Coyote Theory Ending (SPOILERS)

What a great analysis! I have one disconcerting thought on your interpretation; If it was in fact Carter being the unknown piece of meat that Mitchell pulled from the Coyote, then we also see Mitchell eating some of that unknown carcass.

You really appeared to have hit on a key clue in the movie about the Coyotes and the fact that one was in close proximity of the grave and almost appearing to be looking in that direction. What drew the animal so close to a car where normally any scent of a living human would have them going in the opposite direction? It must have been something really enticing like maybe a big meal?

I think most would agree that the ending is open for interpretation where there can be no right answer. I also agree with you fully that Mitchell actually killed Carter. If I can elaborate further on your premise; those post events are a reflections of his guilt for killing his best friend. It's human nature almost to reflect on how one could have done things better after a tragic incident. I think Mitchell was still in a very dire state and overcome by guilt. For a period of time he had convinced himself that Carter didn’t die, they got out, made up, and made a better lives for themselves.

The scenes where Carter ends up really liking Mitchel’s wife and vise-versa for me translates to Mitchel thinking along those lines of what could have been: “if only I had got them together to get to know each other. Each would then understand why I married her and why he is my friend”. The traumatic changes in both Mitchell’s and Carter’s lives seemed all to convenient and I was thinking this up to the point where he made that 3 AM phone call to Carter. I loved the part where his phone switches back to the broken device out in the desert. Again, I think that everything after the big fight and the grave was imagined by a guilt ridden and probably slowly dying Mitchel out there still in the desert.

Please no movie sequel, it was perfect just how it ended :)

Fascinating theory
Why don't you present this on Scenic Route's facebook page and bring it to the attention of the actors and writer?. People respond on there..
I love that this film has provoked such interesting intelligent discussion. For me, the true measure of a work of art is that you remain transfixed, haunted and feel the need to deconstruct it in order to make sense of it for yourself.
I also love what it brings up for you in your own life.

Of course, the ending is purposely left up in the air, but one interpretation could be that Mitchell is realizing that he is actually dead, and he has entered what Catholics used to call, 'Purgatory'. This would be an intermediary state after physical death in which those destined for heaven must undergo a reassessment of the life just lived. Maybe this same scenario has occurred to Carter because he doubts that he would have so easily been able to complete his novel. Maybe SCENIC ROUTE 2 will be about both characters journey to purification so that they can finally enter heaven. (Kidding about the sequel, but I think all of us have seen films based on much dumber premises)

"Free to those that can afford it, very expensive to those that can't."

Interesting Coyote premise. In the back of my mind I had made mental note that the meat that Mitchell had taken from the coyote and given to Carter had disappeared when they woke up the next day. In my mind I was thinking this was a continuity error but the movie had me so engrossed that thought was fleeting.

To take your theory one step further... When Mitchell is on all fours and growling and yelling at the coyote, Mitchell is at the left of the screen facing what looks like a little hill or pile of dirt that he reaches over to pick up the meat.

Well, heck, as I typed this another thought flashed. The first is that Mitchell is actually on his knees to the left of the now dead Carter, chasing away the coyote and replacing or putting the flesh torn from Carter back in place.

The second isn't much different. Mitchell chases down the coyote who was carrying off part of Carter. Gets the flesh and puts it back on Carter.

Half baked ideas, I know. This movie has me entranced.

So, I went back to Netflix to watch the scene again. At night it looks like Mitchell crawls back into the hole and lies down at Carter's left. But the next day it's Carter leaning of Mitchell and they are on the hillside at a slant.

And can I just add the wound on Carter's forehead looks like a chunk of his scull has been pushed out by the brain swelling. A deadly blow, for sure.

Interesting theory and it is one of the more likely outcomes out there. Here are some reasons why your theory makes sense:

1. The coyotes aren't in the movie for nothing, they have to serve a purpose. In this case they are scavenging food and it's interesting how other animals (like vultures) weren't used in the film. The coyotes would've sensed that the 2 leads in the movie were about to die and followed them to await their eventual death before feeding. As for the meat in that abandoned outpost that the coyote was eating, it would've been Carter's (Steve Wozniak) corpse that Mitchell (Timothy Oliphaunt) dragged along with him - but that's open to speculation.

2. One of the key points in the movie is that when Carter woke up just before he was about to be dragged into the grave, Mitchell told him that he had no pulse when he checked Carter's life signs. That means Carter was dead, there's no way he suddenly had a pulse again from the long time since his pulse was checked to the time he's about to be buried - the only exception would be that Carter regained his pulse immediately after Mitchell stopped checking.

Your take is the best, and I hadn't even thought of that. Wow. Creepy. Yes, coyotes don't come around living people, they're too scared to get that close, unless there is flesh to be eaten, dead flesh. Yes, that unknown meat did come out of nowhere, and it HAD to be Carter's body that Mitchell ate some of. Wow, you just blew my mind. I like your synopsis the best.

I saw the movie last week and I have been unable to stop thinking about it. I must admit I did not expect the ending. In fact, I think it is clever.

I really wanted them to make it out - even though the decisions they made were terrible, and in the case of the tampering with the engine - that goes beyond the worst judgement I could imagine. Driving through such an apparently vast desert without ANY supplies is more than foolish. Even if they didn't exactly plan that route ("I took the scenic route"), any reasonable person should be familiar with the geography. He even had a map with "dots" representing towns so he had to know what he was driving into. Man, I still can't believe it - messing with your engine in a desert to stoke the fires of conversation - unbelievably bad choice.

I have read many of the comments about the ending and its symbolism. Two things stuck out in my mind. The first was when Mitchell's wife came to the hospital she didn't even acknowledge Carter in the room right in front of her. He looked at her but I don't believe she looked back. She would have given him a cursory "how are you?" I should think. But if we are leaning toward the death scenario, it is very plausible that Carter was dead first due to the head wound and blood loss. When the body is that dehydrated one's blood pressure becomes dangerously low. Add that to the blood lost from his wounds and he was a goner. The Carter in the hospital could have been a ghost.

Secondly, the replacement car that Carter drives to Mitchell's house is blue, which may represent the water that saved them (or they were hoping they would find). But more importantly, the car itself was INCREDIBLY dusty. Even his pickup wasn't that dirty. How would Carter's car get that dusty driving in the city? We are talking dust, not dirt or mud. I took that to mean that they did in fact never leave the desert. The car really stuck out to me.

The only other unexplained thing was the tow truck driver. Where did he come from to happen upon this pickup when the road had seen only 2 cars in 3 days or so? I don't remember if he took off in the same direction from which he came but he sure was looking around nervously when he was hoisting up the car. Did the old lady who was too scared to pick them up tell someone in town that she saw a car in the middle of nowhere? If so, we should have seen a sheriff's car investigate the report first before an opportunistic tow truck driver. That area was SO remote that I find it hard to believe the tow truck was just cruising by with nowhere particular to go.

This may all be off topic from the coyotes but these things just made me more curious than the coyotes did. The coyotes may have represented the fate of the two men for sure.

I don't know if I am coming out of left field here but those are the things that stuck out for me from this interesting (but frustrating to watch!) movie.

Well, of the almost 1200 movies I've rated...thanks for ruining Mulholland Drive- one I've yet to get to. Please try to rephrase, be more vague or use spoiler tags for your references next time. Interesting theory, though

THANKS!

Dictated, but not read