Although the classic North By Northwest is considered one of Alfred Hitchcock’s greatest films, its most iconic scene is often criticized, despite making more sense than it seems. North By Northwest tells the thrilling story of Roger Thornhill, who runs afoul of Cold War-era spies due to a case of mistaken identity, forcing him to flee his would-be assassins and the authorities after he’s framed for a murder. North By Northwest’s crop duster sequence is widely considered one of Hitchcock’s defining moments in his storied career, but it’s nevertheless the subject of criticism due to a seeming lack of logic.
Midway through North By Northwest, Thornhill arrives at a meeting spot: a bus stop in the middle of Midwestern farmland. Thornhill soon discovers that he’d been led into a trap, as a crop duster flies over him, nearly riddling him with gunfire from one of its passengers. Thornhill causes the plan to crash during one of its strafing runs, but audiences have ridiculed Alfred Hitchcock’s famous scene for decades, pointing out that there are far simpler and more efficient ways to assassinate Thornhill. The nefarious spy Phillip Vandamm could have orchestrated a drive-by shooting or had his assassins meet Thornhill at the bus stop and kill him then and there.
Alfred Hitchcock famously hand waved these criticisms by saying that viewers would forgive such an illogical assassination attempt due to the excitement of the scene, which has proven to be correct, for the most part. The iconic scene is not entirely illogical, however, as the crop duster prevents Thornhill from hiding in the cornfields, something that would complicate a simple assassination method. Moreover, Vandamm’s bombastic approach to killing Thornhill could plausibly be due to him overthinking his opponent following multiple failed assassination attempts in Alfred Hitchcock’s movie.
Thornhill hides in the cornfields after just barely surviving several of the crop duster’s strafing runs. While the plane smokes him out of cover, this wouldn’t have been so easily mitigated if Thornhill’s assassins tried attacking him on foot or shooting at him from a car. The crop duster flew overhead, making Thornhill’s options for hiding places extremely limited, where he could have easily lost his pursuers by hiding in the cornfields if they used a simpler approach.
As far as Vandamm is concerned, Thornhill is “George Kaplan,” a dangerous and well-trained US government agent who’s been a persistent thorn in his side for some time. Thornhill already survived two assassination attempts, so Vandamm’s response could have abandoned any semblance of subtlety for the sake of finally killing his supposed enemy. The logic behind Alfred Hitchcock’s famous movie scene isn’t watertight, but it actually makes sense within the context of North By Northwest’s narrative.
