MovieChat Forums > Passion Play (2011) Discussion > The end shot ruined it for me (spoilers)

The end shot ruined it for me (spoilers)

posted 13 years ago by blaqueknight2000
19 replies | jump to latest

DO NOT read this if you have not seen the movie. BIG spoiler!

I was okay with this movie. I was able to suspend disbelief throughout the movie and roll with every little absurdity. I thought Megan Fox did well and she actually convinced me that she has some abilities with this film. It wasn't until the last shot when Mickey Rourke is being carried away by Megan and looks down and sees his own body laying there, showing that he had actually been shot to death and everything that happened was just in his mind in the last seconds of his life that happened that I completely turned from having seen an okay film to having seen a piece of sh*t. What in the hell were they thinking? That just made the whole movie null and void! That was a really poor choice of twists. Taking 4-5 seconds out of this movie would make it much better. Well, that was my opinion on the subject. I know some like it just as it is but I thought that one shot ruined the whole movie for me.

[–] CrowBat2005 13 years ago

I took it more like it was a test after his death to find a better side to himself, face his fears (Happy and death), and finally find love to complete the life he lost. I thought it like a pergutory for him and Lily was the angel to deliver him to heaven after the test and give him someone to be with and love there.

"I think you and I are destined to do this forever."
Rest In Peace Heath. 1/22/08

[–] corky-27 13 years ago

Exactly. In fact, and no dis to the OP, I felt the ending made the movie, and changed my overall thoughts regarding it, considerably...

Right. Well, I have to-- I have to go now, Duane, because I, I'm due back on the planet Earth.

[–] babybyrd2000 13 years ago

This movie was a take off on An Occurrence at Owl Creek Bridge by Ambrose Bierce

read a synopsis of that legendary short story by War Between the States veteran and author Bierce and you'll get the inspiration at least

[–] blaqueknight2000 13 years ago

I read it. I got the inspirational references. It just didn't work for this movie, IMO. It was their attempt at trying to be "artsy" that made it fail. If they deleted that one shot from the movie, it would have been tolerable for me. Its like they took one step too far and it sent them off the cliff. Sometimes its best not to go for that one last twist.

[–] d.rust 13 years ago

The ending indeed makes incredible sense: everything else does not. The Indian snipers, the Carnival, the motel, Happy, the drugging, everything is presented to Nate as it were the tapestry of his life. Once he accepts this and (literally) takes the plunge, the Angel takes him up to heaven.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] DamianGein 13 years ago

I actually liked the ending and IMO made sense, like previous posters have said, it was some kind of purgatory.

Estas ahí?

[–] blaqueknight2000 13 years ago

I never said it didn't make sense; I said I didn't like it.

[–] onn1320 13 years ago

Not to change the subject, but when Murray's character says he is a widow - is he implying that he had his wife killed?

Overall - I agree with some of the posters that say the ending made scene. Without the ending the rest of the movie wouldn't make sense - Not for a drama any way. Maybe for a fantasy.

"And what was it last time? Didn't know what the box was?" - The Female Cenobite in Hellbound

[–] Megamel_99 13 years ago

Onn1320, I believe that is what he was implying when he said he was a widow.

[–] Random439 13 years ago

What exactly happened is up to the viewer; it isn't explained.
YOU assume that it was just something that happened in his mind in the last few seconds, but that's only one of a number of possibilities.
Starting with maybe it was a hallucination over the course of hours as he bled out. Gunshots aren't always instantly fatal.
Either way, it doesn't make the story null and void. It just changes it from the story of a guy who met a girl with wings into the story of a man accepting his own death.

Personally, I tend to think that she really was an angel, and that she was testing him to see (or to prove to him) that he was redeemable.
This test might have taken place in his head, or in a metaphysical/spiritual realm of some kind, or it might have actually taken place in the real world, with him in a temporary body or moving through the world as ghost.

It's an ending to think about, not to latch onto your first impression and get pissed about.

[–] daveoafc77 12 years ago

I'm not even sure you can call the ending a twist, it was clear from the earliest opportunity that was were they were going with the film. If it was intended to be a suprise to the audience that he was actually dead then why make the script so ham-fisted with such a lack of subtlety?
I also agree they should have left out the end shot but for different reasons, then end was clear enough without a massive sign to the audience saying "look he was dead all along this was a death dream!!" it suggest to me that the director felt the audience he was aiming at was so low they wouldnt pick up on all the "clues" (and by clues its more like clear indications) throughout the film that he was already dead

[–] Wuchakk 12 years ago

Re: "That just made the whole movie null and void! That was a really poor choice of twists."

No, the exact opposite: It gave the story purpose in an eternal scope. Instead of some silly fantasy about a hard-luck musician meeting some ultra beautiful woman with wings who learns to fly while simultaneously delivering the man from some serious heavies (why sure!), the story becomes a story of eternal redemption for a dumb bastage who messed around with a mob boss' wife.

At the end you see Nate smiling with true joy as the angel sweeps him off to eternal bliss. God gave him a second chance at redemption and he escaped this piece-of-sh*t world.

[–] acertificate 11 years ago

I kind of had the same feeling. It could have ended on a really positive, uplifting feeling. But I still really like the movie.

[–] kascha-klaussen 10 years ago

It did end on a positive uplifting feeling.

Except I don't think the girl knew she was actually an angel. I think she was in purgatory too, and they delivered each other.

Each one was faced with either making a selfless almost certainly fatal choice in helping the other or with selfishness, doubt, lack of faith, and self preservation and both made the choice that would deliver them. In that split second after he jumped, she forgot her doubt and fear and thought only of him. That is angelic, and that's when she finally flew. She'd have been doing it much sooner if she'd had faith. Angels are not earthbound just because. It happens as a result of being faithless.

And his story is pretty cut and dried.

Could have been a cheesy low budget movie just like any other, but it wasn't.

[–] blaqueknight2000 10 years ago

I hadn't thought about it that way, Kascha. I'll have to re-watch it. That makes sense.

[–] sul-4 10 years ago

I think the uplifting part of the ending might depend on your beliefs.

There's no doubt in my mind that the film was set up as an allegory for the Passion, that being defined as the struggle, internal and external torture that Jesus went through from 'betrayal' to resurrection.

Ultimately, when the dying character accepts that he can only be redeemed by faith, AND that he did it for unselfish reasons, not to save himself but to save the girl.

That it riffs on Ambrose Bierce doesn't bother me, because in the Bierce story, this is a lifetime fantasy that happens in a few seconds of reality. There isn't redemption, just a moment of peace before death.

There was no peace in Rourke's dying, he struggled with who he is, his cowardice,
avarice, dishonesty, selfishness, all coming out in various ways in the improbable story in his mind. For the true believer, there is redemption in faith, maybe for the atheist like me there is redemption in that Rourke finally does something selfless in his life, if only in his own mind.

The film was thoughtful, but not worth watching again.

[–] 10 years ago

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