Vertigo Scene 18 Summary

  • We're in a courtroom where a coroner explains to a jury the events that we've just witnessed.
  • Scottie's face is blank throughout the official's speech, which includes multiple jabs at his character and "weakness," and references to the fact that "once before, under similar circumstances," Scottie had "allowed a colleague to fall to his death."
  • After deliberating very briefly, the jury reaches its verdict: Madeleine's death was a suicide.
  • Scottie still looks stunned and doesn't speak.
  • Elster approaches him to say there are no hard feelings, that there was nothing Scottie could have done to prevent Madeleine's death.
  • "You and I know who killed Madeleine," Elster says, referring to Carlotta Valdes. Scottie still doesn't answer.