I don't understand the ending? *SPOILER ALERT* - Wasted on the Young (2013) Discussion

[–] Likes_Ninjas90 13 years ago

Its implied that the other kids texted through to that killing chair device so the boy killed his step brother and the final shot of him is presumably in a gaol swimming pool.

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[–] ReubenDrosdowsky 13 years ago

Thats also what I interpreted it as but one thing I didn't understand or buy was that everyone at the party knew exactly what to do (texting to the device)- was this process ever explained to them by Darren? Maybe I missed something but, yeh, It didn't really sit right with me after I left the cinema.

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[–] electusunum 13 years ago

I think it was actually the opposite. I think they could have texted to stop it.
While everyone in the school watched Zach be an *beep* none of them were willing to stand up to him for anything he did.

I presume his friend Brook (the guy with the big dipper tattoo on his back) was mad because Zach sold him out as the rapist to those hipsters outside the party.

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[–] dnvs28 13 years ago

So, what you're saying is that no one ever spoke up to him throughout the movie, and at the end, they continued to do just that by not texting to stop the gun from killing him? That's a good statement to end the movie on - I didn't think it till I read your post.

I could see why Brook would be mad at him, but the motivation of the two girls not to stop it was a little staged for me. Just cause he pushed the blonde away earlier (for no discernible reason), she justified to herself that it was okay to let him die? Or, I guess that shows just how shallow she is.

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[–] seppeehr 13 years ago

I don't think so. Did you notice what the video clip attached with the message "you can stop this" was about? The clip was the one the guys raping the poor girl. So, when you receive a message with such content and "you can stop this", I think it refers to stopping this sickness by killing the moron, not deactivating the killing device.

If the goal was to stop the killing machine, no video clip was needed as a live stream was being played. So receiving "you can stop this" would perfectly imply stopping the device from killing either one of the brothers.

That's what I realized anyway.
Sorry for the language BTW.

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[–] ReubenDrosdowsky 13 years ago

actually that is good statement to end on- the whole 'not standing up thing'and in the end they're all still relying on their mobile devices for justice or vengance. Fitting considering the film has heaps of cyber-bullying themes and statements about technology and youth. Didn't think of that before.

also, thats a southern cross tattoo on the guys back all the white trash in Australia have them.

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[–] almost-rockular 13 years ago

There is a scene where Xandrie's friend Ella (brunette girl) gets the video-MMS with the text "you can stop this" on her cell phone, which then presents her the two options "Reply" and "Back". So in my point of view it is indeed neither explained nor intuitive, how to control the machine.

But I'd like to add that the movie would make even less sense if they would not know how to operate it, so you should assume, they knew. And then you can also raise the probably more interesting question, whether it is ethical to decide over a persons live in a kind of direct-democratically election.

You can read more about "direct democracy" or "social anarchism" in the Wikipedia, for example ;)

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[–] nitekat01 13 years ago

i didnt really understand the ending either...but to be honest by the end i didnt really care. I guess its good for an australian film...but to be honest i thought the film was pretty poor. Youd think the most expensive school in australia would have a teacher or two.

i dont mind films that require you to suspend your belief..but this required you leave it at home before boarding to flight to australia.

the main part of the plot also seems to be lifter from an episode of Law and Order

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[–] paq5528 13 years ago

The ending was of him swimming in the family's swimming pool. You can vaguely make out 2 adults in the background, presumably the parents who were never previously around. And why did they come back? Again, presumably for the funeral.

The ending shows a device which can turn and swivel. In this case it was set to point at either pre-positioned chair. The message was sent out that anyone could stop this. This being the shooting. But shoot who? Just moments previously, we saw that Darren didn't know whether it would be easier to shoot Zack or himself. Or both in a murder suicide. So he left it up to the "public" to do what he couldn't do.

The set-up was that the rape file was sent to everyone. Forget the plot hole that the people looking at it would not be able to hear anything, so it wouldn't mean anything to them and they certainly wouldn't know who was in the video. You'll remember the video mainly showed beer and wrappers, it was the audio that convicted them. So everyone at the party eventually got this rape file. And anyone who received it could have pushed the button to stop it. No one did.

In a typical theme of the masses rise up against the supposed untouchable, holier than thou persona, they let the swagger die. I consider this an updated hormonal teenager privileged version of Lord of the Flies where the plot is this is what happens when teens have no parental, authoritative, or adult supervision, and evidently a large stack of money.

