Character mistake: In the court scene Clyde mentions a case, Day v McDonough docket number 04-1325. This is a real case, but the docket number is 04-1324.
Law Abiding Citizen (2009)
1 review
Directed by: F. Gary Gray
Starring: Gerard Butler, Jamie Foxx, Leslie Bibb, Bruce McGill, Colm Meaney
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Average rating
(17 votes)
Great plot. Good acting. Well directed. Special effects were excellent.
More mistakes in Law Abiding Citizen
Nick Rice: You end this!
Clyde Shelton: I'm just gettin' warmed up.
Trivia: The same cemetery seen here was also used in Transformers.
Question: I never really understood what the motive was when Clyde murdered his cellmate. Why did he do it? What did this act have to do with the plot of this movie?
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Answer: To make sure he was placed in solitary confinement. The warehouse that he owned and operated out of that was next to the prison also had a tunnel connected to every cell in the solitary wing. Clyde needed to be in one of the solitary cells so he could leave the prison whenever he needed to unnoticed, which also served to make it look like he had an accomplice on the outside.
Phaneron ★
When Nick is talking to a spook later in the movie, he is quoted as telling Nick: "That cell-mate that he killed, you think that was random? No. That's a pawn being moved off the board. Anyone who had anything to do with that case, he's gonna be coming after you." Just as all deaths played roles in Clydes game, as the audience we are led to believe this inmate played a role, but were never given any resolution as to what significance it was. Not a big deal in grand scheme of things, but unexplained.
I don't know if you just didn't read the answer thoroughly or if you didn't pay close attention to the movie, but Clyde killing his cellmate was far from being unexplained. He can't leave the prison if he's in a regular cell with the general population, so he kills the cellmate in order to get placed in the solitary wing, because every solitary cell is connected to the tunnel in his warehouse that is next to the prison, which allows him to leave whenever he needs to.
Phaneron ★