MovieChat Forums > Radio Flyer (1992) Discussion > So if you listen... they actually do exp...

So if you listen... they actually do explain it all at the end.

posted 15 years ago by tophatturkey
20 replies | jump to latest

Mega-Spoilers here...

So after Bobby "flies away" in the flyer, they eventually go back to Tom Hanks. Who again reiterates the point that he tells it differently then it actually happens. As he did at the begining of the movie. So after he tells the kids that he changed the story, they look at him gravely. Since they now know more about what happened to their uncle Bobby, and that Tom Hanks is a little crazy. Anyway, Tom Hanks is very sad and still again telling about changing the story (why would he be that sad if the kid got away and they still wrote eachother... and wouldnt they have gotten together by now if they are both adults and away from the king?) plus why would he have to change the ending that much if he got away and writed him? What would he change?

After the impossible flying away sequence, everyone looks sad and Hanks says...

"Now do you understand what I meant about history being in the mind of the teller?"

His kids say "yes", and Tom Hanks replies, "cause that's how I remember it."

Why would he make such a point of telling about changing the ending if he got away? What would he change if he actually got away? If him getting away in the plane isn't the changed element in the ending... what is? It's really easy to see what happened via Hanks' ending segment. Bobby died in take off... why in take off and not before? Keep reading...

But here is the big thing. The kids sadly ask if they can ask him a question which they know will be hard and he replies... "yes"... and they say "Is that where we got Sampson (the turtle)?" And Tom Hanks sadly, breaking his little fantasy, says "Yes. That's where we got Sampson."

So they got the old turtle(cause turtles live for a long time), the children have Sampson the turtle.

How would they get the turtle if it flew away with Bobby? Would Bobby mail it back to them? No. Bobby crashed the flyer on lift off... and died... the turtle... protected by its shell and its box... lived... and Elijiah Wood took it and kept it. When Elijiah Wood grew up into Tom Hanks (wow. never thought I'd say that), he kept the turtle and the kids now know where it came from. He never told them before.

So the kids found it so hard to ask him about Sampson cause it went against his little story of Bobby and Sampson getting away. The kids have the turtle that they wouldn't have gotten if Bobby's flight had worked and the turtle and Bobby flew away and were never seen again, plus if Bobby had lived... he'd have kept the turtle himself..

The kids know Bobby died, Hanks knows Bobby died, and we know Bobby died. The ending cleares up all questions. The feelings of the scene, the lines that are said, and Hank's "changing the story" lines all tell the end. But the Sampson thing is the key to the truth. Gives it all away.

Thank you.

[–] Kent_Weirdo 15 years ago

You're absolutely right. My mother tried to tell me the same thing a few years ago, and she absolutely wouldn't back down. Then again, I had not seen the film in ages up to that point.

After finding a five dollar grocery store copy on DVD and watching it all over again, I realize that this was the way things really happened.

[–] kewlausgirl 15 years ago

Yeah I think it is too over the top with Bobby and Mikey being two personalities of one kid.

I only just watched the movie now and I didn't get that at all. I'ts been a long time since I saw it as a kid, and it had always stuck with me. I used to blur the radio flyer and Neverending story together. In my dreams I would fly away in the radio flyer to get to Fantasia lol.

Anyhoo rewatching it now, I was like soo .. did he get away in the end. But then as I kept watching it hit me he was dead... which funnily enough I think I already knew before I watched the movie coz I kept trying to remember if the kid falls to his death..

But it makes sense that The King went too far.

But then I'm not too sure on how Bobby died. Was he already badly wounded.. or did he fall to his death? In the movie there is a moment where he is flying.. but then he panicks and tells him to pull the chord for the accellerator. I think that's when he falls and dies - but to both Bobby and Mike it was his 'magical escape'.

Harry looked up at him and saw a tear trickling down Dumbledore's face into his long silver beard

[–] fuzzout987 15 years ago

I don't think it is over the top to say Bobby is a split personality and Mikey is the abuse victim who creates Bobby to cope with it. You never actually see Bobby interact with other people. There have been cases where abused children will create a split personality to disassociate from their abuse.

[–] chrit 15 years ago

i agree that abuse victims sometimes suffer from dissociative disorders due to severe trauma, but bobby existed before the family ever met "the king", so the timeline doesn't support it here...also, i don't get how you figure bobby never interacts with other people...i'm watching the movie right now (for the first time in many years), and all of the adult characters have acknowledged him...

[–] Kent_Weirdo 15 years ago

"but bobby existed before the family ever met "the king", so the timeline doesn't support it here"

And that's all you need, folks!

