The Patriot

Question: At the end of the movie, Martin stabs Tavington in the stomach, and then in the throat. How does he know Tavington is really dead this time? Earlier in the film, Tavington pretended to be dead twice after Martin's sons shot him.

Answer: Guns were less powerful during Revolutionary times and the wounds were more survivable. Deep and ripping knife stabs to areas like the abdomen and the neck area are more likely to be fatal. Tavington may not die instantly, but he would probably bleed out and/or bleed internally fairly quickly.

raywest

Would being stabbed in the stomach, and in the throat have been enough to kill a person as tough as Tavington?

Absolutely. A deep stab to the stomach/intestinal area would be very deadly even today. Being stabbed directly in the throat would kill someone very fast due to a lack of air and inhaling blood into the lungs.

LorgSkyegon

Question: Who was the baby in Charlotte's arms in the closing scene? Why was the baby not alluded to previously?

Answer: At the end of the film, it is implied that Charlotte and Benjamin Martin have married and had a child together. It wasn't alluded to earlier because it is meant to show that a person's life can start over, even after tragedy and loss.

raywest

Answer: Additionally, in the film Charlotte says to Benjamin "I am not my sister," alluding that they were different people as Benjamin gets closer to her. As colonials were religious given the time, in the Bible in Leviticus 18:18 it says "do not take your wife's sister as a rival wife and have sexual relations with her while your wife is living." Since his wife was dead, this no longer applied and they believed in starting over, as the above post states.

Question: Whats the name of the theme when the trailer shows the tagline 'before they were soldiers, they were family'?

Answer: I think the one you want is 'Unseen' - By Craig Armstrong which is track 2 on the Plunkett and Macleane soundtrack.

Question: Tavington says he can never go back to England. Why?

Answer: Because he would be viewed as a dishonorable, brutal, un-British man for the extremely immoral things he is about to do (e.g., burn a church filled with women and children), and would be shunned by society. He's willing to do this in exchange for a manor and land in America when (as he believes will happen) the British win the war.

Question: Does anybody know the name of the theme that was playing at the last part of the trailer?

Answer: That is Dragon: The Bruce Lee Story composed by Randy Edelman.

hannisen

Question: Benjamin and Gabriel both agree that moving Charlotte and the children to the Gullah encampment would be a safe place to hide. How is living out in the open by the ocean a safe place to hide?

Answer: It's the idea of hiding in plain sight, somewhere your enemy is unlikely to look. Tavington and Cornwallis are both upper class Brits and would not likely think of a village of slaves/ex-slaves as somewhere a gentleman would go. Nor would they likely know of any connection they would have there.

LorgSkyegon

Answer: A colonial named James Wilkins who was loyal to the American Colonies defected to join the British Army. When Benjamin Martin's guerrilla campaign against the British starts to have a disastrous effect on their supply lines, Colonel Tavington goes to speak to Captain Wilkins and asks about Martin. He says "where would he hid his family?" Wilkins responds with "his wife's sister owns a plantation." While it is not mentioned, Martin was probably tipped off that Tavington was looking for his family. Also, it could be that given the success of the guerrilla campaign against the British, he knew his family would be in danger and went to move them to a safer location as seen later in the film.

Question: When the men are at the statehouse, what are they arguing about?

Answer: They are debating whether or not to pass a levy (tax) to fund an army the American Revolution.

LorgSkyegon

Factual error: When Benjamin is handing a store clerk some money, he is giving him a $5 bill with Abraham Lincoln on it. This happened more than 80 years before he was president. And they didn't even use dollars during the Revolutionary war. They would have used British pounds.

More mistakes in The Patriot

Susan Martin: Papa! Papa, don't, I'll say anything! Please, papa, I'll say anything you want, tell me what you want me to say and I'll say it... Papa please don't go.

More quotes from The Patriot

Trivia: By the time Heath Ledger won this role, he was flat broke. He recalled, 'It came to the point where I had like, no money.' He was practically living on Ramen noodles by that time. This was because he 'got nothing offers to do these teen movies and television sitcoms', and he refused to do them due to the 'very little depth' of the scripts. By the time he was accepted for The Patriot, he said later, 'I guess I put myself in a situation where I didn't belong. But saying no turned out to be more valuable than saying yes.'

Allister Cooper, 2011

More trivia for The Patriot

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