MovieChat Forums > Gone (2012) Discussion > What if... (SPOILERS)

What if... (SPOILERS)

posted 11 years ago by AustralienneLee
25 replies | jump to latest

she really was crazy ???

Maybe she did imagine the kidnapping story...she put her sister under the house at the point where she saw she was "parked in" and went back into her house and her sister said she could have the keys to her car...after all, instead of shooting the bad guy, or leaving him down the hole while she got the police, she destroyed the evidence (with fire) and then told the police nothing had happened, ensuring no investigation.

End result is her sister and those around her now believed her story about the original kidnapping...so now she isn't thought of as "crazy".

The only thing that would be hard to explain would be the photos she then sent to the police at the end...as that would mean that SHE had, in fact, done similar to the other girls...and would have to have photographed herself bound...but it's possible...

Just a thought ;-)

I'm a Lieutenant Detective in, uh, Homicide. That's a fancy name for murder.

[–] cam-nan 11 years ago

no.

[–] AustralienneLee 11 years ago

Why not ??

I'm a Lieutenant Detective in, uh, Homicide. That's a fancy name for murder.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] AustralienneLee 11 years ago

But you would be drawing your own conclusions, not having it fed to you as a "twist" at the end of the film. As it stands, it is possible she contrived the whole thing...isn't it ?? Why did she have to pour kero in the hole and burn the lot, then not tell the cops the burial site of all these other victims ??

Like "The Haunting" or "The Innocents"...madness or reality??

I'm a Lieutenant Detective in, uh, Homicide. That's a fancy name for murder.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] cam-nan 11 years ago

when it got to the photograph of herself im just like...nah
that's just so stupid and who wouldve taken the picture from a polaroid?

the whole point of the movie was that people didn't believe her and she proved them wrong. i don't think it's possible that she imagined ALL the locations/witnesses because the cops traced her through them as much as she traced jim..

anyways.

no.

[–] AustralienneLee 11 years ago

Some polaroids have timers on them...

but yeah, that was my sticking point too...

It's was just a thought ;-)

I'm a Lieutenant Detective in, uh, Homicide. That's a fancy name for murder.

[–] UpperEastSider 11 years ago

No. That type of ending (or 'twist') has been done so many times.

The Uninvited, The Other, The Others, Shutter Island, Dream House. All those are movies that end with a plot twist that reveals the protagonist as being the crazy one/killer.

You become like the 5 people you spend the most time with. Choose carefully.

[–] AustralienneLee 11 years ago

I don't mean to use it as an alternative ending/plot twist...I mean it as something for viewers to think about after seeing it as it is...and then just speculate about from that perspective.

I'm a Lieutenant Detective in, uh, Homicide. That's a fancy name for murder.

[–] UpperEastSider 11 years ago

Oh, I see what you're saying. Definitely cool to think about but because it's been done too many times before, I'm glad it didn't end that way. I actually loved the way it ended

You become like the 5 people you spend the most time with. Choose carefully.

[–] AustralienneLee 11 years ago

I also suspect that because those types of film do so frequently have that twist at the end these days, we were all surprised when it didn't !!!

I'm a Lieutenant Detective in, uh, Homicide. That's a fancy name for murder.

[–] UpperEastSider 11 years ago

True, true! I thought this movie did a good job of keep the audience wondering if she was actually crazy or if there actually was a killer.

You become like the 5 people you spend the most time with. Choose carefully.

[–] WinkerAugusta 11 years ago

Jill really being crazy would have been an interesting twist.

To find out that Jill had a mental breakdown and only imagined that she was abducted and put into a hole.

We see Jill with her folder of missing females - we see Jill exploring the forest - two things that show Jill is in a perpetual state of investigating her abductor Jim. To find out that Jill's folder was really filled with females that Jill targeted, abducted, took pictures of, and placed them in a hole that she made when exploring the forest would have been strange twist. At some point Jill wants to make the police believe her - so she abducts her sister and restrains her underneath the house. Jill sets fire to the hole to destroy the evidence (that she is responsible for the bodies there) - then goes home where everyone now believes her.

Such a theory would explain how Jim was talking to Jill on the cell phone (Jim is supposed to be at the hole waiting for Jill - Jill is driving towards the hole talking to Jim on the phone - the phone is breaking up - Jim informs Jill that there is no cell phone reception at the hole). If Jill created this elaborate plan to make everyone believe her - her phone conversation with Jim would only exist in her mind.

Also, such a theory would explain the time frame of Molly's abduction. Jim told Jill that they saw each at the restaurant that she worked at the night Molly was abducted - Jim made this point to show Jill that he could not have been the person to abduct Molly.

[–] AustralienneLee 11 years ago

Thanks for that !! It shows the film makes sense either way...they didn't need to show the "twist", you can either see it for yourself, or not...the fire bomb down the hole thing was what made me think of this possible scenario...

Oh and also, the cops were asking where is the gun, she denied there was one and they accepted that...BUT didn't she shoot her way out of the bathroom at the hardware store ?? Wouldn't that have left evidence that she had a gun ?? But no...seems there was no such evidence...therefore, the whole scenario could have been in her own mind.

I'm a Lieutenant Detective in, uh, Homicide. That's a fancy name for murder.

