Why the -beep- did he jump back into the hole??? He had already found the gold and hid it in the dishwasher.
And please don't say that we are supposed to interpret it ourselves cuz that is really stupid.
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well he would have just got arrested again, and Evan Rachel Wood's character said herself that it's what he would have wanted (or something along those lines). I don't think you really have to think to hard about it.
shareBut he didnt get all the gold so he decided to try for more. He had to decide from going to jail and probably and asylum for life or to go for the extra gold and maybe escape. He chose togo for thegold
shareIt is the best type of independent movie. One in which life is still life-in the end, no matter how fantastic the story line is. There is always good and bad, happy and sad... everything comes at a price. Charlie never was of this world, anyway. He didn't play by its rules or enjoy the day-to-dayness of real life. He was almost a mythical creature and they don't adapt well in the real world.
Miranda wanted to live in the real world with its things and surface stability. She needed that. So, they both got what they wanted, but there is always a price to pay. When there is no price to pay, it is a "feel good" movie, but there is no "realness" to it. Only dreaminess. I like it better when I get a spoonful of practicality with my fantasy...bittersweet, my favorite word.
It is the best type of independent movie. One in which life is still life-in the end, no matter how fantastic the story line is. There is always good and bad, happy and sad... everything comes at a price. Charlie never was of this world, anyway. He didn't play by its rules or enjoy the day-to-dayness of real life. He was almost a mythical creature and they don't adapt well in the real world.
Miranda wanted to live in the real world with its things and surface stability. She needed that. So, they both got what they wanted, but there is always a price to pay. When there is no price to pay, it is a "feel good" movie, but there is no "realness" to it. Only dreaminess. I like it better when I get a spoonful of practicality with my fantasy...bittersweet, my favorite word.
My thought was that he did it for his daughter -- his final, almost his only, fatherly act. If he'd been caught, she would have been in nearly as much of a mess as he would. (Also, he gets to spend his last moments on earth with the treasure he's been seeking, which you can see for him would be nice.) This way she gets a clean new start and proof that dreams can be realized. It just occurs to me as I write this, that maybe the seeds for his plan were sown when he pawned the bass?
shareThere is a line where Charlie says "You have to know when to give up." I interpret this to mean that he wanted to die with his treasure, he kinda went in knowing that this was going to be his last act. That's the way he wished to go.
shareWhy should we presume Charlie is dead anyway? Is it just because Miranda says ".....they never found his body"?
The scene where he ties up his daughter he is wanting her to have a better future. He knows clearly that after this adventure his name would be out and the police are going to be after him. To keep Miranda safe and off the trail he needs to "go away"...remain in oblivion or something. He doesnt want even Miranda to know that he is alive somewhere as this would lead her to come looking for him (and the police may disclose her being an accomplice). Hence he vanishes. If the storyline needed Charlie to be dead, we wouldnt be discussing in this forum as the movie would have shown it outright.Mind you, the body was never found!! He may still be alive.
I was wondering the same thing - there isn't proof of his being dead. (Remember Chuck's fiance Kelly in "Cast Away"? She just gave him up for dead.)
Charlie's decision to dive back down into the river is entirely fitting with his character - he does everything for himself without regard to others, like his daughter. This treasure hunt was just another foray into the "underground" - literally in this case - that demonstrates his lack of personal stability.
BTW, what makes you think he put gold in the dishwasher?
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One of the last scenes makes me think that he found an escape. He dropped the scuba equipment and saw a light... he then disappeared...
By the way, he put the treasure into the dishwasher!
I really enjoyed this comedy :-)
he only died because that fat cop accidentally kicked all the debris back into the hole and blocked him in.
shareOne of the last scenes makes me think that he found an escape. He dropped the scuba equipment and saw a light... he then disappeared...
By the way, he put the treasure into the dishwasher!
What else could he possibly have put in there?
shareAnything really, but we are meant to assume he put treasure in there.
The thing is, he said he only got some of it, if you look at the list of items Miranda writes it fairly obvious he brought only what he could carry back up to give to Miranda.
There was a LOT more treasure down there and as far as we can tell no one else knows there really IS treasure down there like the people who own Costco or the police. He was thought of as insane, especially with his record of recently being discharged from a mental institution. Even if Miranda told the police what he was doing down there it's unlikely anyone would believe that he was right since Miranda is the only one who knows he found treasure.
