MovieChat Forums > Ido zero daisakusen (1969) Discussion > Okay, somebody *PLEASE* explain this end...

Okay, somebody PLEASE explain this ending!

posted 16 years ago by andrsbckly
5 replies | jump to latest

Guys, I have watched fellini, jarmusche, and I even almost understand ERASERHEAD, for lord's sake...but the ending of this movie, SHHHEEEEEEESH!
I can almost take an 'underwater' city (which is clearly Glendale or a reasonable facsimile thereof), flying submarines (or is it a submersible aircraft??), I can take ceasar romero in a movie as a ruthless underworld leader without green hair, heck, I can even take that kooky Flyin' LION with the lady sub-captain's BRAIN in it (admit it, it looked EXACTLY like the king of the island of misfit toys in that cruddy stop-animation x-mas show thingy).....but what I can't take is that ending!!
I just don't get it....were they doubles, or was it a fantasy, and if so, what about the diamonds? Or was it that they just couldn't end the thing?
AND** it was about 30 minutes too long.
okay, anybody? Anybody?

[–] Aylmer 16 years ago

ummm, I just figured it was a tacky way to make the ending "neat" while ripping off the ending for THE WIZARD OF OZ.

It seemed to hint that all the people on the ship were descendants of the characters we met earlier in the film. The end McKenzie says "I come from a long line of McKenzies" so that hints that maybe the other one was his great-great-grandfather or something?

I know, that only works for him. You'd think that someone else would have noticed the two Akira Takarada's (unless they're identical twins?). As for the two Cesar Romeros... maybe twins too??? Who knows? So many coincidences that I find it more irritating than anything. How would a 60-something man be a lieutenant in the Navy anyway?

[–] adamwarlock 15 years ago

I thought Wizard of Oz too! When I saw Cotton, I figured he was there undercover to make sure no one believed the reporter. But when Romero was there, I thought it's all a fantasy until the diamonds were talked about. Perhaps both men are descendants of the original 2 and have no idea of LZ & Mallic. But why are they going to LZ at the end? Are they connected after all?

[–] The_Dying_Flutchman 12 years ago

Connected only in the tap dancing scene which has now been excised. Drat.

"Sniffing drainpipes and reciting the alphabet."

[–] scribe1270 11 years ago

I think they were trying to compete with "Captain Nemo and the Underwater City."
Both were released in July 1969 and dealt with a city under the ocean which people from the surface visit and then leave, and have no proof of the existence of. One was made in the UK and one was made by US and Japanese filmmakers. It wasn't the 1st time that two studios had similar movies released the same year. Destination Moon and Rocketship X-M were both released in 1950 and had similar plots. Rocketship X-M ends up going to Mars rather than the moon so as to avoid possible legal problems for the studio.

[–] Munstrum_Ridcully 7 years ago

When the reporter Lawton is brought on to the ship, in order to protect LZ, his memory has not been wiped but modernised, the first few people he sees, appropriate to the situation have their faces imposed "in his mind" on his memories, hence the captain of the ship also having the same name by coincidence as McKenzie, is recognised as the likeness in his memory, same with the first officer and Malic.

So Lawton remember what happened to him, but cannot recall faces or detail so as not to be able to identify operatives of member of LZ if he comes across them in the everyday world.

Atheism is a religion in the same way that celibacy is a sexual position

Okay, somebody *PLEASE* explain this ending!

Okay, somebody PLEASE explain this ending!