I can't stand this whole "two people in one" trend that has taken over movie forums since Fight Club. It's fun to think about and to pick apart, but it doesn't apply to every single movie with a tad of substance to it, right?

[–] trixie-k-88 15 years ago

Bobby does so interact with other people. He talks to the mother, the policeman, the bullies, the stepfather and the buffalo guy.

[–] judywasapunk 15 years ago

Thanks for clearing that up. When I was a kid I just accepted the idea that he flew away, but I happened to think about it the other day and it was bugging the crap out of me.

Now that I think about, what were our parents thinking letting us watch this movie? Lol

[–] beth_rodricks93 15 years ago

then what about the postcards? were they a figment of mikes imagination too?

[–] teefus87 15 years ago

no he wrote them to himself to make himself feel better notice the first card was form the buffalo park.

sam tyler:David Bowie. Why does it always come back to David Bowie?

[–] gidget357 15 years ago

What about the picture at the end? The one hanging on the string along with the postcard. Its a woman and a dog. It doesn't look like the mother; atleast not to me.

But then again I just don't want to give up the fact that Bobby got away in my mind.

[–] stonecreatives 14 years ago

I just watched this movie the other day and I came away with a totally different idea at the end. I'll have to look at it again. Somehow I got the idea that Bobby probably might have actually been hurt in the attempt but grew up to be an airline pilot which is why they got postcards from all over the world. But, the explanation here makes more sense. It's a wonderful movie in my opinion.

[–] Doodlebuggy12 14 years ago

I definitely don't think Bobby wasn't real. He interacts with people and when Mike isn't around, Bobby is referenced by his mother. What? Is his mom in on Mike's imaginary friend and worried about him too? No. Bobby is very much real.
However, I don't think Bobby crashes and dies. I think Bobby is beaten to death. There is an excessive amount of blood on the King's hands when he is cuffed. I also don't think Mike would go through the wreckage of his brother's fatal crash, scoop up his turtle, and keep it. I have a feeling if Mike had seen his brother's crash and recognized it, it would have been much harder to pretend Bobby flew away. It was likely Mike never saw his brother's dead body, which is possibly why we never do either, as the story is narrated by Mike and from his point of view.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] redpegasus18 12 years ago

I find the split personality thing interesting, but I don't really subscribe to it. It makes more sense that they were brothers, that way the story relates more to Tom Hank's sons and the idea of making a promise with another person. If it was just one kid with an imaginary brother, what would be the point of telling his sons about it? Surely, Hank's wife would be a little weirded out by him telling the kids about "uncle bobby" and his flying wagon if he never existed. I think that the kids probably know that they had an uncle and he died when he was young. You would think that kids who are being told a story about their wagon flying around the world uncle would have more exciting questions to ask him, not just the question about the turtle which contradicts the story.

I also think that the King killed him. The excessive blood on the hands is telling, although the dog was biting him so that could explain that. But also, why would the cop be there? The mother called the cops because she found the note that says the boys are going up to the hill to fly away? And then the father gets arrested immediately, with the cop saying something about him finally getting taken away. For what, trying to stop his sons from rolling a home made airplane down a till to their death?

The kids know the story, but their dad just wanted to tell them how he likes to remember it. Definitely a different experience watching the movie now that I'm older. More rewarding, yet sadder.

[–] freque831 7 years ago

I saw this movie when I was little with my parents and I just remember at the end my mom going, "Oh good, he made it!" And I was like, "What do you mean? He died!" And everyone was arguing but even then I thought The King had beaten Bobby to death and it was Mike's way of coping with it believing Bobby had actually flown away as they planned. Not that he was imagined or that he died in the crash, there was never an escape attempt. Sampson was merely a nod to his kids that his story was made up at times, yet still true in its significance to understanding their dad's past.

[–] liven1812 14 years ago

Agree. I watched this movie a bunch when I was younger, up until maybe 12. I never really thought about possible death. Also, it would be obvious, that being older I also have a little different perspective of what I may have had when younger. Watching now, for the first time in a long while, I was aware of the debate. The turtle, as you mention, is the real giveaway. The fantasy, if true, would have included Bobby taking the turtle with. Everything in this movie was "real" up until the two radioing one another.

[–] dexteric01 14 years ago

The turtle idea is flimsy. Bobby could have survived and kept the turtle and just given it to Mike later, not as if he would survive and never see his brother again. But the expression on Tom Hanks face supplies another plot which must involve a tragedy and that is all were left with... kinda sucks.

[–] dexteric01 14 years ago

Suddenly after viewing the scene with the Buffalo, the dual personality comes to mind again.

[–] 14 years ago

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[–] masterjedi-2 14 years ago

The original poster is wrong, wrong, and wrong. Nice try, but that's NOT what happened in the movie.