Questions re: Thomas (Abby's "Father")

[Lee Kyle]

Is Thomas on or off the grid? He drives a UHaul at the beginning. To rent such a vehicle doesn't he need a driver's license and a credit card? Same with renting an apartment.

Also the beginning shows Thomas and Abby arriving in the UHaul, implying that they have no other vehicle. Yet later Thomas is searching for his (car?) keys as he goes to dispose of the jogger. So does he have a car?

Does the police sketch of Thomas imply that he has "messed up" in previous location(s)? Witnesses have given good enough decriptions so that the police have an accurate drawing of him, a drawing they have easily connected with the events in Los Alamos. Yet they have no name for him, which seems strange if he does have a driver's license, etc.

[sauvin]

Is Thomas on or off the grid? He drives a UHaul at the beginning. To rent such a vehicle doesn't he need a driver's license and a credit card? Same with renting an apartment.

Also the beginning shows Thomas and Abby arriving in the UHaul, implying that they have no other vehicle. Yet later Thomas is searching for his (car?) keys as he goes to dispose of the jogger. So does he have a car?

Does the police sketch of Thomas imply that he has "messed up" in previous location(s)? Witnesses have given good enough decriptions so that the police have an accurate drawing of him, a drawing they have easily connected with the events in Los Alamos. Yet they have no name for him, which seems strange if he does have a driver's license, etc.

In 1983, I was 25 years old living in Illinois a couple hours' drive south of Chicago. My driver's license was a little rectangle of paperboard scarcely thicker or larger than a business card, not even laminated. Folks who wanted to have their licenses for more than a few months needed to find private resources for laminating them. There was no photo ID at the time, not in Illinois.

I think my very first photo ID was, in fact, when I had moved to the East Coast in... what? 1990?

Point is, it was easier to live "off the grid" at the time because the grid couldn't even really be said to have existed by modern standards. Such licenses and other documentation was probably very easily forged, and in the case of such things as licenses, only a cop who actually tried to run the driver's license through the system could tell for sure the document was bogus.

[DarkGuyver]

In 1983, I was 25 years old living in Illinois a couple hours' drive south of Chicago. My driver's license was a little rectangle of paperboard scarcely thicker or larger than a business card, not even laminated. Folks who wanted to have their licenses for more than a few months needed to find private resources for laminating them. There was no photo ID at the time, not in Illinois.

I think my very first photo ID was, in fact, when I had moved to the East Coast in... what? 1990?

Point is, it was easier to live "off the grid" at the time because the grid couldn't even really be said to have existed by modern standards. Such licenses and other documentation was probably very easily forged, and in the case of such things as licenses, only a cop who actually tried to run the driver's license through the system could tell for sure the document was bogus.

Yeah, that is true of most places at the time this movie was set. Remember most Government registry departments didn't even have computers back then.

[gymmy64]

Point is, it was easier to live "off the grid" at the time because the grid couldn't even really be said to have existed by modern standards. Such licenses and other documentation was probably very easily forged, and in the case of such things as licenses, only a cop who actually tried to run the driver's license through the system could tell for sure the document was bogus.

I seem to remember a shot showing a pile of wallets and IDs. It wouldn't surprise me if Thomas had been proficient at forgery and perhaps even credit card fraud.

[sauvin]

Point is, it was easier to live "off the grid" at the time because the grid couldn't even really be said to have existed by modern standards. Such licenses and other documentation was probably very easily forged, and in the case of such things as licenses, only a cop who actually tried to run the driver's license through the system could tell for sure the document was bogus.

I seem to remember a shot showing a pile of wallets and IDs. It wouldn't surprise me if Thomas had been proficient at forgery and perhaps even credit card fraud.

Not to mention he just used the licenses and credit cards he got from his victims, I'll bet.

[DavidZahir]

Pay in cash, have an ID, look like an adult, don't have any WANTED posters of you in eyeshot. Don't need much more in 1983. Many IDs then didn't have photos. Those that did were easily faked. I had a school ID in NYC a few years later. They re-used my photo from one year to the other. Cut open the laminating, pulled off the photo and pasted onto the next year's ID. Then laminated it.

"Off the grid" really didn't mean much in 1983. We're used to thinking of a world where computers are commonplace, the internet pervasive, with government records networked together, and credit checks available at the push of a few buttons or the sliding of a card. None of this was true in 1983. Cable TV was pretty new at that point, with maybe a couple of dozen extra channels as a result (including PBS stations). If you saw a computer in those days, odds were its memory was under 10mgs. What internet existed was dial-up. People played records or cassette tapes, not CDs. The Cold War was still going on, and I'm not sure anyone can easily explain what that meant in terms of world-view.

[SPiN]

Does the police sketch of Thomas imply that he has "messed up" in previous location(s)? Witnesses have given good enough decriptions so that the police have an accurate drawing of him, a drawing they have easily connected with the events in Los Alamos. Yet they have no name for him, which seems strange if he does have a driver's license, etc.

the sketches would appear to me that Thomas has been fingered somewhere. and that it could be interstate authorites are involved...but reading a post about Thomas being "off the grid" reminded me that life in 1983 was alot different than today. he and Abby could easily move place to place without being suspected. however, no way thomas could be perfect everynight when he went out...just stepping on that thin patch of ice causing him to drop the gallon of blood was excruciating...all that work...gone.

we need a prequel.
like really bad.

the fanfics are good...read one about how Thomas meets up with Abby.
it was GREAT.

in a way its "cool" not knowing this kind of info, but the story is so good, it makes me go crazy not knowing.

[varamiglite]

This is where Let Me In kinda fails because there is nothing explaining any of their backgrounds and Thomas is a very understated character. Nothing is revealed about him until the end when it's revealed that he also was a childhood friend of Abby's. In agreement with other posts I guess an explanation of "how" they lived in secrecy didn't matter because it was not nearly as difficult as it would be nowadays. If LMI were set in more modern times their on or off the grid lifestyle would almost have to be discussed but in 83 it is easily dismissed.

I would enjoy a prequel as well but it simply cannot be unless a lookalike actress plays Abby, since Abby is eternally stuck at 12 and Chloe Moretz is almost 15 and can no longer pass for that young believably. Without Abby the story can't exist, well it could but it wouldn't be as good. So anything not included included in the film or easily implied will have to be left to interpretation or possibly in a book solely based on LMI. A sort of prequel does exist in the form of a comic book but it provides no insight to what goes on in the film. It is a story all its own that just includes Abby and Thomas as characters. The happening in Los Alamos don't exist in the comic, to my understanding anyways, I have yet to read it.