Here’s a Secret Agent Decoder Ring for The Limits of Control

Here is a secret agent decoder ring for The Limits of Control (2009), directed by Jim Jarmusch.  Clearly, this is a dirty and thankless job.

You see, a review of metacritc.com, regular critics, and regular folks, alike, on IMDb, gives the distinct impression that no one understood what they were looking at in The Limits of Control which is somewhat understandable considering the title, in the closing credits, changes over to No Limits No Control.

A modest suggestion would be to watch the whole film before trying to figure it out.  Many of the commentators I saw apparently gave-up in the middle or even two-thirds of the way through.  About an hour in I, myself, was looking at my watch.

The great thing is that, in the last third or quarter, The Limits of Control picks-up quite a bit of steam.

A second modest suggestion is to watch the film backwards.  That could even be called Control Limits No, No.

Is this going in circles yet?

Here’s to understanding this film.  Thus, a secret agent decoder ring.

Too bad there were no Cracker Jacks at the theater.  Well, actually, comparatively few saw this in the theater.

Spoilers are herein, so fair warning.  Now eat that warning before getting caught with it.

Many of the reviews I saw state that The Limits of Control is about a man, a mysterious criminal, on a mysterious criminal mission.

Well, yes and no.  Someone somewhere, probably at the official or unofficial soverign, outlaw regime, or terrorist organization level, so to speak, has sanctioned this man’s mission.

The lead is known in the credits as The Lone Man.  He is really nobodies’ man and he is about as anti-hero as it gets.

He looks like he has just changed into a very nice suit.  He gets his instructions from a Spanish speaking man of African descent in Madrid, Spain.  They are translated by a European-type into English.  The Lone Man is always asked by those he meets at his cryptic meetings, “You don’t speak Spanish, right?”  He always answers, “No.”

“You don’t speak Spanish, right?”

“No.”

This becomes, throughout, something along the lines of:

“Have you heard about the weather in Vienna?”

“Yes, it is raining.”

Additionally, every time he meets a new person on his journey, they exchange red and blue matchboxes.  He is not meeting these people at random.  It is designed.

The matchbox he receives has coded instructions in it about the size of a small gum wrapper.  They are tasty too because every time he gets one he promptly eats it.

Presumably, the other person gets something in their matchbox of value or at least for proof that the meeting was had.  However, this is not certain.

One of the first people he meets does get something in her matchbox in exchange:  Diamonds.  Some information or actions have a high price.  Plus, she’s hot.  And diamonds are a girl’s best friend.  They make the trade.  She wears a trench coat, eyeglasses, and not much else other than an alluring attitude.  Here we have the classic Honey Pot.  She keeps popping up here and there and may be following The Lone Man all the way up to the end of the film when she wakes up dead.  She is known as The Nude Woman.  She is likely a double agent or, as he is told, a “criss-cross.”  This is very dangerous business for The Lone Man.

Did I mention her trench coat is a see-thru, clear, plastic?

Tempted, The Lone Man is disciplined.  He is on the job, he says.  He is on a mission.

There are a number of other encounters.  Always with the cryptic exchange.

The Lone Man meets another lady in a trench coat.  She is The Blonde.  Very stylish.  As if she came right out a movie.

She is confused as to whether she has seen things in dreams or movies.

Later on, The Lone Man sees her picture in a movie poster outside a theater and she is dressed exactly the same.

He also observers her being abducted or arrested, possibly by the same U.S. government-looking heavies he saw earlier at the airport.

Is this episode a warning or is he paranoid?  Paranoia would be excusable because people may be out to get him and he runs the risk of being compromised by someone with divided loyalties.

Hovering helicopters herald danger.

Some Spanish children notice our well-dressed man and run after him asking if he is an American Gangster.  For the first time, The Lone Man loses his well-honed cool a bit.  They noticed he was not from around there.

Later on, at one of the cryptic meetings he acquires a rare guitar.  This meeting is in Seville.  We are made well-aware of the Moorish architecture and tile designs everywhere.

The hot breath of North Africa, and the Sahara desert, is now upon The Lone Man.

Rare guitar in tow, he travels a great distance by train.  We are not sure exactly where he goes.  It could all be in Spain or it could be somewhere further east or south.  It is hard to tell.  The train passes some Middle East-looking sculpture.  However, it ends up in a town with a Spanish name which is in southern Spain.  Wherever he went is kept deliberately oblique, but the mind runs wild.

Peace Sign Guitar Button

The Mexican arrives with a lady who is driving four-wheel-drive vehicle.  The Mexican wants the rare guitar badly and The Lone Man is recalcitrant.  He needs to get what he came for:  The matchbox.  This thing is coming to a head.  He is also worried.  He has seen a clear plastic trench coat hanging in a foyer.  He gets something is his daily order of two espressos.  Is it a poison pill?  Is it a diamond?  Is it a tooth?  A sugar cube?  It is hard to know.  He must step very carefully now.

The Lone Man leaves with the lady.  She is The Driver.  They go bounding-off over rugged roads.  When she drops him off, she speaks to him in Arabic.  He understands.

The Lone Man is on his own now.  He hikes through some very arid terrain.  He comes upon a highly-fortified compound.  Helicopters, black vehicles, armed guards.  Important big-wigs arrive.  He leaves.

He comes back under the cover of night and somehow slips in to the lighted, guarded, and fortified compound.  He lies in wait.

There, he chokes to death an obvious American Intel Boss with a guitar string.  But not before hearing an Ugly American-type, pro-Colonial lecture.

The Driver picks him up at the rendezvous point.

Throughout the film, there are allusions to other films with cryptic Spanish titles.  Furthermore, paintings foreshadow The Lone Man’s travels.  At last, a painting is shrouded.  The mission is over, but, also, the future is unknown.

Back in Madrid, The Lone Man changes out of his swanky suit and into a African-themed track suit top, some pants and running shoes.

The Lone Man disappears anonymously into the hustle and bustle on the streets of Madrid.

There is more to it than that, but does this help with an understanding of The Limits of Control?

Send me a secret coded-message with your highly-classified answer.

Ladies in see-thru, plastic, trench coats shall respond in-person.

Well, someone has to do this.

It’s a dirty and thankless job.