In the film, isn't it a bit dangerous for a pregnant mother to travel around doing police work? Especially when she knows she's dealing with murderers? Don't they have maternity leave for that sort of thing?
Small town police departments usually don't have a lot of personnel, which is why Marge is doing field work even though she's also the chief. This isn't much of a problem since those communities usually don't have any serious crime problems. The fact that it's the chief that is taking the role of primary investigator shows just how small Brainard PD is.
Couldn't/shouldn't Marge at least have waited for the backup to come before going in to arrest Gaear? Was it really necessary, especially in her condition, to go right in and take him alone? A lot could have gone very wrong for her and backup was on the way.
They are kind of in the middle of nowhere; there's no telling how long it's going to take backup to actually arrive and again, Brainerd PD is presumably both quite small and has to cover a fairly large area. Ultimately though, Rule of Drama: the climax is more thrilling and unexpected with a pregnant police officer going up against a massive psychopath than if the pregnant police officer summons backup and lets them take care of it.
In the film, how come Gaear didn't shoot Marge when she confronted him while he was shredding Carl in the wood chipper and fled into nowhere? It's not like he had any problem killing people during the film, as the cop, the couple, Jean and Carl found out the hard way.
Grimsrud didn't have a gun on him at the woodchipper and he might have panicked upon seeing Marge, thinking that she wasn't alone. Criminals tend to be a rather impulsive lot, often reacting like children to sudden, unexpected triggers, especially if they think punishment has come for them.
Marge also had her gun drawn and aimed right at him. If he'd tried going for a gun or making a move towards her, she could and probably would have easily plugged him. And if she's got back-up, if he wastes time attacking her, then all she needs to do is cry out once, they're on top of him. But since she's visibly pregnant and unlikely to be able to speedily pursue him, his best chance was making a break for it.
Also, him getting caught at all came down to what was a pretty great shot, on Marge's part. If anyone else had been there in her place, he very likely could've gotten away. (Though they probably still could've tracked him from there.)
Also, there's an element of Rule of Funny. Throughout the movie we've seen clear evidence that Gaear is a vicious, powerful man, quick to efficient outbursts of brutal violence. Furthermore, the climax involves him facing off against a rather small, heavily pregnant woman (obviously at something of a physical disadvantage) while gruesomely disposing of the evidence of a vicious murder committed mere moments ago. So it's kind of unexpected and funny that his initial reaction is to leg it.
Why use a woodchipper to commit a brutal murder? Wouldn't the large amount of blood-stained snow give it away?
To get rid of the bodies. His partner was killed with an axe and the kidnap victim was shot. He was probably trying to destroy evidence and make it more difficult to prove how they died and that he was the murderer. On the other hand, one could call this film "Did Not Think This Through At All".
To be clear, he didn't kill anyone with the woodchipper. He was just trying to dispose of the bodies. As for why, despite the obvious drawbacks... we're not dealing with a genius here. There's ample evidence that Gaear Grimsrud has not been blessed with an over-abundance of intelligence.
To be slightly fair to him, they are in the middle of nowhere. Gaear presumably assumed that he would have plenty of time to mulch up Carl and be out of there well before anyone would discover what had happened, and by disposing of Carl in such a fashion he's making it very hard for anyone to identify him, and by extension his association with Gaear. It's still pretty stupid, and underestimates exactly how easy it is to feed a body into a woodchipper, but there is a logic to it and it is conceivable that it could have worked. Marge managing to follow the breadcrumb trail back there to find him at that specific moment was as much bad luck on Gaear's part as much as anything else.
Part of the stupidity is that he’s right next to a lake! Yes it’s frozen, but he has an axe! All he had to do was cut a hole in the ice, put a little weight on the bodies, and Carl and Jean are gone forever.
Just pointing out that this isn't necessarily a smarter option. He'd need to carve out a decent-sized hole in order to fit both victims' bodies through it. And if the ice is thick enough to support the weight of a full-grown man and woman with no obvious risk of them falling through, it's not something that could be hacked through with a few swings of an axe. Putting the bodies through the woodchipper may not be the most conventional choice, but it would have been a lot easier in the long run, with the added benefit of destroying any hope of identifying the bodies.
And Grimsrud would also need to know how deep the lake is to weigh the benefits of hiding the bodies in it — a lot of lakes in the Midwest don't have an immediate dropoff right up against the shoreline. There are some where you can walk out into the middle of the lake and still be standing in a few feet of water, and going so far out would make him an easy target against so much white snow.
Marge arrested Gaear Grimsrud in Moose Lake. That's a different city from Brainerd. Would she have had jurisdiction to take him there?
Would it have mattered? She took down a homicide suspect, not a traffic offender.
There are some exceptions regarding jurisdiction which deal with, say, a pursuit of a criminal who commits the crime in one jurisdiction and then flees into another, which this situation might fall under. It's not like she's just happened to come across a random crime and taken it upon herself to make an arrest in a place where she has no right to; Marge is engaging in her official duties by continuing an investigation which began in her jurisdiction but which happened to cross over into another, so (depending on the law), a reasonable interpretation would be that she is essentially "extending" her jurisdictional rights for the purposes of this investigation. Otherwise you might end up with a situation where a criminal could commit a crime in one town, flee to the next town over, and be untouchable because the cops from the first town would be unable to arrest him. However, either way this is ultimately one of those "just go with it" moments that pops up in pretty much every story.
