Great movie that's always mentioned in this forum. But one thing keeps nagging me.

Spacey goes home for the night and locks up the office (he has that conversation with Lemmon about locking up for the night). Later, Pachino makes his sale to Pryce's character. It think it's also stated that he meets Pryce's wife and they both sign the deal (and the wife wises up next morning), so it's getting pretty late in the night.

Spacey says to Lemmon "Usually I take the contracts to the bank. Last night I didn’t. Last night I stayed home with my kids. How did you know that? One night in a year I left the contract on my desk. "

But if Spacey went home before Pachino dropped it off, how did it get onto his desk? Even if Pachino had a key to the main office, he wouldn't have had a key to Spacey's office. I read somewhere that the movie implies that Spacey normally picks up the contract late at night and drops them off, but that still doesn't seem to make everything fit.

I'm sure Mamet wouldn't have made a mistake. I just need an explanation...

Thanks!

Spacey probably left the contract on the desk before he locked up the office.

And it's spelled Pacino by the way.

But Spacey has left and locked up the office long before Pacino finishes the sale.

Spacey was talking about Lemmon's contract having not been stolen... the leads were stolen. I think... been awhile.

The leads were stolen, but Spacey had lied to Pacino and his client, Pryce, and had told them both that Pryce's contract was taken downtown already and Pryce's check was cashed, thereby ruining the lies that Pacino was telling Pryce's character.

Lemmon then berates Spacey, telling him that he shouldn't lie unless he knew what was going on. Spacey then figures out that Lemmon broke in, because only the person who broke into his office would know that the contract was actually on his desk all night.

My question is: there was no way Pryce's contract could have made it to Spacey's office the night before, as Spacey had went home and locked up before it was signed. Yet, all the dialogue the next morning after the break-in only makes sense if the contract was on Spacey's desk over-night while Lemmon was breaking in. What's going on?

I see what you're saying, but I don't remember the dialogue enough.

I think you might have found a loophole.... But oh well, it is still an awesome movie.

Pryce's contract was not in Spacey's office. Pacino is spinning a web of lies to try to get Pryce to calm down, and Spacey starts lying thinking it's what Pacino wants him to say. Where Pryce's contract is is irrelevant, since Pacino never intended to "give it back", but hoped to somehow talk Pryce into going through with it.

I think it's fairly important where the contract is because that's how Spacey figures out that Lemmon broke in. There's not a whole lot of plot in the movie, so this bit of continuity bugs me because I can't figure it out, but it doesn't detract from this great movie.

I believe the continuity is this:

1. Spacey locks up the office and goes home.
2. Pacino closes the contract.
3. Lemmon breaks into Spacey's office.
4. Lemmon sees the contract on Spacey's desk.

So does Pacino have a key to Spacey's office? Doesn't Spacey find it unusual to see a contract on his desk that wasn't there when he left the night before? Basically, how does the contract get onto Spacey's desk that night?

BTW, http://www.uggr.com/ has the complete summary and dialogue from the movie.

I just saw this for the first time last week, and I can't explain this. I was actually confused while watching. I didn't even realize that Pacino was making his sale that night, because of the way he was acting like it had already been done.

It's not Pacino putting it on the desk either though, because when he's confronting Lemmon, Spacey knew about the contract and knew he left it on his desk.

If I remember correctly Kevin Spacey tells Jack Lemmon that he has to go home so he can spend an hour with his kids and than come back to see if anybody has closed any contracts that he needs to take to the bank. I always assumed that Kevin Spacey's character came back to the office, saw Pacino's contract but instead of taking it to the bank like he normally would he decided to just go back home and spend the rest of the evening with his kids.

Ding ding ding!!! We have a winner.

that sounds reasonable

But Spacey went back to the office SPECIFICALLY to see if there were any closed contracts. Why go back at all if he didn't intend to do the job he went there for in the first place?

He probably decided spending the evening with his kids was more worthy of his time than taking just one contract to the bank.