I don't understand how the pack interacts with height – he's not carrying it on his head...? Backpacks increase your horizontal measurements, not vertical, unless you're doing some serious cross-country backpacking, and then it's still only a few inches above your head.

I guess my impression of the scene with Bell talking up the two of them made it sound like it was all about the land deal and getting Ellis hooked up with investors, and then all of a sudden he turns around and is like 'Jack will be the belle of the ball!' It just seems like a non sequitur, in a way ... the seeds weren't sufficiently planted, maybe? Bell himself doesn't seem interested in engineering nearly as much as the land speculation.