@aholejones said:

when that robot Shrike got his comeuppance. They tried to make it a really emotional and important moment in the movie, but the end result is a scene that seems mostly comical and nonsensical and you can't help but to say "Who cares" out loud when that stupid robot dies. Equally stupid is the scene before when that robot is roid raging aboard that engineering marvel of a flying ship with wood floors and canvas walls and beating up and killing everyone while trying to kill the heroine all the while said heroine is crying and yelling "NOOOOOOOO!" as people are trying to stop the robot from killing her. What was the motive for that silly robot anyways? Wasn't his emotions chip (or whatever) removed so it had zero reason to go after some random chick and even less reason to go mental about it since it was supposed to be a robot with some kind of logic, but this robot acts like some kind of a teenager with mood swings.

What you outlined about Shrike was one of first things I thought of when he died. What did he want to do to her if he caught her? Because it seemed to me he was still in protective mode but at the same time, he was going berserk trying to get at her for "breaking a promise".

They could've cut all the scenes with Shrike and it wouldn't have made a difference to the overall story - in fact, it would've helped by trimming the runtime and removing another needless character to the film.

Also while I'm here, I have to say that the security in London seemed to be kind of lax. Nobody seemed to care when the masked chick assassin entered the city or vehicle even though they obviously had wanted people and wanted posters so you would imagine they would check the people who enter, but what do you know.

I suppose you could argue that they did briefly frisk her...but yeah, that's clutching at straws. It was a bit stupid how lax they were.

The Stalkers are controlled by human brains and the tech is imperfect - parts of the original personality can surface. Shrike sees Hester as a daughter of sorts and wants her to live forever with him.

As far as security in London, everyone thought Valentine was a hero and so would not have been expecting someone would try to kill him.

@M. LeMarchand said:

The Stalkers are controlled by human brains and the tech is imperfect - parts of the original personality can surface. Shrike sees Hester as a daughter of sorts and wants her to live forever with him.

That may be, but it seemed like Shrike was trying to get at her to kill her. Are you saying he just wanted to get her back and force her to live with him again or something?

As far as security in London, everyone thought Valentine was a hero and so would not have been expecting someone would try to kill him.

If you remember those people were in the town which London "swallowed". They were trying to escape from London. I highly doubt those people saw Valentine as a hero, they were being assimilated against their will.

That may be, but it seemed like Shrike was trying to get at her to kill her. Are you saying he just wanted to get her back and force her to live with him again or something?

I think he wanted to kill her for reneging on her promise and then "Stalkerise" her. (IIRC in the books he strikes a deal with Crome and is waiting for Hester on London with this in mind).

@cpheonix said:

If you remember those people were in the town which London "swallowed". They were trying to escape from London. I highly doubt those people saw Valentine as a hero, they were being assimilated against their will.

Good point! Maybe most captives believed the propaganda about becoming valued citizens or were so brainwashed into thinking that Municipal Darwinism was the only way to live that they didn't tend to fight back?

@M. LeMarchand said:

I think he wanted to kill her for reneging on her promise and then "Stalkerise" her. (IIRC in the books he strikes a deal with Crome and is waiting for Hester on London with this in mind).

I guess this was the issue with the scene where Shrike attacks (and kills many) on the air ship...he appeared to want to kill her but then he wanted to kill Tom who he thought was hurting her! Ultimately the film didn't really make sense of his actions, despite what's in the books.

Good point! Maybe most captives believed the propaganda about becoming valued citizens or were so brainwashed into thinking that Municipal Darwinism was the only way to live that they didn't tend to fight back?

When the people on the town that was swallowed were vetted, Valentine gave a speech about their being jobs etc and then they all cheered. So yes, there's definitely the element of brainwashing.

But the initial point was that security that vetted them when they boarded was rubbish because they allowed Hester on with a mask and barely searched her!