Thoughts on the ending

That's a great theory, and it raises another interesting point, which is that director Thomas Vinterberg uses a narrative structure that facilitates an open-ending. There are various different interpretations of this ending, you can read more about it here: http://alphashadowsblog.wordpress.com/2014/02/20/the-hunt-film-review/

Agreed. I only just finished watching the film (absolutely brilliant and one of the best movies I've seen in ages), and I could tell by the "initiation" scene at the end that his reputation hadn't improved 100%.

Believe it or not, while a lot of people say the picked up on it when Marcus was getting the gun, I could actually tell when he arrived at the building that a number of the people there still thought he may have done it. Notice how people give "beige prose-y" and cold welcomes to him. And the music playing is pretty sombre too.

I also like to think its Torsten. His hairstyle looked exactly the same, and not to mention notice that Torsten was the last person the camera focused on in the room during the scene. Actually, that just came to mind as I was typing the paragraph before this... that's just how brilliant the film is.

Someone here mentioned that there was a possibility that Klara WAS sexually abused, but not by Lucas. In fact, Torsten could indeed have done that- indeed the scene where they're making the gingerbread house is good proof (notice his short outbursts of crying) and not to mention, when they show her the hard cock on the iPad, notice how she tried hard to look away from it. Maybe she did that because she was tired of the sexual abuse Torsten had been subjecting her to and was tired of seeing Torsten's cock and being forced to touch it. But she didn't want to get Torsten in trouble (maybe he threatened to rape her even worse), and wanted to speak up and keep her life, and so she went and pinned it all on Lucas. Which would also explain why she was acting so wierd before she kissed him. Maybe when Lucas tried to console her after that incident, she was being defiant because she was tired of being sexually abused by Torsten all the time.

So back to the ending, Torsten stares at Lucas weird and thinks maybe Lucas knows about it. So to try to prevent him from speaking up, he tries to kill Lucas.

That's just my take. I could be overthinking it, but given what has been mentioned here, it actually does seem plausible.

"How do I know you two haven't been... fonduing???"

It was Klara's brother for three reasons -
1) In the church scene where Lucas almost assaults Theo, it's Klara's brotehr who looks the most disturbed and embarrassed among all other members of the family. He is so shocked that he doesn't even respond.
2) Many a times throughout the movie he has been shown to be the silent observer who is bursting like a volcano from the insides. He cries during the Christmas and all that
3) During the final scene when Marcus is being presented the gun by his Godfather, Lucas deliberately looks around at all the people just to notice their changed perceptions now, and everyone he looks at, except for Klara's brother (who btw looks kinda sodden), nodded back cheerfully.

I definitely do NOT think it was Marcus. Marcus defended his dad many times, and was even willing to get slapped around for his dad. If anything, Marcus may have shot Theo if given the opportunity.

When I first saw the ending, I immediately thought it was Klara's brother who was a major focus of the film. He CLEARLY was the catalyst of the problem when he let his friend show Klara the porn, several scenes hinted how he was ridden with guilt throughout the movie, and he listlessly stares at Lucas during the celebration.

Either way, IMHO the ending served a two-fold purpose. How Klara's brother dealt with his guilt, and primarily how Lucas will be stigmatized for the rest of his life.

Great movie!

This movie is a perfect metaphore of Michael Jackson life, what happened to the main character in the movie is exactly the same that MJ suffered in his real life.

And Michael Jackson died because of this, he has been destroyed by lies exactly in the same way that the main character of The Hunt.

so damn unfair : (

It was Klara's brother.

It was the fat man who was smacking the son around. You can clearly see his gut in the first shot when he just fired the rifle. He didn't really look happy shaking his hand either.

"Men prefer sorrow over joy... suffering over peace!" Ran (Akira Kurosawa, 1985)

I tought it was Theo who shot at the ending. After seeing Lucas with Karla at the end I think Theo realized that Lucas was completely innocent and that was his daughter that had a distorced "love" feeling for his friend. Therefore, after saying that if Lucas was guilty he would put a bullet on his head, this was his way of showing Lucas that he was pardoned, missing the shot and showing that if he wanted Lucas would be dead.