What the fock is in the box?

Spoiler Alert!

What's in the box? Isn't it obvious? It's an illicit hoard of some sort. Dad was in jail for the past 12 years and went back to dig up his stolen goodies. When he was speaking on the phone during the scene before he told his boys to get on the bus, he was arranging to dispose of the hoard. I would guess gems of some sort. He came back to pick up his boys to take with him as a cover to throw off any crooks that might have been tailing him. But the boys got to him in the end.

I'm really surprised that nobody has guessed correctly. Jimmy Hoffa was in that box. And Elvis.

Perhaps the box was a method borrowed from Alfred Hitchcock. As a certain critic has called this method, it is the "maguffin," the thing in a film that somebody or several somebodies is/are after, but nobody watching the film knows what it is and they never find out.
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I think it was an accumulator for the boat's engine.

In the box, there is a condom for you to put it on. After all, safe sex is important even in islands.

After 12 years in prison/exile/onanoilrig/huntingsaskwatchinthesiberianwilds, Pops was just dying to get to that stash of crack he left on that island inside the box that was inside that chest, buried under the ground in the ruins of an old house. He did seem a little irritable, didn't he? Well, you would be too if Mr. Jones had been beating your door down for 12 years.


Seriously, though....I enjoyed the movie, and wonder if the director/screenwriter even had a specific thing in mind with respect to the contents of the box.....it really wouldn't matter, would it? The point is that there was a box, and there are a whole bunch of posts above this one pontificating as to the contents of the box. That's one of the marks of a good movie - that it makes you think, and that what it is you're thinking about is open to interpretation and/or speculation.


I admittedly was interested to know what was in the box, and even a little disappointed when I realized I wouldn't find out. But if it had been revealed in the course of the movie, I wouldn't be sitting here right now, wouldn't have thought much more about the movie, and I'm guessing most of the people in this thread wouldn't have either. So, I think the director achieved what he wanted to - create a movie that leaves an impression, stays in the viewers minds a bit, and gives them something to discuss/argue about after the movie. Well done.

Vozvrashcheniye is an enthralling, atmospheric, thought-provoking and beautifully filmed movie. But no film is perfect.

Many of the postings here infer (or state) that anyone who wants to be shown what was in the box is "dumb" and should stick to blockbusters. However, whilst on many occasions unanswered questions in films can be valid, they are not automatically so - and it is intellectually lazy simply to praise a mystery as artistic, regardless of whether it adds to the bigger picture.

The film is not perfect, and IMHO the manner in which the box is dealt with is a mistake - it takes away from the rest of the film, rather than adding to it. So little is known about the father that there are many different possible explanations for the box, and we have now basis whatsoever for choosing between them. We do not know, and cannot know, what is in the box - Zvyagintsev has deliberately created an unanswerable mystery. The question is whether, in this particular case, this device has a value.

We are clearly supposed to see the film through the eyes of the brothers, and the box does not further this: at no point are the brothers aware of the existence of the box. Had they become aware of the box but not known what it contained, then we could have seen (and shared) their reaction to the mystery, and this would have added a further dimension to the film. But as it was, the contents of the box were a mystery neither to the boys (who did not even know that it existed) nor to the father (who, of course, not only knew that it existed, but also what it contained). It was a mystery for the audience only, and one that it will never be able to resolve.

Some people are frustrated by questions (such as "will he/she/they ........") left hanging at the end of a film, but others enjoy pondering the possibilities. In my view, it is often valid to have unanswered questions, but the box does not fall into this category. It is a failing of the film that so many viewers who clearly loved its many rewarding aspects feel so frustrated that a mystery has been capriciously created and left unanswered.

The box was a device - and a mistaken one - in a great film. Instead of wondering what was in the box, we should have been left pondering matters such as the relationships between the characters, and the boys’ emotions. My advice to those who feel frustrated by the box is to try to rebury it !

If Im not mistaken the mother said they were going hunting(I watched it in russian, no subs). Maybe the box was a box of ammo, thats what it looked like. So he was going to take them hunting but it didnt happen, symbolyzing the soviets wanting to go forth and continue their reign but the people didnt let it happen, what with all the tension and suspicion building up.
Something to think about.
Oh and what does the boy jumping at the beggining of the film and wanting to at the end mean?