MovieChat Forums > Antiviral (2013) Discussion > Ending

Ending

posted 11 years ago by xbellamuerte
21 replies | jump to latest

Ok so I saw the movie and I'm still going back and forth on how I feel about it. I loved Caleb Landry Jones though. His performance was amazing. In a strange way (but not so much really), the movie focuses on the love story between Syd and Hannah, even though they have only a handful of scenes together. Syd's obsession with Hannah fascinated me to no end and I think it's why I kinda loved the film.

Anyways, I just wanted to know what people's take was on the ending. I was a little confused by it. What was that capsule Hannah was in and what was Syd sucking on? I think it was Hannah's flesh but I felt confused about the whole thing.

Any help?

[–] delft_blue 11 years ago

SPOILERS ahead...

duh on that one...

Yes; the ending was sort of terrible, imo but what I got out of it was that Hannah was too far gone; her family sold the rights to her "afterlife" to the rival clinic and they hired Syd and made an antiviral for him because they wouldn't lose any money by getting the exclusive contract to Hannah, which was what Syd could give them. They apparently hired Syd too... so you, know he wouldn't get sued or whatnot.

The tank she's in is keeping her alive, even though her body is dead. She's half-machine, half human and they can keep giving her viruses this way. Syd is apparently her "keeper" and the route to infect her is through a pipe-like arm of her flesh through which he can give her injections. In the end he's over-the-top obsessed and cuts the arm-pipe to drink her blood. The idea is he's completely consumed by her.

And yes, the Hannah-Syd "love" story was brilliant. I'd have liked the movie more if they just focused on that.

[–] lamensterms 11 years ago

Agreed with delft_blue.

Though when you say "In the end he's over-the-top obsessed and cuts the arm-pipe to drink her blood."... I don't think he is simply drinking her blood. It seems to me that he wants to become infected with the virus he just injected her.

I didnt mind the ending, rather liked the movie.

Cheers.

[–] hexrei 11 years ago

Oooh, good point. That would bring it full circle.

What a lovely way to burn...

[–] Lacroixlvr-1 11 years ago

I see it that he himself and the whole of celeb obsessed culture are in fact the virus. He's personified it by feeding off of her for real.

[–] Zarathustras_Crown 11 years ago

I saw it as crossing the line...up to then he'd managed to justify things to himself as being just curiosity or bringing oneself closer to a celebrity. In this, he literally consumes the woman, he BECOMES the integral virus, feeding off her percieved "perfection...in some way". Brilliant ending I thought, but to each their own :)

--
*+_Charos_+*

"I have often laughed at weaklings
who thought themselves good because
they had no claws."

[–] arusinghnz 11 years ago

"She's beautiful in every way, isn't she?"
I guess he became a 'vampire' sucking on her blood. Not in the vampire, vampire way, but in the metaphoric, where the human's leach off the celeb's infections etc.
Agree with 2nd post about the arm thing and tank.

[–] Cat_Behemoth 11 years ago

First off, what a gorgeous little gem of a movie.

Second, in addition to what delft_blue posted (SPOILERS)

The 'capsule' Hannah was in is a so called Iron Lung or a negative pressure ventilator.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Negative_pressure_ventilator

And they're using the real thing in the movie.

Of course, the real thing encloses all of the body except the head (the head is inside the machine in the movie) and is 'a form of medical ventilator that enables a person to breathe when normal muscle control has been lost or the work of breathing exceeds the person's ability.'

Method and use

Humans, like most other animals, breathe by negative pressure breathing: the rib cage expands and the diaphragm contracts, expanding the chest cavity. This causes the pressure in the chest cavity to decrease, and the lungs expand to fill the space. This, in turn, causes the pressure of the air inside the lungs to decrease (it becomes negative, relative to the atmosphere), and air flows into the lungs from the atmosphere: inhalation. When the diaphragm relaxes, the reverse happens and the person exhales. If a person loses part or all of the ability to control the muscles involved, breathing becomes difficult or impossible.

The person using the iron lung is placed into the central chamber, a cylindrical steel drum. A door allowing the head and neck to remain free is then closed, forming a sealed, air-tight compartment enclosing the rest of the person's body. Pumps that control airflow periodically decrease and increase the air pressure within the chamber, and particularly, on the chest. When the pressure is below that within the lungs, the lungs expand and atmospheric pressure pushes air from outside the chamber in via the person's nose and airways to keep the lungs filled; when the pressure goes above that within the lungs, the reverse occurs, and air is expelled. In this manner, the iron lung mimics the physiological action of breathing: by periodically altering intrathoracic pressure, it causes air to flow in and out of the lungs.

I'm still kinda a bit confused if 'Hannah was too far gone' or 'her family sold the rights to her "afterlife" to the rival clinic' knowingly, on their own volition...or got duped by the powers that be…

…but long story short, there're remains of her body in the Iron Lung. We can't see the body or any limbs, just some new Hannah's tissue, regrown with the new patented CellGarden technology, and her lovely 'Sleeping Beauty' head with some evidence of some skin grafting going on or something. Also, we can see her naked lungs expanding and contracting, not clear whether they're Hannah's original lungs or CellGardened ones. Prolly, original..

From the 'horse's', Mira Tesser's, mouth:

"Everything inside this housing is either part of the original body, or has been grown directly from it, as a result of our patented CellGarden technology."

…and what was Syd sucking on was a CellGardened kinda arm (all CGI, going by the director's commentary), the rest is what delft_blue said..

So there...hope that helps.

[–] clvmz 11 years ago

personally I thought the ending was brilliant, the whole tech demo scene had my jaw fall slack.

[–] slaintemhath 11 years ago

There's a brief throwaway mention of Henrietta Lacks or Hela as what remains of her is now known. She died of cancer in the 50s but that very cancer lives on, growing and is quite likely immortal. Same here, celebrities deaths are no longer an obstacle to their continued veneration, she's dead but the body and viral experiences drawn from it will continue to grow, albeit as a mutating collection of tank grown cells.

Least that's what I took from it.

[–] DrProfessor 11 years ago

Really, you guys don't see what's going on here?
http://pbrd.co/1bU5NKL

[–] smitthhh 11 years ago

I didn't like the ending. I thought he was going to die or there would be a big climatic ending. It ended very dully.

[–] b_paul123 11 years ago

yeah, i didnt like the ending either, it just sort of ends nothing conclusive to it at all, and did syd get cured somehow after the scene when he was puking up blood cuz it seemed like it just cut to the next scene where he looked fine, weird movie

[–] stoomie 11 years ago

I got the impression that Syd was able to barter a cure from the virus by negotiating the sale of Hannah's body in conjunction with the idea for the 'afterlife' program they'd introduce using her remains.

The cut to Syd operating the iron lung during the demonstration implies that he indeed managed to be cured and was now an employee of his former rival clinic.

The part that is vague for me is whether or not Syd decided to drink Hannah's blood regardless of the fact that he'd become infected again with the virus he spent the whole movie trying to cure himself from, or if being cured the first time made him immune to repeated infections and as such could now progress his obsession for Hannah without fear of dying.

any ideas?

[–] 11 years ago

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