North by Northwest Scene 23 Summary

  • It turns out Thornhill was playing dead after all, but not in the way Vandamm had in mind back in the auction house: he was really play-acting, pretending to be "critically wounded."
  • He's still alive, emerging from the back of an ambulance parked in the woods near Mount Rushmore.
  • Eve shows up in another car. She apologizes for the way she treated Thornhill.
  • "No need," he replies, "I understand. All in the line of duty."
  • Eve tells the story of how she met Vandamm, fell "for his charm," then ended up getting recruited by the Professor to be an agent. Before they approached her, she said, no one had "ever asked [her] to do anything worthwhile."
  • She says her life's been a mess up until now because of men like Thornhill, which leads to more romantic banter.
  • It's hard to leave, Eve says, but she has to convince Vandamm that she's just taken the long way getting back to his place.
  • Thornhill begs her to stay and says he'll see her soon.
  • But the Professor explains then that she's going with Vandamm tonight on the plane in an effort to infiltrate his network and find out more secrets.
  • There are tears in Eve's eyes, and Thornhill's shocked.
  • Thornhill doesn't like the Professor's idea one bit, but the Professor, channeling General William Tecumseh Sherman, says, "war is hell."
  • "If you fellas can't lick the Vandamms without asking girls like her to bed down with them and fly away with them and probably never come back alive, maybe you better start learning to lose a few cold wars," Thornhill yells.
  • "I'm afraid we're already doing that," the Prof replies.
  • Tearfully, Eve rushes away, back into the clutches of Vandamm.