I didn't understand the last lines in the movie, talking to the narrator woman at the bar. "I dont know why i let you go? Old habits die hard, i guess.", woman: "Sometimes you need to hear i familiar voice."
Is this an old girlfriend or what? Maybe this lines doesn't mean more than that, but i am curious if any other here can explain futher..
Thanks
Matti
She was the actress who provided the voice for Millie (Minny?). You see her doing the voice samples earlier on.
I'm with you in thinking the conversation was important, but couldn't understand what the main actor was saying, and it was much that way throughout. Loved the film though, but the end frustrated me as it made me think you had to go back and think again about what had happened with no more information.
I think there is a LOT going on in that ending.
There are a few subtle clues thrown in at the end there, where the identity of his wife seems to blur with Anthonys girlfriend, and his daughter with Anthony as a child.
Either:
He's still trapped in some kind of psychological void (imagining a bar with Minnie as the bartender)
or
He imagined the whole thing whilst sat at the bar.
Also, he gets no real closure in terms of being reunited with his wife. The scene of them being in bed together seems too much like a fantasy, there is no talking.
Agree that there is more going on here.
My thoughts, having watched this ending a couple times.
The main character mentioned "we're working on it" in response to what if something goes wrong extracting.
First time he asks for it to self destruct, the countdown is done over the scene of his wife leaving his sandwich while he ignores her, and the scene ends with the computer saying "goodbye Tom" as though that was the end of his relationship with her.
Part of me thinks that he was actually in his own head the entire time, and viewing his own self when he was younger, and the guilt of killing his girlfriend at the time. He created this machine to clear his own head, to know for sure what happened, but the result was he obsessed to the degree he fell out of touch with his wife.
The ending then, when they show him cuddling his wife, he is fantasizing. His conscience is clear of his girlfriends murder, the younger version sort of smiles at him in the final scenes and find's him at the bar with the lady who voiced everything.
Just throwing that out there, see if anyone else picks up anything.
Great movie.
Unless I saw a different edit, you're over-thinking this.
It's a straight narrative at the end, there is no twist.
The guy gets extracted, discovers that even a harmless white lie (the father saying the dog was untrainable) can amount to 'brain washing' and false memories.
Combine that lifelong conditioning with altered states, black-outs and an 'enthusiastic' police interrogation and its enough to render his device unreliable at best if not completely useless.
After he sees the news and says, "What if he convinces people it works?"
His final line is:
"I don't know why I looked you up, old habits die hard, I guess."
The bartender/actress' reply about a familiar voice shows she understands, he did spend over 4 years with only that voice to talk to!
I type slowly...
I was looking for something that wasn't there, no wonder I was lost ha! Very nice writeup, puts the movie to bed for me. A really fantastic movie that I will suggest to anyone who asks.
shareHey Silvebrain, seems like you brainwashed yourself to believing that was what was going on! :D
I gave this film an 8 and I'm NO INSIDER! I didn't even know this was a low budget film, because the plot was so intelligent, and I can relate to being blacked out and taking things from all over and believe things without even knowing if they are true! Great to see that in a film. :) Great job guys!
Much like the OP, I thought he said to the bartender/voice: "I don't know why I let you go" instead of "looked you up". That makes more sense.
The only question I have: what happened to Anthony? It's possible that he (or at least his mind) survived. I don't remember being shown, so I assumed that he died due to being shot. As Tom is being extracted, we do see Anthony back at the swimming pool with his girlfriend but this time he joins her when she says "Last chance". Near the end, Tom talks to the bartender. Then, as the final scene, we see Anthony in the prison meeting room. Why? One possibility is to show that his issue was resolved, thus his guilt about killing his girlfriend is gone. However, not showing him at the pool with his girlfriend seemed strange. Also, when Abbey brought in the 4 years old Donna to the prison meeting room to show to Anthony, and thus to Tom, Tom said something along the lines of: 'I could live with that memory forever'. Since now that memory was Tom's memory and was back in the real world, that could mean that Anthony's mind survived. Any thoughts?