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[–] rmanuel123 13 years ago

but why is Darren swimming in a pool instead of being in prison for murder?

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[–] zach77 12 years ago

I've read everyone's take on the ending and the machine.

I think it is implied that the 'crowd' will choose either Darren or Zack. There is no option for the gun NOT to shoot, unless everyone does not reply.

It was already shown to us that Darren is a whiz with computers. I believe he set up the MMS like a poll or a vote, where you would reply with the name Darren or the name Zack. Any other reply would be discarded and no reply means no vote.

The gun fired for sure. The sound effect was the same as when Xandrie killed herself. The pool scene showed Darren alive and therefore the choice was made to end Zack's life by 'vote'.

I think the movie was stellar up till the ending to be honest. I was giving it a 7/10, but I'm leaning heavily on giving it a 6/10 due to the ending.

The title is aptly named, as either result is a 'waste'. The only result would have been the conviction and prison time for all involved. That is the route Darren should have taken. That cleans the soul and justice is served.

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[–] kinchradio 11 years ago

Why didn't he kill Brooky?

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[–] apple325 11 years ago

I don't think he was in jail I think he was happily in a mental institution. Remember his mom married a very rich man and to cover up the scandal. Most likely got him committed instead of jail.

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[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Violet_Loves_Iliona 13 years ago

My main problem with the ending was that Xandrie and Daren didn't wreak revenge upon all of their tormentors... Though there have been lots of films with school shootings in them, I was getting excited and cheering them on in the alterna-shots (for lack of a better word) in which Darren and Xandrie prepare to shoot all their tormentors.

Either that, or better yet Xandrie should have gone all Lumen on them (as in the character Lumen from the tv series Dexter), and hunted them down, one by one... Especially that evil $%^& with the southern cross tattoo on his back.

I understood what Darren said at the end about Zack only being as he was because people let him, but I just didn't feel that what Darren did was in any way better than an old-fashioned school shooting, and in fact his option seemed so much weaker and less vengeful... Even just going to the police, or better yet emailing the video to the parents of every kid at the school and then going to the police, would have been better than what he did.

And like another poster stated, I also didn't understand why Darren wasn't in prison at the end.

Violet

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[–] addicted85_2004 12 years ago

He was definitely swimming in a prison pool at the end of the film. The background looked nowhere near the family home and you can see two men in uniform and hear keys dangling off of one of the guards walking around the pool.

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[–] just_sally 12 years ago

Prisons in Australia have Olympic size pools and lax security? I know where I'm moving when I start my own crime spree... Really though, the background in the final scene is too blurry to say with certainty who is there. There's actually 3 people (one behind a window). I think the family home and prison are both unlikely- most likely it's the school.

I think the point of the 'voting' was to have people reflect on who they're following and what they were becoming. In the end, neither of the brothers dying would have solved anything- the culture that the kids were growing up in and their attitude is what needed to change. The movie was giving the impression that the people at the party were starting to see Zack for what he was and would have voted against him. Personally, I thought the movie was going to end with Zack getting the vote to die but with Darren having set the device to kill himself regardless of the outcome- after all, he's the one that couldn't live in the reality around him. Since he's alive in the final scene, I'll throw out the possibility that neither brother died and the whole thing was just meant to be a wake up call for the kids to stop empowering the rich and elite.

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[–] imdb-20212 11 years ago

I was thinking the same thing after reading about a "prison pool"... if I'm ever sent off to the stripey hole, send me to the one where I have private pool time.

I did have a thought though... throughout the movie, we're treated to his revenge fantasies. Could the entire ending with the SMS voting just be another fantasy? And his smile after coming out of the pool is just him smiling at the thought of such an idea?

All in all, the movie was a let down. As mentioned by others, what's the deal with a super expensive private school that has zero teachers? Just like the "prison pool" notion, that's a bit rich to swallow.

What's stranger is that despite clear evidence of wrong doing, apparently these punks were just free to do whatever the heck they wanted afterwards, and they weren't abandoned as the rapist scum that they are? Even if a court couldn't convict them, being accused of rape with all that circumstantial evidence has got to leave a stigma on you... they should have been pariahs after that and transferred to other schools to escape the daily beatings, know what I mean?

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