Just a small question. I may have totally missed the answer to my question while watching the film, but I was wondering
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Ribur1980 — 16 years ago(January 03, 2010 05:36 PM)
But I'll try too. Abby and Carlos only volunteered to get off the train with Jessie in the first place because of the guy who told the three of them that the police were searching trains looking for drugs. Then that same night at dinner in the restaurant, Abby looked visibly upset and left the table abruptly after giving Carlos a meaningful glance when Jessie let it slip that she'd seen the (heroin) doll. Her next scene is the one where she booked the trip out of town for one. Conclusion: Abby was trying to ditch reckless Carlos so that she wouldn't be arrested with him, and she knew she had to avoid trains to get out of town. Unfortunately for her, Carlos disappeared with the money in his jacket and she couldn't pay for the ride and leave before Grinko caught her.
Abby was in on the murder/theft, but it isn't quite clear whether she knew about the drugs before that night. She was either surprised that Carlos had them with him, or just surprised that Carlos was showing the doll to other people. Either way, Carlos was making it more likely they'd be caught and you get the feeling Abby was the smarter of the two. She may even have planned the whole thing and used Carlos for the dirty work instead of being the helpless waif who met the wrong guy the way Jessie seemed to think. It's kind of left open to interpretation in the movie, although Grinko told Jessie that was what was going on. Was he telling the truth? Who knows, but I don't really see a motive for lying at that point. -
PVarjak — 16 years ago(January 04, 2010 03:01 PM)
My impression was that they got off with Jessie and Roy because they (at least Carlos) had targeted them as perfect 'covers' for moving the heroin and/or decided that they'd physically slip the heroin to them to carry the rest of the way. But it also seemed clear that Abby was less eager to involve Jessie and Roy, once she'd gotten to know them a bit.
Still, to me, it doesn't make sense that she'd just leave (even if she half-wanted to) because Carlos had the money, and she wanted all or half of it. (It seemed clear to me that she knew about the drugs and money from the beginning.) I have to conclude that that was another red herring to make the audience wonder about it and to allow her to be captured by Grinko, etc. However, the way it was presented is that she had a specific task or goal in mind in deciding somewhat suddenly to go off by herself. -
PulpFictionbuff — 16 years ago(January 24, 2010 10:04 AM)
Ribur1980, you are exactly right, and you saved me the trouble of having to explain it. Well done.
I agree: I can't figure out for sure if she knew about the drugs or not, but it doesn't matter in regards to the OP's question.
Therefore, the answer to the original question is that Abby made up her mind to ditch Carlos when she realized that he had revealed the drugs (whether she knew about them or not). That's why she was trying to get a ticket for one.
"I want you to be nice until it's time to not be nice." Patrick Swayze 1952-2009 -
markfilipak — 15 years ago(June 12, 2010 08:16 PM)
** SPOILERS **
Just to clear up some misconceptions on some people's parts
Abby's getting cold feet because Kolzak Yushenkov is getting so close.
Early in the film, on the platform in Irkutsk before Roy misses the train, Jessie and Abby are swapping stories about their pasts. Just after Abby tells Jessie about the cottage on a lake in Vancouver she sees a man and then hurriedly wants to reboard the train. We don't yet know that the man she sees is Kolzak and what significance he has, but she knows. That's pretty much a dead giveaway that dear Abby is not innocent at all. She didn't kill the guy on the boat in Vladivostok but she is after the money if she can get it and get away.
At the next stop, Ulyanovsk, she and Carlos and Jessie get off to wait for Roy. It is there that she gets cold feet and sees a chance to get away without, one should note, telling Carlos that she'd seen Kolzak.
See:
http://www.imdb.com/board/10800241/board/nest/164801093
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Interested in collaborating on a new type of film rating system? Contact me. -
dwightloverxoxo — 15 years ago(November 10, 2010 07:24 PM)
Obviously,abby wanted the money. But she realized how many risks Carlos was making, like the fact he told Jessie and she was some random church-going american tourist. Abby was smart and realized she didn't want to get caught by the Russian police, and Carlos was risky. She was planning to get the money from carlos then leave Russia before sh*t got bad and go buy her grandpa's house.
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d98mp — 15 years ago(January 01, 2011 05:17 PM)
Possible Spoiler
I think it is as simple as the script writers wanting to "prove" that Abby is indeed innocent. By making her a bit ambivalent about whether to stay with Carlos or go they are telling us that she wants a change in her life.
If she was so smart she wouldn't get caught. She wouldn't pursue a criminal career in Russia either. Yes, she did have a slight similarity with another girl in another movie who was indeed an evil mastermind, but this is not that movie. -
trhickey — 12 years ago(December 31, 2013 04:01 PM)
I think you and the other posters missed the point. My college Russian is rusty but judging by the sign on the building she was in, I believe Abby was making arrangements to fly out. That would be consistent with the high price she was being charged and that there are not reliable roads connecting remote Siberian towns, especially in Winter.