The Professor is also Professor Jordan in The 39 Steps (1935).
Let's note some similarities here:- Steps features a man thrust by accident into global intrigue when a spy expires on his doorstep and hands him crucial information. Implicated in murder, he flees to relay the information to someone called "the Professor".
- Northwest features a man thrust by accident into global intrigue when he's confused for a secret agent. Implicated in murder, he flees to work out what's going on and winds up having it all explained by someone called "the Professor".
An alternative
The Professor in Northwest is the same as Professor Jordan, but the Jordan we see in Steps is not the real Jordan. A foreign agent (call van Damm, or whatever you please), adopts the identity of the Professor, a major intelligence operative. He then hatches a ploy to manipulate an innocent civilian (one Richard Hannay) into assassinating the real Jordan, convincing him that Jordan is simply a traitor. Jordan realizes what is happening at the last second, and decides to play along, getting himself "arrested" (to be bailed out later) and killing Mr. Memory in the process, to rob the impersonator of his major source of information, leaving the impersonator only a Pyrrhic Victory."van Damm" is also Professor Jordan in The 39 Steps (1935).
Building on the above, the false Jordan then assumes the identity of Lester Townsend, while the real Jordan appropriates his impersonator's scheme by using an elaborate ploy involving an innocent passerby.The Professor is, in fact, Alexander Waverly, and the movie depicts an U.N.C.L.E. operation.
This is a popular theory among The Man from U.N.C.L.E. fans. As they recount it, Waverly set up a complex operation with the U.S. Government to entrap Vandamm, an important THRUSH agent, by creating a fake U.N.C.L.E. agent, George Kaplan, to lure him, and due to the nature of the situation had to disguise himself as a U.S. government official. Roger got mixed up in the op (as seen in the main page) and THRUSH started to figure out they were being played, so Waverly assigns Eve (herself an U.N.C.L.E. Enforcement Agent) to work with Roger to sort things out, setting up the last part of the movie. Several fanfics have been written based on this premise.The last scene is the journey to the afterlife.
It is ambiguous whether the protagonists survive after hanging from the cliff. They are hardly making it and slipping and asking for help, and instead the situation gets worse by Leonard stepping on Thornhill's hand. After further exchange along the lines of "I can't make it", we cut to what can be interpteted as a journey to the afterlife: the protagonists wearing white like angels or ghosts, ascending onto the top shelf on the train like into heaven, and the train entering a tunnel, which is the journey towards "seeing the light in the end of the tunnel". The dramatic part is the reveal of which of Thornhill's hands slips, i.e. whether Thornhill holds stronger onto Eve or onto his own life. The last scene is known to be a compromise between several meanings (literal and sexual). This additional meaning might better explain why the cut and scene feel so incomplete - they attempt to leave enough space for this additional interpretation. A big hint is that the question whether the protagonists survive is explicitly raised (they discuss this question), but never explicitly resolved.- Makes a lot of sense. Especially with the editing.
Roger's hard-drinking lifestyle is how he survived the intended drunk driving death.
Thanks to his habit of over-indulging in alcohol, Roger's built up a bit of resistance to it, thus he's slightly better at impaired driving than the baddies anticipated. Just enough so not to kill himself or anyone else.