Question: When the guards are talking to Percy in the restraint room, Paul says he knows he sabotaged Del's execution. Why did he let him get away with it?
MovieFan612
14th Jun 2016
The Green Mile (1999)
18th Jun 2018
The Green Mile (1999)
Question: Why is Paul on active prison guard duty with a debilitating medical condition, as opposed to some form of sick leave, or at the very least a desk job? On several occasions we see him either made vulnerable or even out-and-out helpless.
Answer: He's one of those people who is dedicated to his job and will say he is OK even when he isn't, and keep working. He will power through and not let anyone know how sick he really is.
They are in the midst of the Great Depression. No one wants to give their employer the opportunity to fire them. They are all fighting to keep their jobs.
23rd Sep 2018
The Green Mile (1999)
Question: What was with the scene where John picks up and smells the grass after he's snuck out to help Melinda? And what did John mean when he said 'no matter how it happened, Del was the lucky one.' Did John somehow take all that pain so Del wouldn't? I never really got it.
Answer: He smelled the grass because he had missed it being locked up. As for the other thing, John was tired, he constantly felt the pain of others around him, he wanted it to stop. Del died, to John that's the way out, to get rid of the pain. Even though Del felt a lot of pain, for John it doesn't matter, as long as he gets out, so the pain stops. He didn't take Del's pain.
Watch John closely during Del's execution. His body reacts the same as Del's throughout. He said Del's the lucky one because he wouldn't know earthly pain any longer, something that John is longing for by the time of his own execution.
He didn't take his pain.
I believe that John himself had lived a long time because of his powers, maybe he couldn't die from old age, but could be killed like other people, he was tired of being alive, so the execution was his way out.
Answer: He smells the grass, because it's pure.
22nd Nov 2021
The Green Mile (1999)
Question: How long will Old Paul live for?
Answer: At the end of the movie, it's discovered that Mr. Jingles is 64 years old. This is about sixteen times the life span of a regular mouse. Since this logic could apply to Paul, he could live anywhere between 1,300 and 1,500 years.
Nice idea but the math ain't mathin'. Your equation presumes that Mr. Jingles dies at age 64. But he is still alive! It seems more likely that John Coffey gave Paul and Mr. Jingles an indefinite natural life. They live forever unless something kills them. I'm sure if Paul was in a plane explosion over the Atlantic, he would die.
This is actually much simpler than either one of you are making it out to be: the answer is, there is no answer. We know that Paul and Mr Jingles are going to live longer lives because of John Coffey, and anything beyond that is pure speculation. I think this was intentionally left vague to keep the audience without a clear answer to Paul's fate, just like Paul is left without a clear answer.
Answer: Paul and the mouse both aged considerably. No one ever said they weren't aging, just that the power from John was making them live extremely long lives.
Answer: If Paul could live to be that old then he would still be looking young. He would not be looking like a centenarian.
Gravity is relentless.
Answer: Since John Coffey was able to die via execution, we can assume that Paul could be killed. This means that, like John, Paul would have to choose to die. All we know is that John gave Paul a piece of himself - perhaps that piece was immortality?
26th Nov 2020
The Green Mile (1999)
Question: Why does Percy like to bully Delacroix so much? Does he hate foreigners?
Answer: No. Percy is just a typical bully who abuses his power and enjoys picking on people he thinks are weak plus, as a guard, he can do it all he wants without facing any form of punishment.
Answer: Percy was also struggling with the homosexual tendencies of Delacroix. Further evident when Wild Bill grabs him and says some nasty things to him.
5th Sep 2021
The Green Mile (1999)
Question: After Percy kills Wild Bill, how would Paul and the others explain to Hal and Percy's aunt what happened? Even though Hal witnessed John healing Melinda, he probably wouldn't believe what happened and Percy's aunt would probably refuse to accept that Percy just snapped and went catatonic without a full explanation.
Answer: The explanation is set out in the scenes after the incident. They surmised that Percy had such hatred for Bill because he has humiliated him earlier, and he just lost his marbles. He's catatonic so who could question he just had a devastating episode.
24th Dec 2014
The Green Mile (1999)
Question: Why didn't Percy hit Wild Bill when he was strangling Dean? He enjoys hurting people, so what was the problem in that scene?
Chosen answer: Percy is a coward and froze in the heat of the moment. He has no idea how to deal with dangerous people, only helpless ones who are behind bars, like Del.
20th Jun 2009
The Green Mile (1999)
Question: After killing "Wild Bill," Percy is lying on the ground "puking" out Melinda's brain tumor that John Coffey placed into him. While Percy's spitting that out, one of the guards keeps yelling "Oh no!" I see nobody's lips moving to say that, so is that an audio error, or was the person not on the screen? Anyway, it really bothers me, but who was it who yells that?
Chosen answer: The camera is only on three individual people (Paul, Percy and the dead Wild Bill) when you hear Dean saying "Oh no, oh no."
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Chosen answer: Percy's aunt is married to the state Governor, giving Percy powerful connections. All it would take is one phone call from Percy and Paul and the other guards could lose their jobs and if Percy wanted to, never find jobs again. Something Paul or his friends didn't want to happen.
The characters talk about this several different times in the movies, how political connections can ruin careers.
MovieFan612