Problems with the After the Sunset film

I hope this films isn't so obscure that nobody has ever seen it but I was talking to a table of friends yesterday and everyone at that table had seen it and remembered it well enough to participate in the conversation. I'm hoping that this ends up being the case here. In case you need a little refresher After the Sunset is a comedy / heist film from 2004 that starred a lot of people at the peak of their careers.

Tons of spoilers ahead

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It was also a time when Hollywood was going through a "heist film" craze as it seemed as though every other film that was released was some sort of benevolent theft type of film where we are meant to cheer for the whimsical and very talented "bad guys."

With a cast that features Harrelson, Cheadle, Brosnan, and the always super-hot Selma Hayek and it takes place in exotic locations, how can this possibly go wrong? Well, while the film was entertaining I had a big problem with a lot of plot holes and aspects of the film that feature unlikely, convenient, and even impossible events. I'll detail a few of them now.

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The film begins with a very nervous FBI agent Stanley (Harrelson) who is escorting some valuable diamonds to somewhere. He and his crew are only worried about one person stealing them and that one person is Max Burdett (Brosnan.) This entire sequence is a foregone conclusion because if Max doesn't succeed there is no film. I don't have a problem with him getting the diamonds but the method in which he does so. Max is able to take remote control of the armored car that Agent Stanley is in by simply scanning the VIN number of the car. Even though Agent Stanley is in the car, hitting the brakes and fighting the steering wheel, he is powerless to stop Max from driving the car away from the scene to a hidden location.

This is a very convenient piece of non existent technology that if anyone out there were to have a counter for said non-existent technology, it would be the FBI.

Later, we find ourselves in an undisclosed island location where Max and his girlfriend Lola escape to in order to stay out of the public eye. Their idea of getting away from the fuzz and getting away from the public is to move to the Bahamas - which is probably the one island that is visited most frequently by Americans. Great hiding place!

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After a brief honeymoon period where Max doesn't seem to be enjoying himself they are found by agent Stanley right around the time that another massive diamond just happens to be on display in port on a cruise ship. Because, priceless diamonds that there are only 3 of in the world go on cruise ships I guess.

Stanley purports to be there to make sure that Max doesn't steal the diamond and in the process they form a sort of bromance, which, to be fair, is actually very entertaining.

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If you have seen the film you may recall this one scene where for no reason at all, Max decides to go to this area where there is a parade going on, and for also no reason, Agent Stanley decides to follow him. While weaving through the oncoming parade (where no one in the parade complains at all that two tourists are interfering with their parade), Max happens to spot a pal of his that just happens to be in the parade playing trombone. With the nod of a head he is able to convince the trombone player to smack agent Stanley in the head with the trombone, knocking him to the ground.

There is no pre-defined reason for either of them to be going here and even less reason for Max to be following him. This is merely filler and it was at this point in the film that I started to feel as though After the Sunset might be a half film / half tourism promotion for the Bahamas.

Still convinced that Max intends to steal the diamond, Agent Stanley decides to trail him until the moment that the cruise ship is meant to leave port, which is happening in the middle of the night because: reasons. In order to prove to Agent Stanley, Stanley's newfound local love-interest, and Max's own girlfriend Lola, Max decides to take everyone scuba diving during the last 2 hours that the boat is going to be in port. This is where I started to have real problems with the realism.

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Without consulting any of the rest of the group about their sizes or buoyancy weight needs, Max managed to have 4 sets of gear just waiting in a boat at the private beach they were hanging out at. They are also full-face masks so that they are able to communicate with one another while underwater using their voices. This is extremely complicated equipment that normally has to be custom fit in order to prevent leakage, it isn't something that you would just guess the size of another person and have it magically work. Also, not everyone just knows how to dive. I am a certified dive instructor and while it isn't a terribly complicated sport, it also isn't something that you can just jump in the water and know how to do. It's much more complicated than that.

In order to distract his crew for 2 hours (which is also impossible, unless you brought multiple tanks with you and then this bottom time introduces nitrogen loading which unless diving with Nitrox you could potentially be killing everyone in your crew) he takes them to dive a friggin wreck dive (a sunken boat) which unless everyone had a high level of certification, would be the absolute worst place you could bring anyone. There are so many things on your average wreck dive that is at least going to cut you (barnacles) or impale you (sea urchins), as well as poisonous critters that tend to gravitate towards these sorts of environments (poisonous starfish, stone fish, etc.)

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_{an absolutely deadly environment for unskilled divers}

Then, while his crew is down there, Max is met underwater by a friend who changes places with him and using a propulsion device he departs the wreck and heads towards the cruise ship to pull of the heist.

The heist itself is actually pretty entertaining but also involves very specialized equipment and chemicals that begs the questions of "how did they obtain stuff like that?" and even more importantly "was this stowed on the cruise liner or did Max's accomplice bring it with him? Certainly it isn't waterproof."

When Max departs the boat all of his scuba gear is just waiting for him in the water I guess. I suppose he tied it off, on a mooring line, climbed up the side of the cruise ship without any of the hundreds of guests or security noticing, and then returned to exactly the same place without anyone noticing.

When Agent Stanley is about to discover that the 4th diver at the wreck is actually not Max, Lola turns his air off to prevent him from catching the extra person that Max placed there. If Stanley actually knew how to dive, understood the quite complex equipment that he is donning well enough to go on a wreck dive and maneuver the way that he did on the interior of said wreck, he would be very aware of how to turn his air back on but nah, he just freaks out instead.

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Perhaps that worst blunder of the film happens at this point, when they rip off Stanley's full-face mask to provide him with back up air, they are still talking to him and he is responding even though he no longer has the ability to hear or see them.

They all return to the beach safely, and nobody but Lola (and of course the body double that Max hired who mysteriously disappears without anyone noticing) and Max thinks he got away with it. It would later come to pass that Agent Stanley somehow magically knew that Max was going to do the heist and also knew where he would hide the diamond.

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This is revealed in a "gotcha" montage that Stanley reveals over cocktails on the beach towards the end of the film and one of the parts of the plan was that the drinks that the Agent got "drunk" on earlier in the film, don't have any alcohol in them. A minor issue, but earlier on in the film when Stanley had to be carried back to his room one of the bartenders actually assists Max in carrying the "drunk" Stanley. Since the bartender is very aware of what goes into these non-alcoholic drinks, he certainly would have pointed this out.

There are a ton of other plot holes in this film as well, such as Don Cheadle's character really not being much of a part of the film at all other than to be a distraction, but I have gone on too long about this already.

This film maybe broke even in the end when you count in DVD sales (people still bought DVD's in the early 2000's right?) but overall it performed quite poorly at the theaters and was almost universally hated by critics.

The special thing about this movie is that despite all of its many shortcomings it still manages to be entertaining and even though I've basically ruined the entire film for anyone out there that hasn't seen it yet I still recommend that you watch it. Maybe you can discover even more plot holes that I didn't notice. It shouldn't be too difficult because this movie is absolutely loaded with them.

I realize this was a bit long, probably too long for anyone to read all of it but if you did see the film I'd like to discuss it in the comments.