10 Huge Movie Plot Twists That Make No Sense
5. The Life Of David Gale
The Twist
College professor and political activist David Gale (Kevin Spacey) is on death row having been convicted of the rape and murder of his friend Constance Harraway (Laura Linney). Before his execution he tells his story to reported Bitsey Bloom (Kate Winslet) who also takes it upon herself to investigate the case.
Bloom finds out that Harraway had in fact committed suicide and Gale was framed for her murder. Gale is executed before she can make her findings public, but she then finds out he was not actually framed - Gale willingly put his fingerprints at the "murder" scene, in order to prove that innocent men get executed.
Why It Doesn't Work
Yes, Gale is innocent of the crimes of which he was accused, but wouldn't it have been a more logical response to defend yourself against the accusation? Surely, if the system works as badly as Gale believes, he would be convicted anyway? Instead of this, Gale intentionally puts his fingerprints all over his friends suicide thatis intentionally made to look like a murder scene.
The evidence presented is that Gale was with the deceased before she dies and his fingerprints are all over the bag used to suffocate her. If you're a juror or a Judge, would you believe that he had done it intentionally just to prove a point? In the end of course, Gale's plan works.
After his execution, a tape confirming that Harraway's death was a suicide is released to the public, proving Gale's innocence. Later, Bloom getsanothertape, this time showing Gale contaminating the scene with evidence to link him to the death. It's a bit risky, wouldn't Bloom's journalistic ethics require her to make this tape public, too?
Gale didn't prove that innocent men get killed, he proved that if you provide physical evidence linking you to a murder, you'll probably get convicted of that murder.The Life Of David Gale's ending also seems to paint death penalty opponents like Gale as fraudsters, willing to use the suicide of a close friend to further their own ends. The twist undermines the movie's own anti-death penalty stance.