Ahhh...okay, now I get it! Thank you!
I just watched it and I was trying to figure out WTH was real and what was fantasy since the conversation between Tom and Anthony's dad I was able to pick up on the reference to the dog actually being a showdog whereas in Anthony's memories the dog was unteachable and the dad was abusive towards it. I also picked up on the reference to "hypnosis" as well. So I reckon prixat's explanation makes sense.
1 major beef I had though was that they didn't include friggin SUBTITLES!!! I could hardly hear WTH they were saying and when a movie requires full attention to understand the plot, dialog etc. then the least they can do is add English subtitles for the hearing impaired or when you've got actors who have accents that make it difficult to hear WTH they're saying!
Okay I feel better now...
:-)
I was wondering about these ending lines in the film, and was confused about what exactly he had said. It was especially difficult to understand his last line because I tried downloading subtitles for the film but they all ended up being riddled with errors. They were poor-quality English translations of older user-created subtitles (from some other language i.e., English-to-"Unknown"-translated-back-to-English kind of convoluted subtitles).
Because I thought he was saying "I don't know why I let you go", questions started popping in my mind like crazy. Why and when did he let her go, but more importantly, why would he say old habits die hard yet that he let her go (as in, let her leave)? I even considered his meaning it in the "I don't know why I let you go [SOMEWHERE]" sense haha.
So with these discrepancies/incongruities, of course I started thinking this was a mind-trip element in the movie's ending, perhaps questioning his reality or what-have-you.
BUT....now that you pointed out his saying "I don't know why I looked you up" it makes perfect sense, with no enigmatic/ambiguous 'twists' (at least no 'bizarre twist' in the true sense -- it's possible these lines give us more to think about, but it seems it just lets us know how used to living trapped in that convict's memories he had become/it's effects on his psyche).
Thanks prixat. Just wish the protagonist in this movie spoke a bit more clearly at times haha. Good film though.
I came here to clear up my understanding of the final scenes, as I couldn't make out exactly what was being said. Thanks Prixat for your summary which gave me closure on the questions :-)
shareDitto on that.
I had to watch that final scene a couple of times and I was still left with questions. "Omg, is he still in his head?" kind of thing.
Though, one thing to note about the final prison room scene. Anthony appeared to wink at Tom. I doubt Anthony's alive, though I guess its possible that he 'could' be in Tom, like Tom was in Anthony.
prixat - Thanks.
Your explanation is very plausible. I was reading too much into the ending, as well. I really wonder, though, why this would even be included at the end of the movie since it really is pointless (anti-climactic). Oops, there I go again.
Your explanation is not only plausible, but logical as well.
However, just before I found this thread, I repeated the ending about 3 times on Netflix "Watch instantly". After not being able to understand what he was saying, I turned the Closed Captions (Subtitles) on, and it doesn't say "I don't know why I looked you up". It says " I don't know why I let you off".
And it made even less sense, anyway to get the script or clarification?
Or does that change completely the ending?
Because it doesn't make sense to me.
I turned the Closed Captions (Subtitles) on, and it doesn't say "I don't know why I looked you up". It says " I don't know why I let you off".
My subtitles said let you off too. Also, apart from her top the barmaid was wearing the same hat and jewellery as the earlier scene. Which I found it a bit odd if a few years had passed.
sharePerfect explanation!
shareLate to the party but wanted to add something (this is on netflix). I think the significance of the ending is that he's finally free, right? Ultimately this is a story of two men imprisoned. One dies, and the other is freed. You would think that he would never want to hear Minnie's voice again. He spent 4 years listening only to her voice, and I think most people would blame her for being trapped there since she sort of represented the computer.
But after all of that he actually seeks "Minnie" out and spends an evening talking to her. Maybe he misses it? Maybe he still feels trapped with the knowledge that the convict was innocent? Maybe it's PTSD?
I found this random little addition at the end utterly fascinating.