What is the significance of the suit he is wearing and the tape recorder he is holding in the last scene? The last time he was wearing a suit (although it was a different one) and holding a tape recorder was before he blew up the lab with the gas. He wasn't wearing those clothes at the time he detonated the explosives so what are we to take from him revealing he still has the tape recorder on the beach in an apparent alternate universe?
shareI'd always saw the ending as showing that Bruno Lawrence's character had been transported somewhere else, maybe to the same place that everything else on Earth had been transported to.
shareI considered a alternative dimension, similar but fundamentally different
shareIt seems highly illogical that he would reappear with different clothes and the voice recorder again. The significance is probably no deeper than the filmmakers wanted us to all go, "WTF?!!"
But according to quantum theory, there are an infinite number of alternate universes, some with major differences from this one, and some with varying degrees of minor differences from this one. So it's not mathematically impossible that he could've been transported to one that seems to have randomly changed his wardrobe and kit.
Perhaps the recorder is an ironic universe's way of telling him, "Hey, you want to scientifically analyze and reduce all of this afterlife so much, how about I transport you to an even whackier, more outlandish place? Analyze and record this!"
Yes there are, and no there are not.
An amazing ending nevertheless.
Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.