MovieChat Forums > Radio Flyer (1992) Discussion > Just another thought on the ending- the ...

Just another thought on the ending- the importance of a promise!


So like most on here I saw radio flyer when i was small on tv at some stage and at the end thought 'YaY! bobby escaped in a cart powered by a lawnmower fan and some cardboard boxes'.....them were the days.

Anyway so i just rewatched it today and;
It looks like Bobby did exist yet we're looking at it all from mikes point of view so he could be steering it to look that way, but if he did exist then these things point to it:
1. the kids were beating up bobby as well as mike at the house.
2. on the golf course you can hear a man who is buying the balls off them call them 'boys'
3. the mother (i really dislike her) asks if its ok if she sits the boys on the fence at the buffalo place because she can't afford the entry and says to their aunt that the dog is house trained but "these two aren't"
4. The police man asks if they are both ok.

So then Bobby either died trying to fly or The King killed him which is more likely. (I'm so glad they shot this from a child's perspective angles wise so that Adam Baldwin's face is hidden cos i really like him from firefly and chuck so it helps in not hating him). especially because when mike pointed to the sky his mother couldn't see anything.

The evidence that bobby didn't die is mainly the postcards:
I think these were written by Mike purely because at the end tom hanks says that his mother didn't begin to get over the loss of Bobby until she saw the first postcard - something to give her a bit of false hope because he promised to look after her? or in the least something for mike to cling to.

The main thing that i think stands out that i'm not sure anyone else has mentioned is the 'pinky promise', it was a promise between hanks two sons that started this tale and the promise between him and bobby was to never tell their mother what happened with the King and for mike to look after her.
Therefore i think that mike was trying to keep his promise of hiding the truth from his mother by writing the postcards himself and by telling the story in such a way that keeps his promise and keeps the truth from himself - just as he begins to doubt what really happened another postcard shows up to reaffirm the fairy-tale lawnmower-fan-powered ending.

So that's my thought on it but i can see the idea that bobby is a figment of mikes imagination to store the emotions and trauma he couldn't deal with as well especially in some scenes where it is like the boys are mirroring each other - both have stomach aches at the same time, both get beaten up at the same time even though they aren't even together except mikes pounding at the hands of the kids is a much more acceptable form of beatings for him to overcome and even the scene where bobby gets hit for them staying up late both boys reach to cover their ears at the same time when the music comes on. I'm probably reading far too much into it...

Anyway regardless of what the ending means i think radio flyer is a brilliant film whose meaning matures with you.

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[deleted]

But I think the mom would be able to tell Mikes handwriting from Bobby's . Also how would a young Mike be able to travel to a different state to mail a postcard. Mail and postcards have post stamps on them that shows where they were mailed from.

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