Possible Fridge Brilliance: Marge would be entitled to make a "citizen's arrest", considering she came across Grimsrud while he was clearly in the middle of having committed several crimes. We also see a couple of police vehicles riding up to meet them when they're driving away from the city; this is quite possibly the Moose Lake police arriving to officially take Grimsrud into custody. Of course, she wouldn't necessarily be entitled to shoot him as he was running away like she does, but again we're finding ourselves back in "just go with it" territory.
Is Wade supposed to be seen as a bad guy? (Not a villain, just a not-good person.) Most mentions of him around here tend to paint him in a negative light, but I never realized he was supposed to be seen that way. He's harsh and critical of his son-in-law, sure, but this is the guy who thought having his own wife kidnapped was a fine idea, even if Wade didn't know about Jerry's involvement. He offers Jerry a finder's fee for a deal he thinks Jerry brought to him and only goes through with it on his own once he's sure Jerry isn't interested, and while his actions surrounding the ransom exchange were too stubborn for his own good, it was his daughter's life that was at stake. While not the smartest moves to have made, I didn't think they made him the kind of bad person others paint him as.
I agree; Wade seems to be presented as one of the more nuanced characters in the film rather than a classic bad guy; a different intent on part of the creators would run the risk of making him a Designated Villain. He has his flaws, but at the same time, he's obviously known Jerry for at least what, 13 years, and likely figured out long ago that his daughter married something of a loser. His behavior should probably be viewed in part in this light.
Some of this may be an element of Jerkass Has a Point. Wade's not exactly wrong in his overall view of Jerry, but from what we see he doesn't exactly seem to be a particularly nice guy either. His actions around the business deal, for example, are a little sketchy at least, since he actually appears to be trying to bully Jerry out of it rather than legitimately making sure Jerry isn't interested, since Jerry clearly is — he intended to bring Wade in as a co-investor, and getting together the capital for his share is a large part of his motivation for the kidnapping. Wade's trying to muscle Jerry out so that he can profit from the deal entirely by himself without having to share the profits with Jerry.
Marge is set up as the Only Sane Man and the only character with absolute moral values. The other characters are written as a contrast to her, albeit some more extreme than others. Wade is just written to have a morality/sanity between her and the criminals.
Not necessarily a 'bad guy' as in a villain, but he's certainly portrayed as arrogant, greedy, mean, stubborn, and not nearly as clever or tough as he thinks he is. What kind of greedy moron has his daughter kidnapped and tries to lowball the kidnappers? Then the whole thing with him demanding to be the one to make the money handoff (contrary to, as far as he knew, the kidnappers SPECIFIC INSTRUCTIONS), bringing a gun instead of police, and somehow thinking that some tough talk to a clearly unhinged and angry violent criminal is going to do anything but make the situation worse. At the end of the day Wade is portrayed as a greedy, arrogant, and frankly stupid man that cares more about his money and his ego than his daughter, and it gets him killed. He's not a villain, but he's certainly not a good guy.
Why didn't the killers take the citation book from the officer they killed? That way, the investigation wouldn't have had a clue what kind of car they were driving, which was one of their only leads.
Because they are absolute fucking morons who did not think of it. If they had even half the intelligence required to think of doing this, three quarters of the movie would not have happened in the first place. There is such ample evidence of their bountiful stupidity throughout the film that, to be honest, this only barely qualifies as a headscratcher.
Marge and Lou's reaction to the crime scene. They are called out to investigate the scene of a brutal triple homicide, and they react as if they're checking up on a break-in of the local video rental: sipping coffee, cheerfully talking about family life and using words like "pretty bad" and "it's a real shame" to describe the carnage they see. Keep in mind that they're not working for the law enforcement of a major city that would deal with brutal violence on a constant basis; they're officers in the local police department of what the film emphasizes is a boring small town in Minnesota where hardly anything ever happens, so there's no way they should be hardened to such sights. Hell, one of the victims is a state trooper, and dealing with a murdered police officer should be a big deal even in a major police department. What accounts for Marge and Lou's rather blasé attitude to the whole thing?
I suspect they're just pretty decent at masking any of the stronger emotions they're feeling at the moment. When Marge is alone with Grimsrud, her dialogue shows that it affects her quite a bit more than she lets on otherwise. Small town or no, being police officers, they'd probably be trained and mentally prepared with the reality that they're going to have to see some dead bodies while on the job. And it's not as if the bodies had anything particularly gruesome done to them.
Also, the film is a Black Comedy. Rule of Funny. The contrast of a triple homicide with the lead investigator happily chirruping about coffee and her morning sickness creates Bathos.
While Marge and Lou might not be working for the NYPD or anything, they are still police officers; even if the murder rate is relatively low in Brainerd, they have almost certainly been called out to situations involving violence and gruesome death before (car accidents, suicides, etc.). And Marge has risen to be the local police chief. She is almost certainly far from being green.
Why doesn't Wade suspect Jerry of being involved in the kidnapping? He rejects his ludicrous request for a $750k loan, and then right afterward Jerry's wife is kidnapped and Jerry now desperately needs $1m, and Wade is clueless?
Look at it in one of two ways: 1.) For all his misgivings about Jerry, Wade doesn't think he would actually stoop to the low of having his own wife kidnapped for money. 2.) Wade thinks so little of Jerry that he just doesn't think him capable of being that devious and crafty.
