Saturday - The Day of the Heist

There were a number of events that occurred four days later - the morning of the heist, often described by the third-person narrator to seemingly provide continuity, although the sequence was still confounding, disorienting, sometimes out of chronological order, and not showing the entire context. At first, the sequence of events for the heist went off without a hitch, but then everything began to go horribly wrong.

Johnny ascended a spiral staircase, and first went to the employees locker-room to retrieve the rifle (planted in O'Reilly's locker in a flower box), and then donned a grotesque, grinning rubber clown mask (over his face) and gloves.

The Actual Heist:

As Race # 7 (deliberately commencing more than once during the above sequence), the four clerks / accountants in the track's back counting or "money room" of the payroll office were held up by the disguised Johnny, and robbed of $2 million in cash. The guards that normally were present in the room had rushed off to help control the bar-fight. One of the cashier-clerks was ordered to place cash on the back table into a large white laundry-duffel bag ("Fill that bag up just as fast as you know how"), while the others were disarmed and told to face the wall. The clerk with the duffel bag was also ordered to continue filling the bag with cash from the safe. In the background, the race announcer was heard describing the spill of Red Lightning and how the jockey Danny Freed was unhurt. When the duffel bag was stuffed to the brim with cash, Johnny ordered the floor clerks into the employees locker room across the hall. Then, Johnny placed his disguise (mask, gloves, coat, and shirt) and the weapon into a large duffel bag, and tossed the heavy, bulky bag out an open window.

As Johnny exited the payroll door, an armed policeman confronted him, but was knocked down. He was able to cooly walk out of the racetrack building with crowds of people.

The Gang Members' Rendezvous in Maurice Unger's Apartment:

More news about the robbery at the racetrack was conveyed on the radio, after the surviving gang members (George, Mike, Randy and Marvin) had assembled and were waiting at Unger's apartment - the rendezvous site for the accomplices at the appointed time of 7:00 pm - to split up the cash and get their shares of the loot. It was reported that the horse sniper (Nikki) had been fatally shot in a racetrack parking lot. The tense group awaited nervously for Johnny to appear, drinking and listening to the radio, but heard no news of the main bandit's escape with the duffel bag of money:

"In one of the most daring and carefully-executed hold-ups in criminal history, a lone bandit wearing a rubber mask today took an estimated $2 million stuffed into a large duffel bag from the offices of the Lansdowne Racetrack. The robbery occurred during the running of the seventh race and was apparently timed to coincide with the shooting of Red Lightning, just as the horse, valued at $250,000, was leading the pack at the far turn. The jockey, Danny Freed, escaped with minor injuries. A man identified as Nikki Arano, who allegedly shot the prized thoroughbred, was himself fatally wounded by track police as he attempted to shoot his way out of the track parking lot. At this time, the most baffling mystery that still plagues the authorities is just how the bandit managed to successfully get away from the track with the bulky duffel bag containing the money. A painstaking search of the track grounds is being conducted on the theory that the money may still be hidden there."

After the radio news report, bruised-faced O'Reilly was surprised the scheme had worked so well: ("No one saw the duffel bag come out of the window"). Kennan confirmed everything went smoothly, claiming to the others that he had retrieved the thrown duffel bag from the window ("Ah, that part of it worked OK. Landed right at my feet"), but was anticipating being punished (with a 30-day suspension) by his police Captain, and accused of being drunk:

"I reported my radio out of order before I went out to the track. But the Captain ain't buyin' it. He's convinced I was holed up somewhere, drunk. And if the Captain's convinced, there ain't nobody that can un-convince him. Besides, no one's gonna think anything of seein' a cop at the racetrack. I mean, they won't get any funny ideas about it and tie it in with the robbery. Anyway, if they do, it won't cut any ice. Captain knows I was drunk. And he ain't a man you can argue with. So I guess I'll just have to break down, admit it, and take my punishment."

When it became later and later than the "timetable" had called for, a 7:00 pm rendezvous, it was now 7:15 pm (according to George), and the foursome began to wonder why Johnny had not shown up. Kennan assured them that Johnny would soon get there as planned: "Don't worry. He'll get here. He had to pick up the dough at the motel where I dropped it." As planned, Kennan had driven the bag to Johnny's motel, and deposited it in Johnny's rented cabin room. George was anxiously skeptical about why Johnny hadn't arrived: "Everything else runs on a timetable until it comes to payin' us our shares. Then the timetable breaks down."

The Unexpected Arrival of Mobsters - A Deadly Shoot-Out:

At around 7:15 pm when they heard the elevator, the group was ready to welcome Johnny, but were surprised instead by the arrival of Val Cannon (with accomplice Tiny (Joe Turkel)), who at gunpoint held up the gang members: "It'll be a massacre if you don't keep those mitts up." When Val demanded to know about the stolen cash and Johnny's whereabouts, a deadly shoot-out or gunfight ensued. From a back room, George appeared and shot Val and Tiny, but all were gunned down and killed (and viewed as a pile of strewn corpses while Latin music played on the radio), except for the seriously-wounded George, who struggled to get to the door and twist the knob (from his POV).

(Death Toll Total: Six)

Johnny's Arrival at the Rendezvous Location:

[Note: The narrator then stated two confusing time-frame references. He announced that "40 minutes before (the gunfight), at 6:25, Johnny reached the motel" - but that was an inaccurate statement. '40 minutes before 7:15' would have been 6:35 pm. And then the narrator announced that Johnny was "15 minutes behind schedule" due to heavy traffic around the track.]

