Reykjavík Bar Shootout and Escape

The Reykjavík Bar Shootout and Escape is the point at which a covert attempt to seize Kristín and Steve erupts into a witnessed street pursuit. Cornered in a crowded pub, Kristín turns the captors’ need for discretion against them: a deliberately provoked fight gives her a route through the kitchen, and a roadworks sign becomes the tool that frees Steve from a locked car. Their escape succeeds, but Bateman fires after them, making the operation’s violence visible to bystanders and Icelandic police.

The Trap in the Pub

Monica has just explained that the people pursuing them know who makes calls to and from the embassy. Steve understands the implication before Kristín does. He rises, pulls at her, and asks Monica whether she has betrayed them or led them into a trap. The danger becomes immediate when Ripley enters in a padded white ski suit and Bateman appears on the stairs dressed similarly. Their clothes make them look like tourists rather than the religious salesmen they had seemed to be before. Kristín and Steve are seated in a back corner, at a place Monica chose, with no apparent way out.

Monica says that the pursuers threatened her boys. Ripley pushes Kristín back into her seat, while Bateman indicates that Steve should sit down. Ripley makes clear that both men are armed and threaten to shoot if the pair attempt anything. The threat is not abstract: the captors control the table, the exits they can see, and the two people they have come to take. Bateman gets Steve to his feet and steers him toward the door without roughness, evidently trying not to attract attention. Ripley orders Kristín to follow. The fishermen and other customers appear not to grasp what is happening, leaving the captives exposed in a public place but, for the moment, without help.

Kristín Turns the Room

As Ripley leads her past the bar, a trawlerman inadvertently blocks her way. Kristín has noticed him watching her earlier, and now uses his attention to create a confrontation. She tells him in Icelandic that Ripley called him a slur, then repeats and escalates the accusation loudly enough to draw the fishermen’s attention. Ripley tries to pull her away and warns that Steve will be shot if anything goes wrong. Kristín keeps shouting. Ripley has a revolver in his hand, but the fisherman punches him before he can use it. The fishermen surround Ripley and beat him; their sudden intervention reverses the balance of power, though it does not yet free Steve.

Kristín edges out of the crowd and spots Steve in the back of the white Ford Explorer outside, with Bateman behind the wheel. She vaults over the bar and runs through the kitchen into a small backyard, then follows a narrow alley to the street. The Explorer has not moved. She sees Bateman gesturing and shouting at Steve before he gets out and runs back into the pub to help Ripley. Kristín tries the car’s rear door and finds it locked. Steve bangs on the window: he is locked inside too.

The Escape Under Fire

With Bateman away from the vehicle, Kristín searches for a way to break the lock from outside. She sees a small warning sign erected for nearby roadworks, drags it to the Explorer, and hurls it against Steve’s window. The glass breaks, the alarm sounds, and Ripley turns toward the noise. As Bateman supports him outside, Steve squeezes through the broken window, tearing his jacket on the jagged edges. Kristín runs ahead, shouting for him to follow to their own car; she does not look back, but hears him close behind.

Bateman spots them getting into a Pajero parked in front of a florist. Kristín starts the engine and stamps on the accelerator, reverses out with the wheels spinning, and crosses the street. Bateman fires as he runs after them. Two small holes appear in the windscreen, one just to the right of Kristín’s head and another below it. The Pajero clips an approaching car and spins about forty-five degrees before Kristín shifts into drive and accelerates away. More shots strike the chassis. She ducks; Steve lies in the passenger-side footwell, staring up in anguish. Bateman pursues them around the corner but gives up, dwindling in the rearview mirror until he disappears. The escape turns an abduction into a shooting witnessed in the street, and leaves the pair fleeing in a car damaged by gunfire.

Police at the Scene

By 1800 GMT on Saturday 30 January, the pub is cordoned off with police tape, floodlit inside and out, and surrounded by police cars. Curious bystanders gather across the street as reporters and photographers circle the building. Snow falls onto the floodlights and melts. The two detectives who had inspected Kristín’s flat the previous evening are now at the bar, trying to reconcile the scene with the witness accounts. One compares the disorder to a spaghetti western; the other confirms that witnesses place Kristín there.

Their account underscores how much remains uncertain. They describe at least four people with Kristín: three men and one woman. The fishermen say the man lying on the steps, beaten badly by the sailors, was American; the other woman has disappeared. A second man, also said to be American, ran down Tryggvagata firing at Kristín and another man. Kristín and her companion escaped in a jeep. The injured man on the steps has no identification, while the Explorer outside carries plates registered to the United States Defense Force at Keflavík. Ripley and one fisherman have been admitted to hospital. The detectives cannot explain the confrontation and look to the embassy for answers, but the older detective’s sarcastic response makes clear that official contact offers no immediate certainty. The escape saves Kristín and Steve from capture, yet the public evidence left behind makes the encounter impossible to treat as a quiet disappearance.