Who 'got' the ending? - Virtuality (2009) Discussion

[–] TheAxemanCometh 15 years ago

the ending was shocking.

~
You cannot play God then wash your hands of the things that you’ve created- Adama

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[–] movieaddict21 15 years ago

I have no idea, it was sort of vague and I didn't hear everything the commander said in the end.

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[–] kcla 15 years ago

huh? so he's not dead or he is? or are we just supposed to get off our couch and get on with the real world?

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[–] hellraiserprophecy 15 years ago

Seems to me that the character in question may have transferred a copy of his consciousness into the Virt module or something...

HELLRAISER: PROPHECY (2006)
A nonprofit crossover fan film
http://www.hellraiserprophecy.com/

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[–] mYst-18 15 years ago

I think maybe after dying in the virtual world, he didn't take the real world seriously, and so he opened the airlock himself to get the same feeling he did when dying in the virtual world. The end segment of him talking was him recorded from earlier in the trip. Basically, he went a bit insane.

Well that's my theory, anyways.

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[–] kcla 15 years ago

He didn't seem like he wanted to die. He didn't seem to realize the door was going to close.

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[–] sita_chez 10 years ago

I think maybe after dying in the virtual world, he didn't take the real world seriously, and so he opened the airlock himself to get the same feeling he did when dying in the virtual world. The end segment of him talking was him recorded from earlier in the trip. Basically, he went a bit insane.

Well that's my theory, anyways.

so not paying attention, he was clearly murdered, probably by the husband, who clearly knew what was happening with his wife, he smiled after he was dead too.

"F U C K me gently with a chainsaw" Heathers

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[–] marcosmalo 15 years ago

The captain isn't really dead, although he did "die" in the airlock. The ship and the whole mission are a VR program. By "dying", the captain moved himself a level up, but he can still interact with the crew in their VR modules. No telling if the captain is now in "reality" or just a higher level of the VR.

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[–] unbreakable16 15 years ago

Oooooh, clever idea. I hadn't thought of that. That WOULD explain why he seemed to go nuts after that one event in there, but...hmm, I don't THINK that's what's going on, but it's sure possible.

Such an awesome, awesome show.

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[–] kalqlate 15 years ago

Well, given the name of the show is "Virtuality" and that great emphasis was given as to the reasons for and goings on of the personal VR system, that analysis, that everything is just a multi-level simulation, is the expected one.

I suspect the creator(s) and writer(s) are a bit more sophisticated than that. After all, the scenario of shock at discovering that one's life is actually a virtually simulated reality is fairly old hat these days. I'd say that they (the writers) are certainly lulling the viewer down that beaten path of thinking solely in terms of "the ship and the whole mission are a VR program". But I imagine the OUTER scenario, that our characters' entire universe, its entire history, including the lives of the audience back on Earth, including what any of their perceptions of life-after-death would be, are just part of a grand simulation down to the quantum level, perhaps even across multiple dimensions and multiple quantum realities. The writers would posit that simulation IS, in fact, what reality is made of. Which leads to the ultimate conclusion that "reality" is purely a matter of perception.

If the series continues, and I hope it does, the writers will lead us into knowing that WE are just like the audience back on Earth. And while we are watching the play out of a scenario where it slowly becomes understood that that Earth audience is also part of the simulation, cleverly the writers will seek to get us to feel that WE TOO are living in a grand simulation while watching the revealing of a grand simulation.

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[–] njbawla 15 years ago

The ending was indeed shocking! I literally got chills speculating and wondering all of the wonderful possibilities that it opened up. I mean, the Captain would continue to be in the series, but as a benevolent virtual force against the malevolent one?

And knowing that the trip had so much more in store for humanity other than just finding a new home? Wow. Just wow. Fox would be disgustingly inept if they didn't continue this!

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[–] tozaiminka 15 years ago

See "Earth Star Voyager" a Disney made-for-TV flick from quite a while back. Somewhat same premise.

"It's just television, get over it!" - David Letterman

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[–] Jerv23325-1 15 years ago

It was obviously the end of a pilot that would have been continued in another episode. Other than that Alice is involved and Pike is alive in the virtual world, there was no resolution or "ending" to speak of.

Catch DOLLHOUSE on Fridays at 9/8c on FOX

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] smartgirl_kt_47 15 years ago

I agree. As soon as he invited Rika to travel down the rabbit hole with him, I got a very Matrix-y feeling that the whole mission was a simulation.