At the motel, Johnny - at first - almost mistakenly entered the wrong motel room. He retrieved the duffel bag that had been brought there by Kennan, plus the guitar case. When Johnny arrived at the apartment for the 7:00 pm rendezvous, the narrator provided another false statement:

Narrator: "Johnny arrived at the meeting place at 7:29, still 15 minutes late." [Note: Johnny was actually almost a half hour late.]

After parking in front of the apartment, Johnny saw (from his POV that was filmed from the backseat) the bloodied George stumble out of the apartment front door, fall over the hood of his car, and then cross the street to his car after an apparent gun battle. The group's agreement was that if plans went awry, the one who possessed the money could flee, and then later divide the cash with the others. Johnny was forced to take the money - as described in voice-over:

Narrator: "It had been prearranged and agreed to by all that in the event of an emergency before the split, the money was to be saved by whoever had possession of it at that time without any consideration of the fate of the others, the money to be divided in safety at a later date. After what he had seen, and not knowing the cause or the circumstances of the others, Johnny had no choice but to save himself and the money. Ten minutes later, he bought the largest suitcase he could find."

After purchasing a large old suitcase at a pawn shop at 7:39 pm, Johnny drove to a deserted country road and stuffed the cash into the suitcase (but significantly, he couldn't secure the case because of the inoperative locks).

[Note: It must be stated that after all the meticulous planning, why didn't Johnny pre-purchase a functioning suitcase?]

George's Fatal Confrontation with His Faithless Wife Sherry:

After staggering home to his apartment, the sole-surviving, determined yet fatally-wounded George heard his wife from the back bedroom calling out - thinking it was Val: "I'm back here, Val, darling. How'd it go, dear?" He stumbled into the room - looking like Nikki's paper target after it had been shredded with gunfire - and confronted his faithless and scheming wife Sherry with a plaintive question: "Why did you do it?" He suspected her of desertion, but she had a pre-planned alibi - she claimed that she was preparing clothes for the cleaners, but she was obviously packing a suitcase to run away with her co-conspirator Val. Sherry believed that the money would bring her out of poverty and revitalize her life. She insulted George for his continuing stupidity in getting himself shot - and then tipped off George that Val would be arriving soon, to run off with her:

"So you had to be stupid. You couldn't even play it smart with a gun pointed at you. Well, you better get smart fast and get outta here while you can still walk....You better get out of here before he gets here."

About to expire, George denounced her for associating with Val, but first requested that she call an ambulance for him, but she coldly refused: "The door's behind you. Take a cab." He vowed his love for her: "I love you, Sherry," but then as she continued to urge him to leave: ("George, you better go on and go. You look terrible"), he blasted away and shot her in the abdomen - no longer impotent. As she died, she bemoaned her unfair luck:

"It isn't fair. I never had anybody but you. Not a real husband. Not even a man. Just a bad joke without a punch line."

George fell dead, tumbling forward and knocking over the parrot cage - a symbol of his pitiful, enclosed life. Her loudly-squawking, shrieking bird mimicked her line: "Ain't fair."

(Death Toll Total: Eight)

Johnny's and Fay's Fateful Airport Escape:

Johnny met his girlfriend/fiancee Fay at the airport - with pre-purchased tickets for a 9 o'clock DC-7 flight to Boston, for their assumed names: Mr. and Mrs. Raymond Preston. At the check-in counter, an airline desk clerk (William Benedict) denied Johnny's vehement requests to take his prominently-bulky suitcase on board, and insisted that he check the oversized bag due to airline regulations. The friendly clerk offered to retrieve his earlier checked bag to transfer the contents to smaller bags, but Johnny said that wouldn't work. When Johnny suggested to Mr. Grimes (James Griffith), the obliging supervisor, that he couldn't make the trip without the bag, he was offered two full ticket rebates if he decided not to fly, and then was offered free insurance by the clerk for the valuable large piece of baggage if he did decide to travel. Realizing that he was making a scene, the apprehensive Johnny was finally forced to capitulate ("Check it through"). The camera focused on the bag as it was loaded onto a conveyor belt and disappeared.

There were further doomed circumstances for the heist when Johnny and Fay were standing behind fencing on the tarmac at the departure gate. They watched in horror as a baggage-cart driver swerved to the right to avoid a rich woman's (Cecil Elliott) spoiled poodle-dog named Sebastian that had escaped from her arms and ran into its path when frightened by the airplane noise. (The woman was awaiting her husband's flight arrival at a nearby gate on the tarmac.) The jostled cart sent Johnny's checked heavy suitcase of stolen money tumbling onto the tarmac where it broke open and flooded the airstrip with the cash - there was the incredible visual shot of an airplane propeller blowing away the fallen suitcase's contents of stolen cash that whirled all over the runway.

[Note: The scene paid direct homage to the conclusion of John Huston's The Treasure of the Sierra Madre (1948) when the wind blew hard-earned gold dust across the desert to merge with the desert soil.]

Stunned by the sight of the money blowing around, Johnny and Fay decided to walk calmly back into the terminal and flee from the airport. In the final few moments of the film, Mr. Grimes was alerted by phone to the opened suitcase of cash on the runway, while he simultaneously noticed the unusual sight of the couple slowly walking by the check-in desk toward the terminal's glass exit doors.

After Fay desperately tried to hail a few passing taxi-cabs from the curb, she turned and watched through the glass doors behind them, as Mr. Grimes pointed at them and identified them to two armed plainclothes policemen (Charles Cane and Robert B. Williams). The alerted officers approached toward the glass doors to arrest them, as Fay murmured a warning:

Fay: "Johnny, you've got to run!"
Johnny: "Nah, what's the difference?"

The stunned Johnny - demoralized and spiritless, realized it was futile to run, and delivered the film's final existential line to Fay. They both turned to face the two authority figures who were advancing through the doors and moving closer to them with their guns drawn.