Don't Say a Word

In 2001, Sean Bean starred in a movie called "Don't Say a Word," starring alongside Brittany Murphy and Michael Douglas. In it, Bean played the "villain," who holds Michael Douglas' family hostage in exchange for Douglas getting a set of numbers of Brittany Murphy, who is a patient in a mental hospital. See the trailer below:



At first glance, this seems pretty easy. I mean, how can a guy holding a family hostage possibly be a good guy? Well, loyal reader, there is far more than meets the eye.

WARNING: If you haven't seen this movie, major spoilers ahead.

Let's go back to the beginning of the movie.

The Heist

In the beginning of the movie, we see Sean Bean and his team working together to complete a heist of a valuable red jewel. It's sort of like The Italian Job or Oceans Eleven. This is a team of simple thieves, bonded together by their heist. They successfully complete their heist, get in their getaway cars and are on their way. Sean Bean presumably has the red jewel in his hands as he drives away with one of his fellow teammates. Success! Now they can share in the profits, each member having contributed. This jewel is presumably worth quite a lot of money, probably more than enough for each team member to live out their lives in comfort.


The Betrayal

Sean Bean looks in his bag, and what does he find? The jewel has been replaced with a fake! Who has the real jewel? One of his teammates, who has betrayed the group and fled. This greedy guy wasn't satisfied with just having a couple million dollars. He wanted the whole thing, and was ready to screw over his teammates and friends to get it.

For comparison, this is a lot like The Italian Job. This dude is like Edward Norton, who betrays the group so that he can have the whole pie. Sean Bean sure seems a lot like Mark Wahlberg now, the simple leader of the group who was too trusting of his supposed "friend."

Below, we have a scene from Don't Say a Word immediately after the betrayal takes place. This video is labeled "A Look to Kill." Really? Sure looks, to me at least, more like a man who has been betrayed. Remember that face we've seen Sean Bean give in almost every movie. Once again, Bean has been betrayed. That's not a look to kill. That's a look of betrayal, a look of sadness to see a friend do this to him.



Getting Back the Jewel

So you're in Sean Bean's shoes. You've spent years with your friends planning this heist, only to have your "friend" betray you and take off with your hard earnings. What are you going to do now? Sean Bean does the same thing any of us would do in that situation. He goes out to find his jewel and get it back. Think Mark Wahlberg in The Italian Job.

Now, it turns out that the greedy jewel thief has a child. This really shouldn't factor in. Either way, greedy jewel thief guy took something that doesn't belong to him.

Sean Bean and his friends find this jewel thief and confront him in the subway, demanding their jewel back. There wasn't any intent by Bean and his friends to kill the guy (which if they did, it probably would have been okay). Instead they (relatively) politely, tell the greedy thief to give them back the jewel and tell them where he hid it. Instead he refuses and thats when Sean Bean and his friends get into a fight with him and accidently push him into an oncoming subway train.

If you watch that scene again, it was clearly an accident. Bean was no murderer. He was just a simple thief. Indeed, killing the guy would have been counter-intuitive. This guy knew the location of where he had hidden the jewel. By killing him, the secret was lost forever. This provides evidence that Sean Bean killed the guy by accident.

Furthermore, even if he had purposely killed that greedy thief, I'd argue that he was perfectly justified to do so. Think about The Italian Job. At the end of the movie, after plotting their revenge, Mark Wahlberg finally gets his gold bricks back. Then what does he do to Edward Norton? He kills him off-screen. I don't think anyone walked out of that movie thinking Mark Wahlberg was the villain.

The Hostage Taking

Some time eventually passes (I think like 10 years), and Sean Bean has been in jail during this time. He finally gets out, and again, he wants to get his jewel back, which is rightfully his. The only person who knows the "combination" to get the jewel back is some crazy girl who is the daughter of the greedy jewel thief.

He needs the help of this doctor to help him get the numbers out of this girl. So he does some simple hostage taking. He didn't intend to harm anyone, even if he threatened he would. In fact, he treated that kid he took hostage with nothing but respect. All the doctor had to do was get the numbers from the girl and that would be the end of everything.