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[–] smcbr001 15 years ago

I second that. Everyone's under the control of Jean or someone/thing else. Pike figures it out, acts a little nuts for a while. He then sacrifices himself to shock [what's her name], and ultimately get her to snap everyone out of it.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] styleandair 15 years ago

I got the same impression. That it was just a virtual simulation to see how they would react to being on the mission. Then maybe he realized this and rigged the door to open to get himself out.

But that theory doesn't really work if it is going to be series. A whole series where you find out at the end nothing really happened would be pretty weak.

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[–] TheAxemanCometh 15 years ago

I also got the impression that the mission isn't real & that is was a virtuality reality (Matrix).

But it could be a combination. That they're consciousness is needed to make the mission a sucess but that they are still in virtual.

~
You cannot play God then wash your hands of the things that you’ve created- Adama

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[–] HyperPup 15 years ago

I have a distinct feeling that is the case too. They are probably on a Generation Ship really headed with the rest of humanity as the Earth's decline forced a more drastic solution. Build a space ark and take as many people that can be stored safely in cryostasis. Then to keep their minds at play and active hook them into a consensual VR net and viola. They could be in any reality this cluster of people thinks of. Perhaps the generation ship is controlled by Jean, and she controls the virtual world of the Phaeton. Dunno, it just reeks of some underlying VR trick.

Thousands die every day for no reason at all, where's your bleeding heart for them?

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[–] tozaiminka 15 years ago

THE STARLOST

"It's just television, get over it!" - David Letterman

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[–] Marbeque 15 years ago

I am gonna go with the I, Robot reference, that his death was on purpose as a clue to a greater problem.

Now showing: thefundamentalthings.blogspot.com

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[–] Sarasilien 15 years ago

The implication is that the mission isn't real, but we can't know that to be true. The source of the captain as a VR character could easily be the same as the source of the bad guy who torments everybody. I suspect that if the series were picked up, the writers would be constantly tormenting *us*, hinting that the world of the space ship both is and isn't real, and would milk the it is real/it isn't real mystery for much more than it's worth. Kind of a literal man's P.K. Dick-ism.

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[–] skirk9 15 years ago

No kiddin, what the heck. There must be a continuing story that they may air later?

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[–] CF_Fighter 15 years ago

Nope Fox has not picked it up for a series. I think they may have invested so much money that they wanted to see some return and they had a feeling the Galactica fans would watch. If Fox still won;t give it a series I want them to at least give Moore 2 hours to try and give some resolution to the story, but the way its going I don't think 2 hours will answer everything or we'll get some very quick answers without depth to them.

1123 6536 5321....JUMP!

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[–] briscojr 15 years ago

I think there was a vital clue earlier when he asked Jean to replay his death from the Civil War simulation, and he said something like, "play it at half speed slowly" or something like that (I wish I'd taped it and I'd watch it again). Anyway, after he watched his death again, and weirdly enough, asked Jean what time it was, his whole attitude changed and it was like he'd 'figured out' what was going on.

What exactly this epiphany was we can only guess at of course, and possibly would have been the mystery behind this entire series, but I'd say some type of Matrix-y crossover between the virtual world and the real world is plausible.

Just my own guess, but maybe there isn't even a real world anymore. Maybe they've all been in space for hundreds of years because the devastation we kept seeing on Earth actually took place, and there was no Earth for them to return to. Maybe there whole lives are just virtual reality copies of the real astronauts who went up there and died long ago? Ok, rambling now, but definitely put me down as someone who would watch this if it was a series!

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[–] ktpsp7 15 years ago

remember the end of that scene. coming up and eventually going through the opened air lock. Then he points the gun to his throat smiling.

Kind of like a premonition of his death like.

This story is very complicated. About like Lost in complexity.

And what he said at the end. None of it is real.

We will never get any answers will we.

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[–] leoess_247 15 years ago

i think he experienced afterlife when he replayed that death scene in the virt module, thus he wasn't afraid of death anymore.

maybe the virtual 'bad guy' is playing god and punished him for committing adultery? or maybe he's just playing out their most wicked evil inner fantasies.

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[–] MrGr 15 years ago

Tbh, this pilot failed.

As a pilot for a series you would expect to know what you can expect from it as a series.
Stargate, lots of worlds to discover, with a strong enemy out there too.
BSG, alone in space, cylons hunting humans and humans trying to find earth..
Or even Lost, people survived a crash and find themselves on a island with weird *beep* happening... how to survive? how to get back to the rest of the world? etcetc.

This pilot fails to give a sense of which direction they want to take this series to.
How do you want to create a series about 11 people in space on a mission for 10 years ... when in the pilot you have the MAIN character die and say it's all not real. What does that even mean?
Should we not bother watching the show because its not real anyway?
Is the captain going to be a character in the show or was he only there for the pilot?
Are we going to follow the spacemen and see a development between their "RL" in space and their fantasies?
Or do they want to create a sliders/stargate kind of series by having those characters move from virtual world to virtual world, with the spaceship world being the first virtual world?

