You may have located some textual indeterminacy in _Sneakers_ and, if so, that is very post-structuralist of you. Bravo! On the other hand, the interplay between the Mafia/socialism/capitalism could just be a production blunder which is fairly common during the many rewrites that the usual script undergoes. However, I suspect the "evil" Cosmos hellbent on destroying capitalism is a farily common Hollywood filmmaking ploy. Characters in mainstream American films who attempt to instigate some kind of socio-economic change, how ever well-intentioned in the beginning, are eventually delimted to being wackos. Consider the many beatnik or hippy depictions from the '50's and '60's or isn't there a recent film with Michael Douglas who is at first depicted as downtrodden American attempting to rectify societal wrongs, and who, in the end, appears as just another nutcase? The name of the film escapes me. Patrick [log in to unmask] "The true name of the game is power to define and hence control people's perceptions of reality." --Philip K. Dick