Continuity mistake: When Tom Cruise first encounters Gene Hackman, Gene is nonchalantly leaning in a doorway with both hands in his pockets. In the next shot, Gene is holding a briefcase that wasn't there before. It's a good thing the briefcase arrived, since Gene makes mention of it immediately after. (00:17:00)
![The Firm](/images/titles/0-999/481_sm.jpg)
The Firm (1993)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Sydney Pollack
Starring: Gene Hackman, Tom Cruise, Ed Harris, Hal Holbrook, Jeanne Tripplehorn
Distrusting the FBI, Mitch takes matters into his own hands. He enlists the help of seedy detective, Eddie Lomax, but the firm suspects he’s involved and has him murdered. Eddie’s secretary and former lover, Tammy, agrees to help Mitch.Before he will aid the FBI further, Mtich demands $750,000 be deposited into an offshore account. The money is for his brother, Ray, to start a new life. Ray is released, but the FBI secretly intends to return him to prison soon after.Mitch and Tammy begin photocopying client files that Mitch smuggles from the office. They plan to go to the firm’s Caribbean office to copy critical files stored there, but Mitch is unexpectedly delayed. Tammy decides to go alone and do what she can. Unknown to Mitch, Abby returns from Boston. She left after Mitch told her what he knew about the firm and confessed to a one-night-stand while on a business trip in the Caribbean. Tammy fills Abby in on what’s happened, and she decides to help. Abby goes to the island and meets up with Avery Tolar, Mitch’s mentor at the firm, who is there on business. Avery previously propositioned Abby, and she pretends she’s interested so she can get to the files. She drugs Avery’s drink, and he passes out. She gets the files, which Tammy photocopies and returns just before Avery wakes up. A groggy Avery receives a phone call from the firm telling him Mitch has been copying files. Corrupt, but inwardly decent, Avery tips off Abby that the firm is on to them. He tells her Mitch’s affair was a set-up so the firm could blackmail him.At the Memphis office, Mitch is confronted by his superiors, but he escapes by jumping out a window. He eludes the firm’s ruthless security men and makes his way to a Mafia don’s home. Mitch tells the don he’s discovered that the firm has been grossly over billing its clients and he’s reporting it to the authorities. However, he needs the don’s signed cooperation. To provide evidence, Mitch says he has photocopied every client’s file. However, as their lawyer, he will always honor the attorney-client confidentiality privilege, even if he is no longer with the firm. Regardless of what he knows, he is legally bound never to reveal it, otherwise he risks disbarment. It is subtly implied that as long as nothing happens to him, the files will remain safely hidden. Assured that the firm will only be reported for over billing clients, the don agrees to sign.Mitch provides the FBI enough evidence of massive over billing and mail fraud for the government to indict and bring down the firm. Avery Tolar is killed by the firm. With help from Tammy’s truck driver ex-husband, Ray evades the FBI and slips out of the country. Ray is smitten with Tammy, and it appears they will get together. Abby and Mitch move back to Boston, where Mitch has accepted a job with a small, but promising law firm.
Ray West
Mitch McDeere: Let me get this straight: you want me to steal files from the firm, turn them over to the FBI, send my colleagues to jail.
Wayne Tarrance: They roped you into this.
Mitch McDeere: Breach attorney-client privilege, thus getting myself disbarred for life, then testify in open court against the Mafia.
Wayne Tarrance: Well, unfortunately, Mitch.
Mitch McDeere: Let me ask you something: are you out of your fucking mind?
Trivia: Director Sydney Pollack provides the voice of the prison warden on the phone informing Terrance that a prison guard sent an unauthorised fax regarding Mitch's brother Ray.
Join the mailing list
Separate from membership, this is to get updates about mistakes in recent releases. Addresses are not passed on to any third party, and are used solely for direct communication from this site. You can unsubscribe at any time.
Check out the mistake & trivia books, on Kindle and in paperback.
Chosen answer: At first the security guy doesn't suspect Mitch any more than any other new associate hired by the firm. His job is to keep a close watch on all new associates to see if they realize the firm has mafia ties. He starts watching Mitch (Tom Cruise) more closely after he was approached by the government agents who wanted him to spy on the firm. He knows that Mitch now suspects there are illegal activities going on and may decide to aid the government. It is also shown that Mitch's house was being bugged, and it can be assumed the resort cabana regularly used by the firm in the Bahamas would also be bugged.
raywest ★