Question: What happened at the end? How did they get out of that fix?
Answer: Michael Caine himself once suggested in an interview that all they had to do was wait until the bus, the engine of which was still running, ran out of fuel. The fuel tank was at the rear of the bus, hanging over the cliff and so adding weight at that end. As it emptied, the balance would shift to the front and they would be able to move the gold forward. How they could then get it off the bus, or transport it from the roadside is another matter.
Question: When George is killed by the hoodlums in the middle of the night one of them appears to be wearing a hat similar to the one worn previously by the prejudice guy in the restaurant. Are they supposed to be one and the same?
Answer: Correct: it is the same group of bigots, who has tracked them down in order to beat them.
Answer: We may never know. The ending was originally a set-up for a sequel, but the sequel never materialized.
Cubs Fan ★