Question: What is Jerry's wife watching on TV when she is about to be kidnapped?
Question: I've heard that the kidnappers names are Carl and Gaear. Where in the film is this fact established?
Answer: At the beginning of the movie when Jerry meets them both in the bar to discuss the kidnapping. Carl introduces himself and Gaear to Jerry.
Question: By the time Jerry gets arrested, his wife and her father are both dead. What will now happen to Jerry's son, now that his dad is in jail, and his mother and grandfather are both dead?
Answer: While there is nothing in the film that explains this, the most likely step taken by the authorities would have been to see whether Jerry and his wife had made out an will and who they would give legal custody of their son if anything happened to them. If there was no will then it's likely the closest family or relatives would be asked to take custody.
He probably still has Lundegaard Grandparent (s) and a grandmother from his mother's side - any of which could and would become his legal guardian (s).
He'll be a rich man. Grandfather said early in the movie that his daughter and her son would bever have to worry about money or words to that effect.
Answer: Early in the film, Jerry's father-in-law makes it a point to mention that his daughter and grandson will never have to worry, financially. It's implied Wade made the necessary arrangements to ensure Jerry's son would be provided for in the event something happened to his parents.
Question: Gaear gets the kidnapping job from his friend Shep. He can choose anybody he wants to help him do it. Why does he choose Carl, a person he obviously can't stand? They don't "fall out" - Gaear hates him from the get-go. And don't say that Gaear deliberately chose someone he disliked because he planned to kill him all along. Yeah, right... Planned to bring an axe to a gunfight. Great plan. Granted, it worked. But that was not planned. Anyway, Gaear is all ursine impulse, not organized forethought. So why Carl?
Answer: Gaear would choose who he thought was the best person to help him pull off the job, regardless of whether or not he likes him. He's not particularly intelligent, and Carl is the smarter of the two and that would be an asset. Gaear also appears to be very anti-social and it's doubtful he has any friends, or at least any that would participate in such a plot, and this may be the only person he knows of who will go along with it. His choice really has little to do with liking someone and everything to do with getting the job done. Gaear may very well have intended to kill him later to help eliminate any ties to the crime and to keep the money. It's easier to kill someone he doesn't like.
All good points! I might add Gaear was "mostly brawn." His limited intelligence ("dull normal" at best?) and lack of basic communication skills ["Where's pancakes house?"] would interfere with his ability to engage in constructive conversations with Jerry to arrange the kidnapping. He'd also have difficulty making a plan and following through on his own. Gaear wouldn't have any problem overpowering a person to be kidnapped, but needed someone like Carl to make the before and after plans.
Question: On the DVD's front cover it says that this film is based on a true story, but I have heard a rumour that this is a complete lie and the entire film is fictional. Is this true and if so are they allowed to say it's based on truth, when it's totally made up?
Answer: That rumour is true. There is a bit of information to the story so this link will explain a bit more of the detail, Link 1 & Link 2. It is somewhat of a complicated issue but it is allowed. Texas Chainsaw massacre (which was also claimed to be true but was not) is an example of this. The technique has allowed distributors and filmmakers to make the film more enticing to audiences. While the tagline is not completely true, the fact that some elements are true means it is not totally false.
Question: Are we ever told exactly why Jerry needs the money? His $750,000 deal with the parking lot falls through and he owes GMAC $320,000. He is going to give the kidnappers $40,000, but then it's increased to $80,000. But he sets the ransom at only $1 million. So what is the deal?
Answer: This is incorrect. Jerry had already devised the kidnapping plot before his father-in-law refused to loan him the money. It's never stated why Jerry needs the money. He owes $320,000 to GMAC but why he took that money from GMAC in the first place is never stated. Jerry is a greedy person who got himself into massive debt. He even balks when Carl demands they get $80,000 instead of $40,000, when, if the plan works, Jerry would still get $920,000. He's greedy and desperate and is willing to do foolish things for money. That's basically the "moral" of the story.
Jerry's balking when Carl demands $80,000 could be acting on his part. That amount is supposed to be the entire ransom, so Jerry had to pretend as if Carl's demand was unacceptable. Jerry may well be greedy, which could be why he's in financial trouble to begin with, but in the movie he needs money out of desperation, not greed.
Answer: The business deal didn't actually fall through. Jerry needed $750,000 to proceed with it. He tried borrowing the capital from his father-in-law, who refused to lend it to him. Instead, the father-in-law wanted to invest in the deal himself and to give Jerry a small finder's commission. Outraged, Jerry devised the phony kidnap scheme so he could get the money to invest in the parking lot. (He never intended for his wife to be harmed.) Presumably he planned to pay off the kidnappers and partially repay GMAC with some of the $1,000,000 ransom money, and use the rest for the investment deal.
This is incorrect - he meets with the kidnappers before visiting Wade (the father-in-law) about the loan for the deal.
Question: After kidnapping Mrs Lundegaard, the kidnappers return to Brainerd where they get pulled over and it all falls apart. My question is... Why do they return to Brainerd? They end up keeping her in a cabin near the twin cities metro area. So they drive down to the cities from Brainerd, kidnap her, return to Brainerd where they're pulled over, and then return again to the cities to lie low in a cabin. So why make that initial return to Brainerd? They likely had the cabin arranged in advance.
Answer: I was confused and questioned why things occurred in certain places - Fargo vs. Brainerd vs. Minneapolis vs. The cabin's location, identified as Moose Lake near the end of the movie. Other than the beginning barroom meeting in Fargo between Jerry and Carl/Gaear, I didn't see the significance of Fargo. Jerry and his wife (kidnapping victim) lived in Minneapolis. The murders took place in Brainerd, and Chief of Police Margie eventually investigated some leads in Minneapolis. We don't know where the kidnappers planned on holding Mrs. Lundegaard. IF the kidnappers were from Fargo or even Brainerd, they may have been planning on taking her to one of their homes and were in the process of driving there when pulled over by Brainerd Police. No one was supposed to get hurt, but the murders occurred and their plan was no longer going as expected. Instead of continuing to a home, it may now have made more sense to "hide" somewhere to avoid getting caught. Moose Lake could have been chosen.
This change in plans would mean they did NOT already have the cabin rented. Maybe Carl or Gaear owned it, but didn't initially intend to use it because they were not really committing a kidnapping and preferred to go home.
Answer: A local TV show in the Minneapolis/St. Paul, Minnesota area called "Good Company" which starred Steve and Sharon Adelman. It has been off the air for many years now.