FAQ

In case any of the crew's hair fibers fell out in the getaway car. By tossing a bag of hair from potentially dozens of people it contaminates the crime scene, making it nearly impossible to find a hair follicle from one of the crew. And if by some miracle one of their hairs was found, they could simply say they frequent the barbershop where it was taken from.

After robbing the Merchants Bank in Cambridge, Massachusetts, four thieves—Doug MacRay (Ben Affleck), James "Jem" Coughlin (Jeremy Renner), Albert "Gloansy" Magloan (George Carroll), and Desmond "Dez" Elden (Owen Burke)—blindfold and kidnap assistant manager Claire Keesey (Rebecca Hall), holding her hostage until they can release her on the beach and head back to Charlestown (north of Boston), the town they call home. When they later learn that Claire also lives in Charlestown, Doug decides to befriend her in order to determine what, if anything, she told the FBI about them. As Claire and Doug get to know each other, they fall in love. Doug begins to dream about running away to Florida with Claire. However, wanting out of Charlestown isn't the same as getting out.

The Town is based on the 2004 novel Prince of Thieves: A Novel by American author Chuck Hogan. The novel was adapted for the movie by director and actor Ben Affleck.

After Jem hit the assistant bank manager in the head with his rifle, blood pours from the man's head. However, it's later revealed that he's in critical condition in the hospital. The severity of the head injury aside, even a small cut or laceration to the scalp bleeds quite a lot anyway, so a lot of the time scalp lacerations look worse than they are.

It can be confusing because the robbers all wear identical looking rubber masks with nun's veils, but you can identify them based on where they are when they don their masks. (1) Gloansy drives the minivan and, once the gang changes to the Jeep (their first switch car), he continues to function as the driver. (2) Doug is on the left side of the backseat. During the robbery, he is the one watching the street for police and the one who briefly gets taken hostage by the overconfident driver. (3) Coughlin begins on the right hand side of the backseat. He raids the truck, packs the money, and shoots the guard holding Doug hostage. He is also the first one to shoot at the police during the resulting car chase. (4) Dez is driving the Jeep Cherokee to the switch point.

It's unclear. Certainly everyone in the neighborhood thinks that Doug is Shyne's father. In the conversation between Doug and Jem, however, he denies that he's the father. It's clear from the film that Doug's biggest desire is to get away from Charlestown and the life of crime. He clearly doesn't love Jem's sister Krista (Blake Lively) and sees her as someone trying to tie him to his old life.

Screenplay Explorer here.

According to Affleck and the producers, it was not easy to cut the movie since the plot is very complex: they had to balance out all the different elements—action scenes, the relationships between the characters, the depiction of the residents of Charlestown, the investigatory work, and (especially) the love story of Doug and Claire. The love story is very important since it is the reason for Doug to leave his former life behind; also, it offers an inside view on victims of bank robberies (and not just the bank robbers or the police officers). The problem—which is not at all Affleck's (neither as a director nor as an actor), Rebecca Hall's or the plot's fault—is that there have been too many love stories already. Since the love story is the part of the plot that was shortened the most for the theatrical version, most of the additional scenes from the extended cut develop Doug's and Claire's relationship a little further. It's important that Claire talks to Doug about the bank robbers from Charlestown, or about her injured colleague. It is also important that the two gangsters (who were badly injured by Doug) get a chance to speak. However, these are the scenes that slow the movie down a little bit. Nonetheless several other scene extensions and additional footage can be found throughout the entire movie. Both the theatrical version and extended cut are available on the Blu-ray release whereas the DVD release only features the theatrical version.