[–] mmortal03 9 years ago

Such a theory would explain how Jim was talking to Jill on the cell phone (Jim is supposed to be at the hole waiting for Jill - Jill is driving towards the hole talking to Jim on the phone - the phone is breaking up - Jim informs Jill that there is no cell phone reception at the hole). If Jill created this elaborate plan to make everyone believe her - her phone conversation with Jim would only exist in her mind.

Nope, the guy couldn't get reception, so he had a landline installed at the hole. ;)

More seriously, though, the only reasonable thing I can think of is that he knew that most carriers had bad reception out there, so he went out of his way to get whichever carrier that *does* get a signal, and she didn't have that carrier.

Edit: Either that, or there *is* cell phone reception at the hole, but there's a gap in the service at that place in the road.

[–] ms-zanadu 11 years ago

I'm watching this movie again on a second viewing via SHOWTIME On-Demand right now . I totally agree with you both AustralienneLee and WinkerAugusta . That was the impression I got out of this movie from beginning to end . IMPO There was so many clues for us viewers to believe she might of had an " alternate personality " but unknown to her of course ( she thought he was a real person ? ) . Plus the detective in the beginning of the movie did say " he doesn't exist " . Thanks AustralienneLee for your subject post .

[–] AustralienneLee 11 years ago

I am going to watch it again soon too...but from that viewpoint...I did that with The Haunting and The Innocents and it turned out the films made sense from both a reality (although supernatural !!) and craziness pov. I think it actually adds to an otherwise pretty mundane film, and I have a new respect for it.

I'm a Lieutenant Detective in, uh, Homicide. That's a fancy name for murder.

[–] ezzy666 11 years ago

I also think it was her who kidnapped and killed the other girls. She did things that a person being scared of being kidnapped would not do. She parked far from her job instead of right in front like the other waitress. If she was really paranoid about being taken she would have gotten there early enough to get a close parking spot. She was very good at evading the police, something the typical fearful person isn't good at.

Better to remain silent and be thought a fool than to speak out and remove all doubt.

[–] AustralienneLee 11 years ago

I agree...it was odd when she left her work and was strolling down the almost desrted street late at night/early morning. Even searching for the place she'd been held by the kidnapper, alone, is odd as theoretically, she could have stumbled across him at any time there.

I'm a Lieutenant Detective in, uh, Homicide. That's a fancy name for murder.

[–] Angel_Of_My_Heart 11 years ago

Yes I'm pretty sure she was a little unbalanced, given what she had been through but I don't believe she could have been the one who put her sister under the house, for starters the sister (Molly I think) spoke to her boyfriend (who's name I can't remember) on the telephone that night after Jill had gone to work, so at that point she was still okay, in the house not under it, the fact the cops seemed to just let the whole "there was no gun" thing go was to cover their own asses by this point they would have looked incompetant and they really wouldn't have wanted to air that, starting with not believing Jill was ever kidnapped and ending with not beliveing the sister had been taken and everything in between includeing ignoring the fact their was a missing person as they were too busy chasing Jill all over town because she was carrying a gun, it was terrible police work one cop pegged her as insane and let that be known to the new cop who didn't know her and who told Jill that he believed her then changed his mind about 30 seconds after that and the female cop looked stoned most of the time. Well thats my take on it all anyway!!!

[–] erik-aad-visser 10 years ago

Wow, I was beginning to believe that I was the only one who thought that this is a plausible option. Thank you for sharing your idea!

The only problem is that in the final scene the police is provided with some hard evidence of the crimes committed in the forest. I find it hard to believe that she has murdered several women herself and there is nothing that I can see in the movie to support this.

But without the Polaroids there is no evidence left about any crime having occurred in the forest. I therefore choose to ignore that final scene, and then it all makes sense! The complete bogus detective journey she makes to arrive at a killer who is waiting for her, very much reminded me of Memento. There are so many logical faults in how she finds this Digger character that it is a bit like watching a dream. But meanwhile we do learn the she is extremely good at lying and making up stories.

Also: there is a very powerful clue that she is about to fully enter fantasy-land. Digger tells her to take a left at a fork in the road. She asks what happens is she would take a right and he responds: "then you go back to civilization". It is a bit of a blue pill / red pill question. She chooses the red pill and immediately her cell reception breaks up because there is no coverage here. She herself even exclaims that it is not possible for Digger to be calling her when there is no reception.

For me this scene alone proves that there is no hole in the forest and that is also why I dislike the final scene of the movie so much. I wonder if there is an alternate ending or director's cut...

Finally: note that the title of the movie also fits this interpretation. Gone could also indicate the state of her sanity.

[–] AustralienneLee 10 years ago

I'm a Lieutenant Detective in, uh, Homicide. That's a fancy name for murder.

[–] Wilde_child 8 years ago

The guy existed. Jill found the motel he was staying in, he had been watching her the whole time, coz she was the one who got away. Jill was not a psycho killer. Plus, she was at work when the sis was abducted, the sis told a man did it.

[–] marbleann 10 years ago

No because I already saw two movies like that and none of them went over well in the end. One with Robert De Niro and one was some life time movie. Everything was all in their head. One about some guy this woman was obsessed with and when he wife got killed she had the cops and viewers believe they had some torrid affair and he killed his wife.The other De Niro actually kills his wife but all through the movie he terrorizes his little daughter.