Watched this on More 4 this week and enjoyed it a lot....but that only encouraged me to think about it even more, and some of the plot holes. Some are mentioned on Imdb but these are some that bugged me
If Tim Robbins was targeting Jeff Bridges character from the start, why hadnt he tried to contact him earlier? Jeff said they'd been there 3 months.
That must've been one powerful explosive - a boot full to demolish a huge building.
The entire conspiracy theory was far fetched & designed to appeal to people who subscribe to the "grassy knoll" & similar urban myths like Prince Phillip offing Diana.
Tim needed to blend in, and gain normality which then leaRAB to trust. Plus, maybe they were busy planning other stuff. It's not a serious plothole, really, is it?
Yes, the explosives must have been powerful - again, not a plothole, in my opinion.
Arlington Road is a pretty solid thriller with a couple of very strong performances from Robbins and Bridges. Wouldn't say there was anything especially 'brilliant' about it imho, but is has a few very clever moments. Well worth watching anyway.
Tell that to the people who lost their loved ones in the Oklahoma bombing.
Terrorism, whether international or domestic, is a scary subject- the guilty parties don't always have to speak with Arabic accents and reference Allah, you know.
The fact that they could be your supposedly friendly all-American next door neighbours makes it all the more horrific, and that's what this film dealt with.
I wouldn't say it is any less of a touchy subject just because it doesn't deal with cultural taboos and religious differences.
They may not be able to evade capture after the fact, but that doesn't mean they won't be able to pull off a big attack.
The difference in Arlington Road is that they are scarier, because they're not simply NRA hicks with too many rifles and flags - they're smart cover-up artists, who plan the cover-up just as well as they plan the bombing itself.