MovieChat Forums > The Big Empty (2009) Discussion > What I thought the ending meant.

What I thought the ending meant.


So I turn my TV on this morning and this movie was on, I had missed the first 20 minutes or so and really only gave it a shot because I like Jon Favreau and Rachel Leigh Cook is crazy hot... like damn... anyway, at the end of the movie it seemed to me John was murdered in the desert by Randy. Randy told John that if he slept with Ruthie he would kill him and bury him in the desert, we also know that Randy was willing to kill and that he knew where John was going to be.

When Randy first kidnaps John he taunts John by saying the very same words Ruthie said to him earlier... meaning he had been watching the pair of them all day. I think Randy killed Ruthie after she left John's room, then he went back to get John and took him out into the desert. When John was digging his own grave there was something on the ground by the hole wrapped up in garbage bags and it was about the size of a human body... this was Ruthie's body. Randy tells John to turn around and he points his gun at him, the next thing we hear is a gunshot. At this point the tone of the movie changes drastically and gets all trippy and whatnot.

A clearly unrealistic, cliched, Cowboy shows up at the last possible second and 'saves John's life' by killing Randy... seems too good to be true doesn't it? The garbage bag wrapped body is now also in the hole with Randy despite no one putting it in the hole... which was weird. The cowboy takes John away from the desert and tells him he's there to help him 'Move on' and he talks a lot about 'paradise' and getting away from there and going to some place better. John then gets a spirit guide (Bob the Indian) to lead him to the middle of no where so he can move on into the After life. A bus comes from off in the distance the distance presumably to have death collect John's soul.

The Cowboy is then revealed to be more than an ordinary man, I also read on here that in a behind the scenes thing about the costumes the cowboy's costume was ascribed to the tarot card of Death... or something like that. Ruthie gets off the bus confirming that she too is dead and she is also moving on to paradise. He doesn't go with Ruthie but instead later finds his own version of paradise (heaven) with Grace. When John woke up with a band-aid on his neck I took that to be a physical representation that he was marked with death, I didn't see the beginning but I understand Grace had a band-aid on her neck at the beginning as well which is why they were able to be with each other in the after life. The fact that he's wearing the bowling shoes that were supposed to lead him to paradise at the end shows that he IS in heaven and the fact that his bowling ball rolled across the desert was to show that he never really left that place, his body is still there but his soul has moved on.

And you know it's true because SpaceMonkey -> said so.

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Sounds good to me! Sorry that I'm the first reply!

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Good connection. I too thought that was her in the bag, but sort of forgot about that after she appeared from the RV. Here's the thing though. If you're guessing right? Then why all the mystery? Maybe this is the way that those who are basically killed then buried in the desert end up moving on.........But it's still a pretty elaborate plan just to move dead people on.

I kept thinking it was like that movie The Game (I think that was the name) with Michael Douglas. I kept expecting everything to be reviled as a big set up that was being filmed without him knowing about it. I mean everything was so much out of sorts. Then again....Maybe this was purgatory that they all had tasks to work through before moving on......I didn't see the first ten minutes either so maybe we missed an important hint...

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