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In the ending of the movie, the plan seemed to centre on the main character following the terrorist's van, then losing sight of it in the street and accidentally following the wrong van.
Have I missed something? How could the terrorists possibly have predicted this would happen?
As you surmise, the answer is that the ending could only work in a screenwriter's mind. Otherwise we have to imagine that the entire elaborate terrorist plot depended on a college professor being able to evade armed FBI guards and make a stunt-driver's dive through closing garage doors into the basement of the FBI building. Even though the film was made before 9/11, these assumptions are totally absurd. This insult to the viewer's intelligence ruined what was otherwise a pretty good film
The terrorist's van carried not only the bomb, but the son of Michael Faraday. When he saw the bomb and the boy together, together with the remembered conversation from Oliver Lang about how Faraday's dead wife's friends would pay, he was lead to believe the bombing target was the FBI building. He followed the van because he saw the bomb placed aboard, knew the target, and that the bombing would be imminent.
His chase was interrupted by Oliver's crashing into him (because the van lead Faraday right into the alley where the "accident" could occur), and a fight ensued in the warehouse, where (off-screen) the bomb was transferred from the van to Michael Faraday's car. When Faraday escaped the warehouse and continued on to the FBI building, he encountered a different van from the same company on its daily delivery run to the FBI building. He would not have known about the daily delivery, but since the company was used by Lang and his co-conspirators, Oliver certainly did (remember during the fight he screams "Do you really think we'd leave anything to chance!?!"). Counting on the mistaken identity, and Michael's crazed chase to save his son, everything carries into the FBI building. Faraday still believed, passionately, his son and the bomb were now in the FBI garage, in the van.
He was wrong on both counts, the son was with the terrorist's wife and the bomb was in his own car. We see this milliseconds before the blast. Delivery and execution of the bombing complete, the terrorists go away scot-free with a patsy to boot.
history repeats itself . this terrorist org. implement their bombing and leave no trace behind ..only one man to be blamed....this is what you see in the beginning of the movie and at its end....only one man and the org. is not to be traced.
This is the history professor that lost his FBI wife before and that makes him a man with a reason for revenge....so , the org. moved to this quiet and calm neighborhood right beside the candidate and starts to run things in order to drive that man to suspect them, track them and eventually drive a car with a bomb that he is not aware about.
Finally, after the bomb has exploded and in the final scene of the movie, the wife of the terrorist says she is sorry that they will have to leave the calm and quiet neighborhood and be transferred into another neighborhood near to the next candidate victim who will implement their next bombing act.
