The movie is set within a short space of time (almost real time) in which we see Four of the Six active members of a jewelry heist gone wrong dealing with the repercussions of their crimes. Amongst them is Mr. Orange, or, Undercover Cop Freddy Newendyke, as he’s revealed to be toward the end of the movie. He is the Undercover Cop, The Rat that everyone is talking about. Orange single handedly destroys their operation and essentially Joe Cabot’s criminals-for-hire business seeing as he died by gunshot in the end. However the operation costed Orange his life, or presumably so. That’s something I’ll get to later.
The characters are initially what drew me to the film, particularly Mr. Orange (Tim Roth) and Mr. White (Harvey Keitel) and their relationship. White is something of a Big Brother Mentor to Orange, as Orange is brought into Joe’s operation under the guise of being new and kind of inexperienced as a consulting criminal and Freddy naturally gravitates toward him, as is shown through various cutscenes of Orange and White having normal conversations with each other outside the Heist. Their relationship dynamic is shown further after Orange has been tagged and White is comforting him both in the Getaway Vehicle and the Warehouse. Their dynamics are reinforced throughout the ending of the film as White tries to convince Joe that Orange is NOT the rat. (at that point, he had full faith in Orange not being the rat. White trusted him deeply.) However upon Orange’s betrayal White presumably shoots him in the face before subsequently being shot to death by the police, telling us that he doesn’t value people exploiting him. I mean, who values that right?
Freddy in particular is rather well written, we get a sense of his true personality as we explore his background in the cutscenes. We know he’s a nerd from his multiple references particularly to the Fantastic Four in the Marvel universe (and this was before all the big-budgeted-Joss-Whedon-written-and-directed movies were made so he’s really gotta be a nerd) and his selfish, self-preserving nature is illustrated when he shoots the woman who shot him reflexively when he and White broke into her car, when he (understandably though) lashes out at the cop who has just been brutally tortured, and when he demands to be taken to the hospital by White even though he knows it’ll bust the whole operation wide open. However he is empathetic, as he shows remorse for his shooting and killing the woman, and is very obviously affected (he is stumbling, and White has to hold him up) after White shoots and kills two cops in a car. This suggests he has a shoot first ask...
