WORST ENDING EVER and WORST FATHER EVER - Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) Discussion

[–] eweland 9 years ago

EVERYBODY has psychological problems from their parents. That's where they all come from. Talk to a psychologist.

He abandoned his family for his dream. Some people have kids just because of societal pressure - and then don't really want them.
_

Kubrick's film, for the majority - will always be the definitive version of THE SHINING.

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[–] gabby_bm 9 years ago

But that doesn't make him a bad human being. There are more important things in this world than your children.

I don’t need you to tell me how good my coffee is.. 
.

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[–] Otter (24464) 6 years ago

It's unclear if he left of his own free will, or if the aliens had implanted a compulsion to leave Earth in his head, like they planted the compulsion to go to Devil's Tower. Although if you watch the ending with that idea in your head, it becomes dark and unsettling.

Anyway, I like to find out that after Roy went into space, unlikely to ever return, the government types who'd spent millions on all that equipment and training a corps of one-way astronauts looked into who they'd actually sent to represent their planet to the universe... and found the abandoned wife and kiddies. And they were horrified to find that they'd sent the father of children away, and that they turned a one-way astronaut's salary over to the wife, with a great big bonus to keep her quiet. They wouldn't want the world to know that they'd sent a family's breadwinner into space, even if they'd done so inadvertently.

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[–] Boromir (9712) 2 years ago

It's always interesting to see how sometimes a story has a life of its own that go behind the director vision. We now know that Spielberg, maybe even subconsciously, choose a father abandon his children to end his movie without think deeply regarding the consequences. Added to this what you said about the aliens "implanted a compulsion" and the movie ending is unintentionally dark. Unintentionally dark because we know that Spielberg heading for an happy ending.

I am agree with your implanted argument, there is enough evidence for that, but I don't see him as passive subject nor as the alien's technology as powerful to make a person do something against his will. I believe that something in his subconscious and in his personality structure led him to this journey. For details, you can read Pinocchio and Roy discussion I just open.

Your last paragraph is brilliant and make a lot sense. I wonder if they ask him that at the questioning. Even if we didn't see this in the movie, maybe it's something we the audience need to fill our self because it's too elementary. But it probably doesn't matter because it all happened so fast and the experience was so overwhelming they probably didn't think about it at that moment.

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[–] Otter (24464) 2 years ago

Hey, maybe it really was a happy ending for Mr. and Mrs. Neary! He got away from an unhappy wife and screaming kids, she got her kids provided for without a "third child" to deal with!

Seriously, the movie is totally enjoyable if you don't think about it too hard. it's one of those films where it's better if you don't, but well, it's a happy ending for me! I've never liked children, not even when I was a child, and I knew better to have any. I morally condemn anyone who ducks out on parenthood, but I do understand why they'd want to.

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[–] Boromir (9712) 2 years ago

Don't worry, during the movie I am not overthinking at all, even at my age I still felt like I climbing that mountain with them.

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[–] JoWilli (15014) 5 years ago

there is...?

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[–] BeaSouth (2767) 4 years ago

Agree 100% with your reaction to the comment of @gabby_bm

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[–] R_Kane (15828) 2 years ago

Gabby, you are despicable.

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[–] TheMouseShadow 9 years ago

The fact that he didnt care about leaving his kids doesnt make it the WORST ENDING EVER. dont be so dense.

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[–] a_l_i_e_n 9 years ago

A father has a responsibility to provide for his children.

Valid point.

Let's just leave children fatherless and the mother all alone to pay the bills.

Another valid point.

And for the record, children don't have a choice when their mother drives them away.

Certainly the younger boy and the little girl were not anxious to go.

...when the kids are at their high school graduations and their father is not there...

And let's not forget the university graduations and the weddings he won't attend, not to mention missing out on the important role of being a grandfather to their children. The movie is great until we get to this very questionable ending.

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[–] gabby_bm 9 years ago

LOL! Like he would have any sort of normal life with his kids after seeing UFOs, throwing bricks, trees and dirt through the kitchen window, stealing his neighbor's property and building a mountain in the family living room.

The guy would be lucky to get an hour's supervised visit with his children, let alone full visitation.

I don’t need you to tell me how good my coffee is.. 
.

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[–] a_l_i_e_n 9 years ago

LOL! Like he would have any sort of normal life with his kids after seeing UFOs, throwing bricks, trees and dirt through the kitchen window, stealing his neighbor's property and building a mountain in the family living room.

The guy would be lucky to get an hour's supervised visit with his children, let alone full visitation.

Perhaps so, but obviously Roy's UFO experience would be treated as delusional behaviour or, indeed, an indication of mental illness, and I point out that people do recover from such breakdowns. So (assuming these friendly aliens haven't left him with the permanent desire to build mountains in his house), Roy is eventually going to be assessed as normal and fit to participate in his kids' lives again. And if he weren't, then to me these beings are responsible for ruining at least his earthly life and maybe should've just left him alone.

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[–] gabby_bm 9 years ago

I apologize. The LOL wasn't directed at you or your response, but from my imagining how his psychiatric evaluations would progress. He didn't handle his interrogation at Devil's Tower very well.

Of course, this is supposing that the government wouldn;t keep him under observation for a while to study the psychic connection's effect on the human brain

I could even see him getting violent if a couple shrinks stood in the way of him seeing his kids. None too good for his psychiatric progress. I just don't see much in the way of a family reunion after this one.

I don’t need you to tell me how good my coffee is.. 
.

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[–] a_l_i_e_n 9 years ago

I see. Pardon me for misunderstanding.



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[–] gabby_bm 9 years ago

I can understand your response. i'll try to be more careful in my placement of LOLs

I don’t need you to tell me how good my coffee is.. 
.

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[–] Poopsey1 (894) 3 years ago

ffs do you really need to write the idiot "lol".

