>Plus, as a hundred uninteresting thinkpieces have already
>astutely pointed out, at that point in the film, Cooper just
>wanted to go home to his kids. Why would the guy who just
>wants to go home have to try to murder the other guy who just
>wants to go home,

But you're absolutely right about this

>other than "this movie needs a scene with
>its hero fighting a villain"? There are a dozen or so
>interesting choices the film can make there, and it took the
>neatest, most familiar, and most linear plotwise choice. Which
>is disappointing.