And all that greedy crazy girl had to do was give up the numbers so that Sean Bean could get back what was rightfully his. Instead, she acts like a child by taunting the doctor and Sean Bean, saying how "she'll never tell."

Sean Bean's Death

So I can't fully remember all the details, but ultimately, we get to the point in the movie where Sean Bean is going into this grave in order to retrieve the jewel that belongs to him and that was stolen from him by a double crossing, greedy thief.

Then Sean Bean gets buried alive. We walked out of that movie cheering. That villain, Sean Bean, sure got what was coming to him. I mean, look at him victimizing this poor family and that poor crazy girl.

Sean Bean the Villain?

But wait, lets think again. Here is Sean Bean, the leader of a gang of thieves. They work hard together to steal this precious ruby. Then Sean Bean gets betrayed by his friend, who then refuses to give up the gem. Then Sean Bean plans his scheme to get back his gem, which is rightfully his. Instead, he fails to get the gem and is killed. The daughter of the thief lives happily ever after.

Think if The Italian Job played out similarly. Mark Wahlberg is the leader of a gang of thieves. They work together to steal those gold bricks, but Walhberg is betrayed by Edward Norton. Mark Wahlberg makes his plans to get back his gold bricks, which are rightfully his. Instead, Edward Norton outsmarts him and kills him. Edward Norton lives happily ever after.

So, does Sean Bean really seem like the villain here? It seems to me like he's the victim.

Go back to the trailer for Don't Say a Word.

"You want what they want, don't you?" says Brittany Murphy.

Is she implying that the jewel is rightfully hers!? Her father stole the jewel by double crossing his partner! Sean Bean was victimized here, NOT Brittany Murphy. And yet we all came out of the movie thinking Sean Bean had done the wrong. In reality, the wrong had been done to him.

Sean Bean Death Reel

See Sean Bean die 21 times. I haven't seen all of these movies, but no doubt he was misunderstood in each one and didn't deserve to die. WARNING: This video does contain some graphic scenes.



For example, take a look at the Alec Trevelyan death scene from Goldeneye near the end of this video. James Bond callously drops Trevelyan to his death.

"For England, James?" Bean asks.

"No, for me." Responds Bond, who then drops Trevelyan.

How can Bond justify killing Bean when (1) Bond is the one who initially betrayed Bean by failing to set the timer for the 6 minutes as Bean (Trevelyan) requested, and (2) Bean (Trevelyan) always gave Bond an opportunity to use his skills to escape death.

You might argue that Bond was able to escape death so many times because of simple incompetence. I'd disagree. Here's why. Off the top of my head, I can think of multiple times where Sean Bean could have simply killed Bond, but instead put him in situations where he could easily escape. There's the helicopter scene in the statue park, and the train scene where Bean graciously leaves three minutes on the bomb timer so Bond can have a chance to escape. Then we have all the times where Bean simply held Bond hostage, rather than just shoot him in the face.

To me, this strikes me as a guy who simply couldn't kill his friend. Bean may have wanted to, but the goodness in his heart simply wouldn't let him. THAT is why he devised all these easily escapable situations.

Bond, should have done the same for his old friend. A true hero would have saved his friend (or former friend), rather than drop him to his death.

I will start adding entries again

Hello all,

I started this blog last year(2010) because I was bored at work and found a website called "Don't Trust Sean Bean," which portrayed him in all the wrong ways. I made it my mission then to give Sean Bean's characters the respect he deserves. Then things got in the way, I started school, and forgot about the blog.

Now that summer has started again, I find myself with a little more free time and am going to start updating the blog again. I haven't seen Game of Thrones, but I will start watching it this summer. You can expect some analysis on some more of his big movies (including Lord of the Rings, one of his most misunderstood roles). If you are new to the blog, please read about him in National Treasure. I think I've convinced just about every person that he is NOT the bad guy in that movie.

Anyway, in sum, I have not abandoned this blog and I promise to get some more blog posts out there. Thanks for your support.