the end of this movie stink . it be the equivalent of tell a child a very suspenseful tale of a prince and a dragon . you build up skillfully to a climactic battle and and a the prince be raise his sword and you say and but the dragon suddenly have a brain aneurysm and die and leave the prince look like a fool who live unhappily ever after . hey . sht happen and you know . before the sneer and muttering of philistine begin and let me say that i know what the screenwriter and the director be go for greek tragedy represent a good man and a hero be bring to ruin by a fatal flaw in his character . the problem be that here and a in all storytelling and a tragic end must also be a satisfy one for the audience . no matter how sad the hero fall or demise and no matter what plot twist occur and one have to be able to say and well and that tragic and but it have to happen . it be inevitable . it a storytelling tightrope and from which the screenwriter and director fell from great height and crash and burn . in try to throw a curve and they throw a spitball while they cheat . a deus ex machina ( machine of the god ) be a phony dramatic contrivance where the god step in at the end of a story and make everything right again . the hero be off the hook . what happen to the serial killer here be bad than a deus ex machina . he be kill by coincidence . that just cheating . i would like to suggest what would have be a truly tragic end . make jerry black a lonely man . one whose two fail marriage have leave him without hope of have a family . then he meet lori and chrissy . his unexpected love for them grow to almost the size of his obsession with catch the killer . give him a true choice between love and obsession and let him pick the wrong one . then let him catch the goddamned killer . and after he do and this hero and have fulfil his task and turn for love and adoration to lori and who let him have the same speech she do now and whisk herself and her daughter out of his life . black then fully realize what his heroic choice have cost him and and end up lonely and embitter and perhaps mad . that would have be a satisfy end and because the way thing play now and here what the audience be think and he deserve to catch the killer . he do not deserve to have this family after endanger chrissy so horribly . the end of the pledge be badly and terribly wrong and a it trash what up until then be one of the fine suspense film i have ever see and one of jack nicholson great performance .