it was revealed much later they were on the side of the planting, it doesn't mean they were not greedy, and they would have taken money from either side or both sides.
Question: What is the name of the bar they are in at the end of the movie?
Answer: Napoleon House.
Question: Trivial perhaps, but this is a court drama. Isn't the pronunciation of "Oh yez" by the court deputy, announcing the judge, actually pronounced "Oh yay"? In the movie, the deputy uses a strange pronunciation of "O yee", which I've never heard. My late husband was a court deputy, and he was corrected his first day in court. (He pronounced it, wrongly, "O yez" (rhyming with Pez, the candy). We're from the South, and the movie is a Southern court drama. Thoughts?
Answer: I would classify it as a "character mistake." The court deputy (or the actor playing him) just pronounces it differently and wrongly.
Thank you, I think I would have to classify it, then, as a directorial mistake, and interesting that no one else, cast or crew, noticed it.
Question: This is probably ridiculous, but why did they alter the plot so much? I think they could have made the movie relatively true to the novel without controversy.
Answer: I know they changed it from Big Tobacco to guns because that storyline has already been done in The Insider.
Question: I know that Jennifer Beals is not exactly a big star right now, but I was still surprised to see her in such a tiny role...does anyone know if she originally had a bigger scene that was cut?
Answer: Jennifer Beals' role is a bit of a misdirection towards the viewer, a little like Janet Leigh in "Psycho". It misleads the viewer into beleiving she might be crucial to the plot.
Question: Rachel Weiss's mom said that one daughter was dead and she hasn't spoken to her other daughter in so long, it's like she's dead too. Why didn't she keep in touch with her mom? Was that part in the book and cut out of the movie?
Chosen answer: Remember, in the book, the lawsuit is against tobacco companies and not gun manufacturers. In the book, Marlee's mother died of smoking-related lung cancer, thus the motivation for revenge against the tobacco companies. In the movie, the reason to avoid Mom is to maintain the stealth of Marlee and Nick's movements as they tried to "fix" a jury.
Chosen answer: Hackman's team was closely monitoring what Hoffman was doing in regards to the tampering, as evidenced by their taping of his conversation with Weiss when he decides not to pay. Cusack and Weiss probably anticipated this so were forced to offer the deal to Hoffman to keep up the illusion.