MovieChat Forums > Barney's Version (2011) Discussion > The ending...

The ending...

posted 13 years ago by philly_kane
44 replies | jump to latest

The twist at the end. Spoiler alert!!

Did anyone else not figure it out right away and have someone else explain it to you? Maybe you're reading this and still don't know.

The movie ended. I got up from my seat and thought the movie was pretty good.
Seconds later my buddy explains the ending to me. I felt kind of stupid. But having spoken to a few others, it seems I'm not the only one who didn't catch it.

In the final scene, did anyone else not realize that when Barney was sitting in his chair, looking out at the lake, and seeing the water plane graze the water and throw the beach ball into the forest, that this was his revelation that he actually didn't kill his friend all those years back?

He shot the gun, passed out and woke up. All he knew at that point was that he shot a gun and his friend was missing. He thought he killed him.
Then when they found the body years later it was said he had wounds similar to a sky diving accident. The plane picked him up out of the water when he was scuba diving and threw him into the forest. That's why they never found a body till then.

Couldn't believe I didn't pick up on that. I figured out the twist in 6th Sense half way through the movie. haa..

Needless to say, this twist made the movie THAT much better!

[–] timmy-bear 13 years ago

I missed a bit of the implications by the end. But now I get it...I was trying to figure out the skydiving part, as we saw him fall forward into the water. I never thought of the plane scooping him up.

[–] stub20000 13 years ago

thought that part was obvious to be honest. when the beach ball was falling he was remembering the news person saying "skydiving accident"

[–] timmy-bear 13 years ago

Unfortunately, my attention was somewhat diverted by the woman next to me translating somewhat loudly for her hearing-impaired husband.

[–] Knoxvicious 13 years ago

omg, I was the exact same way! I felt so stupid! I knew he was having one of those epiphany moments but didn't understand what it was...

I've never heard of that old Urban Legend surrounding something like that though and was never aware they even DID that. I guess it's just my ignorance...

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[–] docpey 13 years ago

I agree that the plane was significant, but why would a sea plane pick up a swimmer and drop him in the woods. It makes no sense. I think that the plane may have hit him an dazed him and he swam ashore, wandered into the woods looking for help and passed out and died.

[–] alicorna 11 years ago

It was a fire services plane. They scoop up water and fly over a fire and drop the water on it. In the final scene with the plane at the lake, you can see smoke rising from the forest in a couple of places, which is why the plane was there, scooping up water from the lake and heading toward the hills.

[–] ajukoor 9 years ago

Plus the beachball falling with the water from the plane.

[–] JonTheGod 13 years ago

Yeah I felt that part was kinda obvious. Did you understand WHY Barney died? (In case you missed that one as well?)

[–] prmoviegirl 13 years ago

Spoilers!

The final lake house scene has children playing in the water with a beach ball. The plane does a touch and go landing then you see the beach ball falling through the air along with the extra water. That is when Barney has the look of recognition flit across his face. I believe he realized that Boogie's body was scooped up in the same fashion, then dropped (as if in a sky diving accident) and killed. Who knows if he was already dead from drowning, but I would of thought the autopsy would have shown that.

Seemingly like everyone else, my girlfriend had to point out the details of the ending to me. At one point I thought that Barney loaded his body into the plane and push the body out over the mountain. Thank goodness we have smart friends to go to the movies with!

I loved, loved, loved this movie. The acting, the story, the Canadian setting are all so enjoyable and make you reflect on one man's life.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] Spielburger 13 years ago

The end "twist" is based on a very famous urban legend, which has also been referenced in "Magnolia" and an episode of CSI.
See: http://www.snopes.com/horrors/freakish/scuba.asp

[–] Dantès 13 years ago

docpey, the plane wasn't trying to pick up a swimmer. I don't know exactly how those planes work, but that ending scene made it pretty clear that it lands quickly and sucks up a bunch of water, but is also capable of picking up larger things that are IN the water. Boogie could have been underwater (probably was) so the pilots wouldn't have seen him there and he got sucked in by accident.

This happens with cruise ships too. They suck fish into their ballast tanks and then spit them back out in other places, transporting non-native species to other parts of the world.

Getting to the point, it's funny that people didn't get the "twist." It took me a few seconds, but I thought it was pretty obvious.

[–] bmennen 13 years ago

Actually, the urban legend is based on this bit from Richler's book; and, Richler was decent enough to give a friend of his the credit for this creative plot twist.

[–] Spielburger 13 years ago

"Actually, the urban legend is based on this bit from Richler's book;"

No, the urban legend is much older. Richler's book came out in 1997, but (as stated in the article) Snopes have traced the legend back to at least 1987. Even the report on the Californian "incident" that they quote dates from 1996 - before the book's release.

[–] stpetebeach 13 years ago

In the book the son figures it out but Barney is too far gone into Alzheimer's. It's too late for him to learn the truth. That makes the book a more brutal, sadder story. I would like to believe that in the film Barney has enough clarity of mind to understand what happened to his friend, but I believe the filmmakers meant for this to remain ambiguous. Great film, by the way, exceptional acting and script.

[–] 13 years ago

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[–] johnnyzero2 12 years ago

Yes, it also made me think of the opening sequence of Magnolia where they re-enact the infamous urban legend (with Patton Oswalt as the hapless victim).

[–] rteitel 13 years ago

It was pretty obvious. Wasnt aware of the nod to Magnolia though.

[–] tauiota2 13 years ago

There is an old joke in Greece where forest fires are quite common and they use Canadair water bombers about the scuba diver who was found in the middle of the forest after the fire. canadairs there load up mostly from the sea. In rality, this cannot happen because there is a special grill attached to the sucking hose for that particular reason (in canada mostly to avoid sucking floating wood and dead animal bodies from lakes). However, the beach ball in the movie just made it clear what had happened to the body of his friend.

[–] legal_eazin 13 years ago

I don't know about you guys, but ending to me seemed a little...wait for it...

FAR-FETCHED!!!

(sorry,had to do it)

[–] obscure_metaphor 13 years ago

the thing is, everyone so far seems to have missed the point...

The real tragedy of the film is that the most barney can manage is a vague half remembered idea, while he struggles to peal a banana and remember how to smoke a cigar. The tragedy is the we the audience are the only ones who have ever been in the position to know the truth. To barney, the truth has just become another confusing fractured thought that he no longer has the ability to piece together, or tell anyone about even if he did.