Continuity mistake: When Mc Murphy is strangling the nurse at the end, from above his hat is lying on the floor, but when you see the shot from her angle, he is wearing it again. (01:56:55)
One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest (1975)
Ending / spoiler
Directed by: Milos Forman
Starring: Jack Nicholson, Louise Fletcher, Michael Berryman, Peter Brocco, William Redfield
Genres: Drama
After bringing Candy and one of her friends in for a late night party on the ward. Randle Patrick McMurphy plans to escape. However at the last second Billy Bibbit begs McMurphy for a date with Candy. McMurphy makes Candy sleep with Billy. While their waiting, all of the patients fall asleep and when they wake up Nurse Ratched and the black boys have discovered the mess and are going to punish everyone. Nurse Ratched finds Billy and Candy asleep in a closet and threatens Billy that he will tell his mother. Billy commits suicide by slitting his throat. McMurphy ignores his last chance to escape via an open window and attacks Nurse Ratched. He chokes her within inches of her life before she is taken away. The movie shifts to a few days later. Nurse Ratched is in a neck brace and can barely talk. This means that the patients can't be intimidated by her comments. Later that night, Chief Bromden sees Randle Patrick McMurphy being wheeled into the Ward. Knowing this is his chance to escape the Asylum like McMurphy always promised, he sneaks over to McMurphys cot and tells him hes ready to leave. Bromden notices McMurphy has a vacant stare on his face and suddenly realizes that McMurphy has been lobotomized. He gives him a long hug before stating "I'm not going to let you live like this." and smothering him to death with a pillow.Chief then heads into the tub room, picks up the Hydro-Therapy sink (he was the only one in the Ward big and strong enough to pick it up) and throws it through a window. He climbs out and runs into the night as the patients cheer for him. Chief Bromdens escape is related in the title because "one flew over the Cuckoos Nest"
More mistakes in One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest
McMurphy: What do you think you are, for Chrissake, crazy or somethin'? Well you're not! You're not! You're no crazier than the average asshole out walkin' around on the streets, and that's it.
Trivia: In the scene where Doctor Spivey is interviewing McMurphy, this whole scene is improvised. Spivey (Dr. Dean Brooks) is the ACTUAL doctor of the institute in real life, and was simply told to interview Jack Nicholson (McMurphy) as if he was a real patient. Nicholson had to improvise and get from the beginning of the scene to the end.
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Answer: It's better explained in the novel, where the Chief is the narrator. Essentially, he played deaf and dumb, so he'd be left alone by the Nurse and the staff; seeing what they did to the other patients, he figured the less he was noticed, the better. In this way, he is privy to a lot of the seedier goings-on, since they don't think he can hear what they're saying or tell anyone what he's seen.