Why did david pretend to be So stupid, to the point where it wasn't natural, almost retarded? "There was a spot". So? Im
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Archived from the IMDb Discussion Forums — Marvel/DC
FoxRyan — 20 years ago(December 15, 2005 08:36 AM)
Why did david pretend to be So stupid, to the point where it wasn't natural, almost retarded? "There was a spot". So? Imagine any other cleaner acting like this. You don't have to be a complete mong to be a janitor, you know. It took away from the character and made him out to be a lesser person. i know he had to remain placid to stay in control, but the writers didn't have to write this great character like this.
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stargazer_1682 — 20 years ago(January 14, 2006 08:15 PM)
It was an act on Banner's part. He pretended to be mentally challenege in his job, so that the staff could underestimate him. Like the deal with the thermos, the gaurds, believing he was mentally challenged, believed he needed help with the little things, like reminding him to take his thermos home with him. This ultimately allows him to dance around the security measures and gain access to the otherwise heavily secured lab.
I'm not really sure if it was necessary to keep up the pretense when he was out and about, like cashing his check at the bank; but then, given the severity of the punishment if he were caught, some acquainance from work just happening to see him on the streets or in a store; I guess it's basically playing it to all angles to marginalize anyone becoming wise to his act. Then of course, there's probably the cinematic view from the writer and director, setting it up so the audience might think something has happened since the last film that has caused him to behave like that, an accident or something.
The difference is more apparent later, when Dr. Pratt finds out and they talk about their plans in outside, David is completely normal untill another staff member gets near and he dumbs up, because it would be hard to explain the sudden change in mental abilities just because one person found out.
clowns? oh armies. pouring out of volkswagons. we fight the best we can but they just keep coming -
james_oblivion — 15 years ago(May 24, 2010 06:26 PM)
Edward Norton's character in The Score later used the same rusemasquerading as a mentally challenged maintenance worker in order to gain trust and duck any suspicion. Of course, he was robbing his place of employmentBanner was just aiding research on the sly. But the principle is essentially the same.
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rooprect — 15 years ago(August 20, 2010 07:19 AM)
In the series, there are some episodes where his employer gets suspicious because David is so obviously overqualified. I think he learned from that and, as others have said, had to exaggerate his ignorance so that it wouldn't arouse suspicion. I thought it was great, and Bixby played it well.
Goodwill Hunting
totally ripped off the idea 7 years later. -
james_oblivion — 15 years ago(August 23, 2010 11:16 PM)
I certainly don't think Good Will Hunting ripped it off. At no point does Will Hunting ever pretend to be mentally challenged. The Score would be a much better candidate for having ripped off DotIH, since Edward Norton's character
does
pretend to be mentally challenged at his job (a job quite similar to Banner's in DotIH), so that no one will suspect he's casing the place for a robbery. -
rooprect — 15 years ago(August 24, 2010 04:16 AM)
True, the mentally challenged part wasn't in GWH, but I was thinking about the equations written on the board which would mysteriously get corrected and solved overnight, and the mystery genius turns out to be the janitor. You gotta admit that's a pretty weird 'coincidence'.
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james_oblivion — 15 years ago(August 31, 2010 04:08 PM)
Not really. As a writer, I've had to learn and accept a hard truththat when you get down to plots - and particularly situations within plots - there are only so many to go around. This has been expounded upon by countless writers over the years, all of them more qualified than myself. But the fact is, situations become commonalities between many stories purely by chance, simply because every conceivable situation has been exploited
at least once
in one storytelling medium or other.
If you dug deep enough, I'm sure you could find that similar situations occurred in literature, drama, film, television, etc. long before Death of the Incredible Hulk. The idea of a genius in sheep's clothing is hardly as new as 1990, and I'm sure that
someone
prior to Bixby & Co. utilized the situation of such a character doing covert work on a formula or problem without wanting to attract attention to himself.