Diksha Sundriyal
In Steven Soderbergh’s ‘Logan Lucky,’ two brothers hatch a plan to do away with their financial woes by robbing the racetrack company. In the beginning, the entire plan is laid out in front of them, but soon, new layers of it come to light, and it turns out that they haven’t been entirely honest with the rest of their team. In hindsight, this is to be expected because the brothers share a close bond and have developed a language that only the two of them can understand. One of the words in this language is “cauliflower.” While it is a vegetable to the world, to the Logan brothers, it means something entirely different. SPOILERS AHEAD
Cauliflower is Code for Logan Brothers Creating Trouble
The brotherhood of Jimmy and Clyde Logan is an important part of the movie, as in almost every turn of the story, we see how dedicated they are to each other and how blindly they trust one another. This especially rings true for Clyde, who trusts Jimmy and is ready to jump into whatever plan his brother has concocted. They have spent their childhood doing things that Jimmy came up with, and Clyde followed him. Over the years, to indicate that some mischief is about to unfold, they came up with a code word to tell the other. This word happened to be “cauliflower.”
There is bound to be a story behind why the brothers chose this particular word, but that remains a part of their backstory, which is not explored in the movie. Still, it remains a good choice because no one is expected to say this word out of the blue in general situations, so it works rather well as a code. Moreover, considering the tone of the story and how weird things simply happen (like the bear in the woods Joe Bang sends his brothers to), it only adds to the absurd realism of the story. The code word remains in line with that tone.
The word is uttered by Jimmy, who has received very bad news in a span of a day. He has been fired from his job and he has discovered that his ex is moving away with her husband and taking Sadie, his daughter, with her. After an altercation at the bar where Clyde blows up the car of the other guy, Jimmy shouts “cauliflower” before walking away. Clyde is surprised to hear the word because it hasn’t been said in a very long time. In fact, the last time it was said, things went down badly for Clyde, who ended up doing a short stint in prison.
While it might have originated as a code word for mischief in their childhood, it is not something to play around with anymore. It has gained more weight, especially after what happened the last time (which, again, is not discussed in detail), so saying it means that the sayer has put a lot of thought into it and didn’t shout it on a whim. This is why Clyde decides to give Jimmy a chance to explain himself and tell him what he is up to. Sure enough, Jimmy reveals a plan to loot the racetrack company, but it isn’t just an idea that he wants to snowball with Clyde. Rather, he thought a lot about it, and it must have been in his mind for a long time. It is only now that he has felt that the timing is right for them to go forward with it.
Read More: Logan Lucky Ending Explained: Why is the FBI Agent at the Bar?
