MovieChat Forums > He Was a Quiet Man (2020) Discussion > (Spoilers) The dead goldfish in the tank

(Spoilers) The dead goldfish in the tank

posted 14 years ago by ensnubbe622
12 replies | jump to latest

Has anyone got any thoughts on what the dead fish in the tank meant?
Someone speculated that Maconel actually shot himself in his own home, could this somehow be what is implied? Or was Maconel just so deep in his psychosis that he neglected his fish for so long that they expired? Or was he so absorbed by taking care of Vanessa that he neglected them? Or- something else? Somebody? I just can't make sense of the implications of them being shown dead at the end of the film.

[–] rickwahoo 14 years ago

**********SPOILERS CONTINUE****************

Good question. The first time I watched this, I took it at face value and thoroughly enjoyed it. The second viewing (last night) left me with a different conclusion...relating to the goldfish, which you question.

Is it possible that from when Slater drops the bullet and later sees the single bullet on the floor and kills himself....that everything between those two points are imagined? The truth being that he set out to kill everyone, drops the bullet, goes to get it, imagines someone else actually doing the deed, then imagines himself killing that guy, getting the girl the only way he could (she is an invalid), and coming back to reality when he gets the bullet...pauses, then simply whacks himself......the goldfish are dead because of the neglect prior to his initial plot to kill everyone. Vanessa was never shot. He was never a hero. All that stuff never happened.....the "cop" that kept pestering him about being the real killer was his own self-conscience. The "cop" not being real bolstered by the scene where the boxes appear in the office when the cop finally tells Slater he suspects him...and the boxes keep multiplying..meaning the scene is not reality...

I need to rent it so I can jump from his initial attempt to the final attempt and see if he's wearing the same clothes......

The whole thing being imagined by Slater (between the bullet scenes) explains a lot of things.

[–] imdb-7503 14 years ago

**** spoiler-filled reply ****

That is the basic idea that I observed the first time I watched it. Unfortunately, I saw it in two sittings, so it wasn't as immersive as it could have been.

The state of his house with the dead fish is just how he was living. Before he went to work on the day most of the film happens, it appears he lost it because he destroyed the living room and his TV before he left.

The major clue that everything after he drops the bullet is in his head is that he fires six shots at the imagined shooter when he only had five bullets.

Presumably, after he dropped the bullet, and the majority of the movie plays out in his head, he went looking for the CEO with five bullets and the gun (the secretary doesn't recognize him upstairs). When he steps on the 6th bullet after arriving back downstairs, he realizes he imagined everything and loses it the rest of the way.

The most curious thing to me is the forest of snowflakes hanging from the ceiling which vanish after he "wakes up". I assume they were symbolic of the kinds of things he was imagining were at work in order to tolerate it as well as he did and they vanished because the last of his sanity was slipping away.

[–] boojitsu 14 years ago

*Spoilers ahead*

I agree with your overall analysis, but the point about firing six shots doesn't seem right. I'm pretty sure in the elevator the two jerks pop in and say "how many did you fire into the maniac?" (or something along those lines) and Bob responds with "5". Whether that was the amount of times the gun went off in that scene, I'm not sure (too lazy to find that scene again).

Also, my interpretation is that Bob created the world in his head where there were picturesque sunsets and an awkward, but 'plausible' (in his head), scenario of a girl like Vanessa falling in love with him because she was paralyzed. When in his own dream and fantasy he realizes that even in the nicest of scenarios Vanessa would probably leave him, and that she was just using him due to her circumstances, he decided he didn't belong and killed himself. I think the scene where he starts seeing Vanessa and and mixing it with Paula leads me to assume that Vanessa was really the one Bob wanted, but didn't want the sleazy girl that Paula seemed, so took her attractiveness and put it into a way that fit his world better. This took away from Paula's chest and put it into Vanessa's smile. He took the sordid past (sleeping your way to the top) and put it as a mistake that she learned wasn't right. Basically taking Paula and creating a better person that Bob would want to end up with. That's my 2 cents. It's kind of open if you assume everything from the time he drops the bullet to the time he shoots himself is in his own mind.

[–] rroach50 14 years ago

*Spoilers ahead*

Bob not only says "5" in the elevator but that is indeed the number of shots he fires in the earlier scene. Ergo, that's not a clue that what we're seeing isn't really happening.

[–] shane1979 14 years ago

From what i could tell after viewing the movie several times, (as I loved it) was that the whole movie was a dream like before. Vanessa DID NOT exist. He was seriously disturbed. The dead fish was an indication that he lost it that morning and had been neglecting everything.

Like someone else said its sad that even in his own fantasy he was still a loser.

Habataitara modorenai to itte
Mezashi-ta no wa aoi aoi ano sora

[–] merlin289 14 years ago

Brilliant film.

I thought that the goldfish was a sign of his deteriorating mental state, much like the dog in Summer of Sam

[–] joetylicki 14 years ago

My problem with that theory is when Bob asks Vanessa if she loves him and he has his head in her lap, she does a quick look to the side suggesting she doesn't want to tell him the truth. He can't see her eyes at that point, so what would be the purpose if he was dreaming it all up?

[–] perleatsworld-1 14 years ago

That made him realize that he was weak and that she was in his imagination. It made him realize no one will every really love him, and when he came back to reality he shot himself instead of the others showing that he was the weak one that needed to be sacrificed.

[–] iheartjacksparrow 13 years ago

He neglected everything and the fish died. Just like his neighbor was asking him to cut the grass of his front lawn. I'm not sure about all the empty honey jars on the floor of the kitchen.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] grrrdevin 11 years ago

He neglected to feed his goldfish so they died. The end.

"I've been living on toxic waste for years, and I'm fine. Just ask my other heads!"

[–] lorddeseiz 11 years ago

This movie is kinda based on the expression seeing a lifetime pass by in a near death situation.
The moment he drops the bullet were watching his mind, how things play out, we get back into reality when hes facing Paula, and he snaps out of it, with the shifting faces between Paula and Venessa, Venessa couldnt be there since in his mind she was disabled, in reality he wasnt watching Paula, it was Venessa. His words: "There comes a time when the diseased and the weak must be sacrificed to save the herd. " While looking at venessa and realizing he is the weak and diseased. So he shot himself instead of everyone else like he was planning.
The fish where dead because by the time the cops get into his home they died of neglect.
Want more proof? The very last images show neighbors talk about him in front of his house, his front yard is still a mess, yet we saw him clean it up half way in the movie.
more? Hes wearing the same clothes when he dropped the bullet and when he shot himself, yet when he goes berserk before that hes in his nice VP suit.
One might call those goofs, but theyre not, they are indicators of whats what.
No one but Bob and the fish died.

The growing stacks of boxes, the blowing up of the building during lunch time, all show he is a very imaginative person, living inside his head "a quiet man", every insult, malcontent or negative influence is swallowed as a drop in a bucket until it runs over and when it does, well, it isnt quiet anymore.

_____________________
Any last words ?
Shut the *beep* up
-Mutant Chronicles-