Entertaining movie. Will Smith is a great actor. However I was disappointed with the story. I recommend reading All of Yesterdays Tomorrows. A better story, more believable.

I stumbled upon this conversation and found this problem very interesting, I think the most likely scenario is that the darkseekers set up the entire trap for him. The way I see it the one who came running after the girl neville captured into the sunlight showed that he still had emotion and was unique in that he still kept some human attributes and might have been able to stalk neville, and using fred copy neville’s trap. The reasons I see for this is neville went ballistic when he saw fred moved, so it’s unlikely that he just forgot about setting up a complex trap a day or two before, even if he he was going a little nuts. The idea it was an old trap and fred was just moved there doesn’t make since either because neville was very careful with keeping track of everything he did and on a map so he would have known there was still an unused trap. But finally the biggest reason I see for it being totally set up by darkseekers is neville puts a blanket down over all of his traps because the darkseekers would die if exposed to the light. Now if neville had set it the captured darkseeker would be useless to him because the body would already be dead. So my question is if neville set it up where is the blanket, why did he go so ballistic and have no memory of it, and why wouldn’t he have the trap written down on his map?

Yup, it’s my first time here and I was overwhelmed by the long posts. You have tons of ideas! Anyways, I would still watch it for I am a fan…

Actually, I think that the fact that he was facing the street supports my theory. Note that he used the same trick on the pier – a mannequin sitting at his desk, facing away from the land.

If Fred was facing the building, the Dark Seekers would see his face and realize it was a dummy. Since he is facing away, they may be tempted to either jump him, or come close and investigate, and thus get caught. At least that’s how I see it.

But yes, we are probably looking to much into this. :mrgreen:

Hm.. I still think the fact fred was facing the street was the giveaway, but good point nonetheless

And in conclusion, I think we’ve both spent an unhealthy amount of time on this.

The positioning doesn’t really bother me that much. For example, the trap could be set up this way:

	   ......
	............
	.##########..
	.#........#...
##########..Fred..#...	Neville
	.#........#.. 	< -- 
	.##########.
	............
	   .......

Dot's are the puddle, # is rope. The loop could be going all around Fred so that anyone approaching from front, back or sides will be captured.

But yes, it is a gaping pothole and no one knows what really happened. :P

1 doesn’t work because of the placement of fred facing the street.

2 is possible, though unlikely. 2 dummies is unecessary and confusing. It doesn’t follow cinematic logic, esp. since there was no “Fred revealed” thing at the end, when it turns out he has an evil twin or something. Fred is a generic character who’s only purpose is placement, so 2 freds wouldn’t follow. Moviewise, it would be self defeating.

3 is the most plausible, I reckon. The placement of fred was perfect too the darkseekers advantage, but the trap relied on nevvies kit and innovation.

4, possible, though less plausible. It would be a serious mental effort for the darkseekers to copy the trap, as well as having to gather the materials and set it up.

k00pa – I don’t know… lol Superpowers!

@Mackenzie – oh no – Fred is definitely real. I just don’t think it really moved it’s head when Neville was driving by. I think that head movement was a hallucination.

I guess the possible solutions are:

1. Neville moved Fred, set the trap then forgot about it
2. It’s not Fred but some other mannequin that Nevile used for the trap and forgot about. I mean, it’s possible he found another manequin in an orange jacket at the same or another store of the same chain and decided to put him there at some point in the past.
3. Neville set the trap and the Dark Seekers moved Fred to bait him
4. Dark Seekers set up the trap and moved Fred

I’m very skeptical of #4 because of what I said above. #3 is plausible but it bothers me a little bit. Personally #2 and #1 are the most appealing possibilities to me. Sadly neither one of these is perfect.

Fred was definitely moved, no doubt about it. I don’t think fred is a hallucination at all- There’s nothing too imply it apart from the lack of explanation for Freds movements. Overall, I think the darkseekers are pack hunters, like raptors. After all, we see them come in waves towards the house and clustering in a “Hive” instead of being seperate.

How you can write show much text! Long wow diary and this!