Did Jim die at the end?

Of course he died--the Aliens took him to their home planet and served him up at a tasty Bar-b-que!

I dunno, but he would have been bored as a goldfish trapped in that bubble by the time he got to wherever he was going.



You might very well think that. I couldn't possibly comment.

It's called rebirth. And symbolism.

No, he didn't die. There was no lifeless expression on his face when he was in the water. Watch that scene again. He, as most normal people would, tried not to breathe the water and drown, but eventually he had to. Once he did, he realized he COULD breathe in the water and continued to do so. He even starts looking around and smiling after it happens.

Ever seen the movie The Abyss where Ed Harris goes down deep diving and uses that liquid oxygen? Same concept. And, as that movie stated, we all breathe liquid for the first 9 months of our lives before we are born. I assume the aliens had oxygenated water to help with pressure or preservation for the long trip, something like that.

But he didn't die in the water. Now once he got to where they were going? No one knows. If the aliens story was true they were here MILLIONS of years ago. How do we know they didn't die out by now, or move somewhere else? Yea, it was a big risk, but one worth taking even if it turned out to be a dead-end.

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Well it's all subjective to our conjecture but here goes:

(1) The flash back was just Jim reflecting on his life and the events that got him here (to this epic and monumental journey). HE will be the first man EVER to go to an alien world inhabited by aliens who WANT to contact us. :)

(2) There was no dead face. I actually understood the 'liquid' concept from other sci fi films. I don't know how accurate this is, but in other films (like Event Horizon) the occupants are put in liquid so that the extreme inertia of hyper space flight doesn't squash them like a bug. Also 'oxygenized liguid' in the lungs allows your lungs to operate and not collapse under such strain. It's like the oxygenized liguid that Ed Harris had to breathe in "The AByss" in order to endure extreme underwater pressure. So Jim was alive and well and encapsulated in a liquid cocoon to ensure that he made the journey safe and sound. For a COMEDIC version of this, look at the liquid cocoons the Thermians put on the humans to blast them into space in the film "Galaxy Quest". LOL.

(3) Why would the aliens kill him? They could have just had a smart machine harvest any one of the dead astronauts from the previous encounter. It is assumed that they want him alive and well and SANE when he gets there.

(4) Would he go nuts? It is assumed that an advanced alien race capable of faster than light travel would take that into account. A human ambassador would offer little useful information if he was a nutjob by the time he arrived. It is assumed that the aliens thought of that and had a plan in place, though we don't know what that plan is, nor is it really important to the story.

Hope this helps. :)

Dr. Kila Marr was right. Kill the Crystalline Entity.

I certainly hope he found a better life there on Neuvo Mars. God knows the movie viewing audience no longer has any use for him.

No, but somebody's gotta say it - 'He's DEAD, Jim!'