Back to the drawing board, or just end it here already.

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[–] rasky2099 15 years ago

That's the feeling I got too, that the entire mission is fake. Which I think, would make the series clever for being clever, but end up leaving you feeling empty inside. Kind of like the incredibly disappointing resolution to Battlestar Galactica. Had I known "the plan" all along, I would have never watched it.

For that reason, I'm kind of glad the series didn't get picked up. Ron Moore disappointed me tremendously with the promise of BSG, which he never delivered on. I'm glad that he didn't get the opportunity to jerk us around again, since that seems in this pilot he seems to be setting up exactly that same kind of mind-*beep*.

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[–] trynnallen 15 years ago

I don't think the mission is faked, but rather the mission is real, the people are just in suspension and are trapped in a bad version of the suspension. The mole could be trying to get them out of it by playing on thier worst fears as they wouldn't accept the truth any other way.

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[–] kalqlate 15 years ago

See my post within this thread for a way that it could become very interesting and involving: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1219836/board/reply/142241473

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[–] helsten 15 years ago

This parallels the experience of many mystics who "wake up" from what the Hindu's call Maya or the "dream" of this life.

Ramana Maharshi had a similar experience of seeing himself dead that helped him "wake up" to reality.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ramana_Maharshi

I have a personal friend who has had a similar experience and now refers to his whole life as a dream.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] eviltimes 15 years ago

What just happened?

It's a failed pilot.

You want to see how to start a TV show watch the opener of SG-1 or The real opener of Firefly. That's how it's done, just jump right in and don't spend 2 hours introducing characters, Just do the show!

Besides, once they totally screwed up the physics, I had to discount it completely.

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[–] 15 years ago

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[–] drjettrink 15 years ago

Didnt anyone else see the guy in the Members Only jacket get up and go to the washroom?

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[–] briscojr 15 years ago

Journey > Munster's theme in Japanese.

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[–] coldsafe777 15 years ago

There is nothing to get, its a show setup. I think FOX really screwed themselves by advertising this as a standalone movie.

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[–] procreate 15 years ago

seems like is not the end but the beginning of a long, long story/show.
Thats at least what they want. More than that, seems like in the end of its production they regret and try to make this into a standalone movie instead of a whole show. Probably they dont have the money to support it and of course, they wont have the viewers to do it either.
It has a lot of fails, not just this "open" end but they stay over and over again in the same place doing nothing. A gay couple? in the space?. Fox?
I dont know...
More than a reality show transmited from the space, looks like a paris hilton (wet?) dream. Probably after one of her passed out.

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[–] mikro-1 15 years ago

Agreed that it seems unlikely Virtuality's character are just virtual reality, unless the intention was to make them "wake up" early in the first season from a simulation and play it from there. It was written to be a series, and one that would last at least five or six seasons, so we can't at this point discount this first episode being anything but a simple introduction, although it definitely could be the writers haven't decided where to take it at this point.

The commander is definitely not gone from the show. But anyways, I felt it was a brilliant opener and I can only hope Fox picks it up, but in a likelihood this show is done for.

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[–] redbird1957 15 years ago

Somebody took the ending of "Life on Mars" and ran with it. Why is VR tied to Space Travel anyway. Where's the creativity in that.

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[–] greenerskies47 15 years ago

I thought the same thing about the "Life on Mars" ending. I didn't watch Life on Mars, but my sister told me about it and as soon as I read the description of Virtuality I thought of the finale of Life on Mars. I just watched the pilot of Virtuality and honestly I kept thinking "when will it end?" It was an interesting story, but I hated the reality show aspect - I guess it's just not for me. Also I just didn't really find any of the other characters likeable, besides the captain who "died" at the end (I'm sure had the show gone on we would find out he wasn't really entirely dead). I'm guessing that there is some sort of secret the company they all work for is holding back and it has something to do with the guy who kept showing up and the fact that the captain is most likely still alive somehow (maybe in the virtual reality) and the ending was meant to leave you questioning what happened so that you would watch again.

"Irresponsibility isn't a sickness - it's an art." - Remington Steele

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[–] kuluvas 15 years ago

C'mon People He said "It's OK Rika, None of it's real" So that would lead me to believe that the whole thing is a test to see how we would do in a deep space mission. But if that's the case I don't know how good a show would be but if they don't make it a show it was a pointless thing to waste money on...

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