Confused about the ending?
Can you please explain it?
shareWhat are you confused about?
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MovieChat Forums > Body Double (1984) Discussion > Confused about the ending?
In the end...he's back shooting his dracula video. Wasn't he fired by his director?
The climax is a bit eerie, the body double, Melaine Griffith doesn't believe him despite of the fact she was abducted by the psychopath. It sucked. But how the heck is he shooting that dracula video?
The whole thing was a dream Jake had in the coffin as they prepared for the take.
shareThe dream theory is interesting, but I'm not sure about it. When Jake is at the bottom of the grave dug by Sam Bouchard, he has a flashback to the day he couldn't complete the vampire scene, and he imagines it ending a different way (he doesn't let the director push him into going home, and he gets back in the coffin). Flashbacks don't strike me as something that would happen within a dream.
I think he simply has gotten his job back at the end of the movie.
he was "cured" by what happened at the reservoir and went back and reclaimed his job...similar to what happened with Jimmie Stewart in Vertigo...
shareThe way I filled in the blanks was that once the whole thing was sorted out, Jake got the publicity of saving Holly and exposing the real murderer and the director hired him back because he was in the news.
The focus of real greed lies with unrestrained Government.
The dream theory has never occured to me. I guess the real question is: how did Jake ever convince Holly to come out of the grave?
"What I don't understand is how we're going to stay alive this winter."
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Holly Body was mighty confused by the events, she did get hit over the head. Not to mention almost buried alive.
During the credits, the director says at some point that he's glad he fired the other guy, Jake was the man for the job. So I assume that his replacement had screwed things up, Jake went back to the director for the job with his claustrophobia cured, and he was back in business.
there's a highway that is curling up like smoke above her shoulder
You are supposed to take away from it what you think, I heard that about this movie.
Tha Hot Girlz -- THE99 And 4 Eva!
As said above, it is clearly a dream, brought about by his claustrophobic experience in the coffin in the beginning. The story just has too many subplots, or the story going in too many directions -- like in a dream. Also, he never really got fired. In the dream, when he goes back to confront the director about getting his job back, the director is filming the same shower scene that Jake is making at the end of the movie.
shareIt wasn't a dream.
shareThis reminds me of a David Lynch movie. Is it a dream? Is it reality?
shareReality. When all was sorted out, he got his job back. The grave scene flashback was merely his own subconscious telling him to do something or die.
Yes, you are correct!
shareYes, it's real.
But the great thing about Body Double is just how De Palma keeps you on your toes about what is "real" and what is "image". It's not just the elements within the film (i.e. the girl in the window is actually Holly Body, etc.) but the abrupt ending and tricky shifting in realities (from the "real" murder mystery part to the in-his-head acting metaphor of being in the coffin and back to reality but this time in the coffin).
Genius: "Jake, you've got to act!". Not literally act, like an actor, but be proactive and take action. But at the same time, he has to act as a porn actor to solve the mystery.
The whole thing is about image and reality, the supposedly cutesy real world and the dirty world... which is the image? De Palma's critics would say his films are overly dirty, but it's the world that's dirty already, and whitewashing it in "clean" films misrepresents it.
It's a great retort by De Palma to his critics, and his masterpiece in that it so perfectly explains what he stands for. Love it.
If it was real, why would the director take him back? the role had already been re-casted. I don't think the director gives a *beep* about him over coming his fear. He's got a movie and he doesn't need to take needless chances.
shareThe director says at the end something about being glad he hired Jake back because he was so much better than the other guy.
Hell is empty. And all the devils are here.
The movie is NOT a dream! The ending was when Jake decided to kick his fear - the flashback was all apart of him taking a stand for once in the movie - because up until then he's been too pussy and too strung along to stand up for himself.
shareit was a dream, simply as what DePalma did in Femme Fatale.
shareConfused? Not really - meaning I´m quite sure it doesn´t make much difference either way. It´s a film exploring the different "planes of reality", so to speak, toying with cinematic conventions and viewer expectations. Like a lot of other De Palma´s work, it´s interested in reconstructing films & genres that have come before - finding interesting new angles on the old stuff, mixing various influences up and somehow creating something new in the process. And having a hell of a lot of fun while doing so.
"facts are stupid things" - Ronald Reagan
I've just watched the movie again (I watched it for the first time when I was about 16) and I'm sure it wasn't a dream. As someone said, the director tells Jake that he shouldn't have fired him. Holly is there watching the filming, I suppose that after Gloria's husband died Jake could prove that he was telling the truth.
shareI think you're supposed to take from it what you want. At the end the camera pulls out and it's as if it's just Jake and Melanie Griffith, you're left to think maybe there was no one else around at all and it was all in his head. Also much of the storyline is so cartoonish that it would seem to be beyond reality, the lady just starts making out with him after they've only said a few words, the cops conveniently just stop chasing him towards the end, etc.. Imo there's three possible endings, and you're left to decide:
1. It was a straight forward narrative, the killer, dog and shovel just all conveniently disappeared leaving Jake to look a bit crazy, though he regains his career and trust from Melanie Griffith anywawy
2. It was all a dream that he had to snap out of to save his career
3. Jake was really the killer. He imagined the indian/husband and actually killed the wife himself, and was starting to kill Melanie Griffith when he snapped out of it, leaving her understandably freaked out by him
but then again, i'm not so sure, lol - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3PSVP9LuRhU
Dream theory is interesting but I've always thought it was all real. And that makes sense as the detective was starting to buy Jake's story, plus he thought the husband was guilty all along. Then Jake stopping Revelle and saving Holly near the river helped support his story even more. Detective believes Jake, Holly is convinced, Jake gains confidence and gets his role in the movie back, Jake and Holly become a couple (both personally and professionally)...THE END!
shareFor a clear answer, see David Lynch's MULHOLLAND DR.
Doctor Mabuse, Evil Genius, King of Crime
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Holly showing up at the end plus the director mentioning "I'm so glad I fired that other ***hole" convinced me it wasn't a dream.
shareSo what about the part when he's in the grave? He suddenly finds himself back on the set in the fake grave but he's not wearing the vampire outfit he's just in his street clothes. He has the panic attack and the director is all understanding and tells him to go home and relax but he gets angry and tells the director "no way you're gonna fire me" and jumps back in and does the scene which then flashes to him grabbing the shovel. Was that supposed to be a dream?
shareWhat really bugs me about theories like some of the ones mentioned in this topic, is that they try to frame the story in some sort of conventional narrative: "if something of the plot doesn't make sense, it must be a dream!" Some even dare to call it 'flaws in logic', which is even worse..
Body Double is a pastiche of Hitchcockian elements and sleazy genre cinema (slasher films, porn). But, even more so, it is De Palma's ode to filmmaking itself. The final scene reveals that quite well. Trying to approach the plot from a 'logical' point of view is completely useless and even a bit ignorant.
Exactly! It's a mix of Rear Window and Vertigo. I get annoyed hearing that every movie for example Taxi Driver, that the ending must have been a dream.
Y'know, I could eat a peach for hours
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No, it's not!!!!
shareJeebus, its not a dream. De Palma uses a flashback while Jake is in the hole to show how he was able to get past his phobia, and everyone goes all in on the 'dream' thing.
You just have to be resigned-
You're crashing by design
Yeah, everyone goes to the dream thing for every movie plot now. lol
Y'know, I could eat a peach for hours
No, it's not a dream. It's his method of acting, breaking through.
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