MovieChat Forums > Brainstorm (1983) Discussion > The Death Tape

The Death Tape

posted 15 years ago by MuggySphere
8 replies | jump to latest

At the end of the movie when he's playing back the tape of his dying colleague, is what he is seeing really her rising into the sky leaving Earth and into space? or is that her brain hallucinating?

[–] oh_monday 15 years ago

Could it be neither?
Or both?
Or maybe he hallucinated?
Her memories are recorded right til she dies at which point her brain shuts off leaving nothing to record but perhaps static.
Assuming an altered state is requried to watch and that the device provides one with it, playing static or "nothing" will leave one in that altered state with no input making one provide ones own input and one starts to dream/hallucinate.
Thus he saw his interpretation/dream of death.

So I bet each one watching that tape would either see nothing - static - or dream their interpretation of afterlife.

[–] MuggySphere 15 years ago

That makes sense. I like that explanation.

[–] ian666 14 years ago

To be honest i always thought it was an allusion into the potential for an afterlife and that, regardless of whether a person’s brain dies, their MIND does not, and the recording device was able to unwittingly capture this on tape. I assumed it was the mind of Lillian’s “soul” as it left her body and travelled into heaven. Regardless, the “Death Tape” playback was one of the most moving and visually stunning sequences ever committed to celluloid!

Still, could be worse... My nose could be gushing blood!

[–] MuggySphere 14 years ago

I agree. Every time I watch this film I get excited to see this scene because it evokes a great sense of emotion.

I like your idea too. Maybe the machine did capture what her mind sees on its way to heaven or whatever that place is. But even so why did it eventually lose the connection? Was her mind also moving too far for the machine's sensors to lock onto?

[–] ian666 14 years ago

Perhaps when Lillian’s soul was travelling to heaven, there was still a remote chance she could have been resuscitated and henceforth she was not yet completely “dead” per say (you know like how on TV when a person is dying and being brought back you see them moving towards a bright light then coming back again and they are brought back to life), and that’s why the tape was able to continue capturing all this on tape until her soul had entered heaven and Lillian was completely gone. Or perhaps i am just thinking about this a little too deeply? Haha!

Still, could be worse... My nose could be gushing blood!

[–] MuggySphere 14 years ago

Nothing is too deep it's all good fun.

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Xeokym 14 years ago

At the end of the movie when he's playing back the tape of his dying colleague, is what he is seeing really her rising into the sky leaving Earth and into space? or is that her brain hallucinating?

That's an excellent question and I'm sure anyone who's watched the movie has had to have asked those questions, too. Most of the posts here said exactly what I concluded, which is what makes the movie so cool - it's not preachy, and what it shows going on at the end could be interpreted in a variety of ways that could be satisfying from the most religious person to even agnostics and atheists. People who are religious could view the scene as souls going to heaven, and atheists could view the scene as what goes on in the mind of a person as their brain becomes oxygen-starved and begins sort of hallucinating for lack of blood circulation. It could equally be satisfying for someone agnostic, who might look at it like, there's no "heaven," but our spiritual energy does go on beyond after the physical body dies. It's one of the FEW movies that handles the situation so beautifully and non-judgementally, merely making suggestions without pushing any sort of concrete allusions onto the audience. And I appreciate it for that.

I don't believe the ending was meant to do anything but suggest, raise questions, and make the audience think; while not leaving it hanging SO much that the audience would feel unfulfilled. It was handled perfectly, with sensitivity, without becoming mushy. In fact I can't think of ANY other movie that dealt with the subject of what happens after we die, that handled it so well. If only more movies made that dealt with the subject handled it without being preachy or too definitive.

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