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[–] jq-141-648063 9 years ago

At the end of the movie, he got in the spaceship, the spaceship took off, and the movie ended. That's it.

We can assume he's never coming back, but the movie doesn't say that at all.

It's science fiction. We have to use our imagination to make whatever we want out of it. We don't have to assume the worst. We can assume something good.

Maybe he takes a quick ride around the universe and comes right back. He's now a hero on the planet and contributes unimaginable knowledge and insight not just to his wife and 3 kids, who no longer think he's crazy, but to every human being on earth. There are no problems paying the bills. Nobody is left alone. He's the honored speaker at his kids' high school and college graduations. Their friends all think he's the coolest dad ever. Nobody feels abandoned and nobody has any psychological problems.

They all live happily ever after.

Best father ever, best ending ever.

That's just one way to see it, but we can't blame Spielberg if we don't see it that way.

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[–] flaiky 9 years ago

Maybe he takes a quick ride around the universe and comes right back. He's now a hero on the planet and contributes unimaginable knowledge and insight not just to his wife and 3 kids, who no longer think he's crazy, but to every human being on earth. There are no problems paying the bills. Nobody is left alone. He's the honored speaker at his kids' high school and college graduations. Their friends all think he's the coolest dad ever. Nobody feels abandoned and nobody has any psychological problems.

They all live happily ever after.

Best father ever, best ending ever.

 Love this!

That is a masterpiece of understatement.

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[–] gabby_bm 9 years ago

Well... except for that tentacle growing out of his stomach.... but I'm sure that will pass.

I don’t need you to tell me how good my coffee is.. 
.

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[–] sliat_1981 7 years ago

Maybe he takes a quick ride around the universe and comes right back. He's now a hero on the planet and contributes unimaginable knowledge and insight not just to his wife and 3 kids, who no longer think he's crazy, but to every human being on earth. There are no problems paying the bills. Nobody is left alone. He's the honored speaker at his kids' high school and college graduations. Their friends all think he's the coolest dad ever. Nobody feels abandoned and nobody has any psychological problems.

They all live happily ever after.

Best father ever, best ending ever.

But he still cheated on his wife..

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[–] Owlwise (1488) 2 years ago

He didn't cheat on his wife. He shared a kiss with Gillian that was more an affirmation of what both had been through to get to their destination. Their bond is one of shared experience, not sexual straying.

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[–] sage2112 9 years ago

The thing about him simply taking a "quick trip" and coming right back is always what I assumed was going to happen. For some reason, people have always assumed he's leaving for good - kinda like they're confusing it with the old people leaving in Cocoon.

But I think even Spielberg intended that he's leaving for good, because he now says he would not write that ending today. So it's strange to me that all these years of being a huge fan of this film (since I saw it in theaters in '77), I saw the ending so differently than most everyone else.

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[–] a_l_i_e_n 9 years ago

When I saw it, I didn't necessarily think Roy would be leaving forever. However, taking into consideration how long the Flight 19 crew had been gone, I took that as an indication that Roy's excursion could also be a lengthy one. But they never come out and say that this is the last time Roy's gonna be seen in these parts so, yeah, maybe he will be back in just a bit like Barry.

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[–] !!!deleted!!! (9347176) 8 years ago

Maybe he takes a quick ride around the universe and comes right back.

This is, technically, exactly what the other "abductees" experienced. Thirty years pass on Earth but for the travelers, a much shorter time has elapsed. "Right back" is for Neary only, however. Everyone else on Earth would have aged at "normal" speed. This is why all the folks leaving the mothership are virtually the same age as when they left, just like the planes and the boat from earlier in the film.

-Rod

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[–] a_l_i_e_n 8 years ago

This is, technically, exactly what the other "abductees" experienced. Thirty years pass on Earth but for the travelers, a much shorter time has elapsed. "Right back" is for Neary only, however. Everyone else on Earth would have aged at "normal" speed. This is why all the folks leaving the mothership are virtually the same age as when they left, just like the planes and the boat from earlier in the film.

Very true. However, as we saw in the case of Barry, it is possible to take a trip with the aliens that doesn't last decades. Having said that, at the end it does look like they're heading out for a much longer journey.

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[–] SteveResin 9 years ago

He's got a choice. Take a mind blowing trip across the universe and see sights people cannot even comprehend while learning a culture that's even more unusual than the Japanese or go home to his nagging wife who thinks he's a fruitloop anyway, and spend the rest of the year driving that truck for 8 hours a day so his ball and chain and brats can get fat on mashed potato. No brainer really.

--------------------
Duty Now For The Future

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[–] guccipix 9 years ago

Great answer

Better to be king for a night than schmuck for a lifetime.

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[–] neoyemi 8 years ago

and spend the rest of the year driving that truck for 8 hours a day

And remember he got fired too, so it would be down to the jobcenter first thing the next morning after declining the aliens offer to join them. Definitely a no brainer there.

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[–] TheArgentinian (6424) 4 years ago

Well put.

/thread

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[–] dlancer 9 years ago

I don't think you can blame the guy, honestly. It's not his fault that the close encounter caused an idea to infest his subconscious mind. He was brought to near insanity by it. At that point, he was neither fit to be their father nor was he capable.

If you can read this then you are trying too hard.

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[–] Boricanator (1365) 7 years ago

I think that is an aspect many people miss. The aliens got into his mind and severely screwed him.

He was clearly not well.

Plus, the Aliens clearly saw something in him as they lured him there. He wanted to know why. Maybe he can be an intergalactic embassador.

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[–] largo2032 9 years ago

I've always wondered if the Government sent them money after Roy 'left'. Maybe he wanted his family to be taken care of when he was gone. If not, they did get a cool Devil's Tower sculpture in the living room!

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