Since it's unclear if Charlie died or if he was swimming up to some escape passage he found we cannot say for sure if he got away or if he gathered more treasure.
Though in the end this is irrelevant, as to Charlie, I'm sure, found the greatest treasure of all was that it existed. He was right, he found his goal, and to him, (if he died down there) he got to die knowing that yes, he had existed in his life, and his daughter would know that he was right, that he was a treasure hunter who succeeded. Especially since he knew Miranda was capable of taking care of herself, he would have been happy in his last moments.
Of course what's left to the imagination is... where does Miranda go from here? I would think she would live wealthy and get by just fine, happy knowing that in life, her father was a man claimed to be totally insane, but to her he was a man who was amazing and not truly as crazy as she, or anyone else, thought him to be. Not to mention... being the daughter of someone like Charlie, would she someday be convincing her daughter/son to go find the rest with her child thinking of her as insane or would she want it to be left untouched save for the hands of her loving father?
Yeah, we were wondering if it was gold in the DW, and in fact if there was any treasure at all. There was a gold glow (ala Pulp Fiction) reflected back on her, but I remember the inside of the DW in the store being kind of golden.
We really only saw the treasure through Charlie's eyes... still not really sure if it was just a sewer!
I like that they left it uncertain...
During the Costco gold adventure, Charlie tells his daughter that he found the gold and got about half of it and that he was going back to recover the rest. The assumption here is that he put the gold he found in the dishwasher. Remember he gave his daughter the piece of paper and said it was "really important" and the paper ended up being for the dishwasher? At the end , in the back of her car is the dishwashing machine - She opens the machine and you can see a bit of a glow. I think it is safe for viewers to assume that Charlie hid the half of gold he recovered in the dishwasher and gave her the receipt for the dishwasher (so she could collect the partial amount of gold he recovered later as well as have the dishwasher that she was so fascinated with...)
shareInterpreting something for yourself isn't stupid, refusing to think and expecting everything to be handed to you is...
Anyway, my take. In one scene Miranda's got a book on her lap. The name Ken Kesey can be easily made out. Ken Kesey wrote "One Flew Over the Cuckoos Nest".
In that book(Excerpt from Wikipedia article): The Chief smothers McMurphy with a pillow to suffocate him during the night. He does this so that McMurphy can die with dignity rather than lie there as a representation of what happens when one tries to buck the system. (This was after McMurphy had been lobotomized)
Another piece of trivia: Michael Douglas produced the film version of One Flew Over The Cuckoos Nest...
So, I suppose that Charlie went away in the end, on his own terms, and not as an example of what happens to you when you chase a dream and eschew mainstream society. Nice thing is that both Charlie and Murphy left a legacy, a memory of someone that had been "free" from the chains that bind the rest of us. Kind of an inspiration for people to take back their lives and believe in something...
Wow. What a beautiful interpretation. I needed to read this right now :D
shareHe went back in because he only got some of the gold the first time. And I don't for a second belive that he died down there. As he said, it was an underground river. He would have followed the river to whatever body of water it fed into and escaped that way.
shareI don't think he dies either. He says the passageway is fourty bars down. I think he finds the passageway since he takes off the air tank and swims up in the end.
Its doesn't show him dying at all. She also says at the end that the last page of the guy who had the treasure(don't know his name) says something about staying there in a place because the world is too crazy or something to that affect. You
really have to watch it a few times because its easy to miss stuff.
When she looks into the washer, her emotions and expression say it all.
Also, the Aisan guys swimming up to the shore is a sign to her that her dad wasn't so crazy, but he knew all along what he was talking about and gave her hope and possible regret.
Watch it again
I really don't care what the thread poster said....yes , you do interpet your own ending on a movie like this. We are not suggested that he died or that he lived or anything, it's mainly that you use your imagination and you determine his fate!!!
Miranda answers this. She says, "It's where he wanted to go."
bushtony and his mother suffer from Congential Stupidtiy and they didn't see it coming.
Charlie swam out to sea the Chinese guys and help them to get into California. Miranda was read her rights but she was aglow knowing she had treasured a dishwasher and and now owned it.
Hey, look it up!