‘The French Connection’ ending explained: What happened to Popeye?
The French Connection ranks among the greatest neo-noir movies on the theme of drug trafficking, if not at the very top. It’s also the film that put director William Friedkin on the map with its enormous success at the box office, as well as being arguably his first true cinematic masterpiece.
Gene Hackman stars in his first major leading role as the movie’s hero, Jimmy ‘Popeye’ Doyle, who is based on a real detective. He’s aiming to bust heroin smuggler Alain Charnier and his gang while they attempt to traffic the drug into New York. Popeye and his colleague Cloudy become aware of Charnier’s activity when they notice local mobster Sal Boca liaising with dealer Joel Weinstock at the Copacabana Club in Manhattan.
After narrowly avoiding assassination at the hands of Charnier’s hitman, Popeye and his team manage to capture the drugs. They’ve been hidden in the car of French TV star Henri Devereaux since he told Charnier he was planning to ship it to the United States.
All that remains is for the detectives to catch Charnier himself and his gang of smugglers. They set a trap by returning a lookalike car to Devereaux and prepare a roadblock for the route Charnier will take for the drugs delivery.
Once the police make clear to him that he’s “surrounded”, Charnier flees the car and runs into a derelict factory. Popeye pursues him into the building, treading carefully so as not to alert Charnier to his presence. Here, we see Friedkin’s mastery of suspense come to the fore, as shaky, first-person shots with a handheld camera from Popeye’s perspective heighten our sense of anticipation and fear for what’s about to happen.
We see a shadow loom behind him at one point before someone shouts, and Popeye swivels around with his gun cocked until Cloudy identifies himself. He then tells his colleague, “Frog One is in that room,” using the code name the police have for Charnier. A door opens, and Popeye shouts and fires his weapon.
It turns out that it’s not Charnier who’s shot and killed, but FBI Agent Bill Mulderig, who was working with him on the case. “You shot Mulderig,” Cloudy says in desperation. “The son of a bitch is here, I saw him,” Popeye replies, indifferent to what he’s just done. “I’m gonna get him.”
We see Popeye run into the darkness at the other end of the factory and disappear. A single shot is fired and the screen goes black. At that point, we’ve no idea whether Popeye got his man, or Charnier managed to get him first.
But before the credit roll, title cards suggest that neither happened. Charnier was never caught. And because they failed in their assignment with an FBI agent their main casualty, Popeye and Cloudy were removed from the narcotics division of the NYPD.
A complete turn-up for the books, given the Schrodinger’s gunshot we were left with moments before and the ending we were led to expect by the preceding chase scene. This is a stunning confirmation of Friedkin’s ability to surprise and shock his audiences.
