MovieChat Forums > Blue Ruin (2014) Discussion > 'The keys are in the car' *spoilers*

'The keys are in the car' *spoilers*


What is the significance of this line? A lingering shot shows the keys still in the ignition when he dumps the car. Then Dwight repeats the line at the end. Was it a mistake on his part? After all, he'd already told William where the car was.

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Maybe it was on the top of his head from his first time (when he killed Wade) that he lost it precisely because it wasn't in the car. I've never been that close to dying, so I don't know for sure why he kept repeating it.

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i took it as he was hoping his half brother was smart enough to use the car to get away but because everything went left he couldn't tell him. so those were his last words because they were the most important.

THEY SHOOTIN! ah, i made you look.

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Thats what I was thinking.


Lose the Game!!!!!!!

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This. His mind was fixed on a resolution. The resolution he so desperately wanted.

"I can't help but notice that there are skulls all over everything. Are we the baddies?"

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I thought he was slightly delirious and was finishing the conversation he had/thought he was having with his half-brother.




No Guru, No Method, No Teacher.

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I wondered about this too. He told him to take the car. But then if the keys are in the car in the ignition there shouldn't be a problem right? Or will the boy not see them?

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Cuz he always,always has the keys around his neck in a chain but this time he left them in the car.










(SSDD)

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good grief
its simple
he just died hoping/ wanting the kid to get away from all the violence

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As a far more enlightened person than I pointed out in another thread about this movie: the car seems to symbolize the past that both Dwight and the Clelands cannot let go of. Wherever the car goes, ruin and catastrophe ensue. Dwight desperately wants a resolution after his murder of Wade and Teddy. He gives the women several chances to leave it at this - the phone message, the conversation in the Cleland estate. However, they refuse to stand down and insist on their vengeance. Much like Dwight did before, I might add.

While Dwight feels his brother (a merging of both families) should escape as a sort of resolution to the whole thing - with Dwight not blaming William for shooting him and letting it be done with this - the words 'The keys are in the car' are alarmingly ambiguous to the viewer. Dwight's encouragement is fueled by his wish for a resolution. However...

William is very much aware of Dwight's fear for his sister's life. Will he leave it all behind? Or will he get into the car and continue the history of ruin and catastrophy that follows the murder of the parents? Or will Sam be allowed to return home and read the postcard Dwight wrote to her?

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Yeah the blue ruin - une epave bleu

my vote history:
http://www.imdb.com/user/ur13767631/ratings

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I don't think William was a "true" Cleland. Remember? Dwight said "He's his father's son." Meaning a lover, not a fighter, like Dwight's dad.

To me, the car symbolized Dwight's life. It started out OK, but fell into disrepair after his parents were killed in it (remember the rusted bullet holes they showed?)

After Ben helps Dwight, the car gets a new battery, etc to run well again. Dwight's life, eaten up by a desire for revenge (and killing the wrong guy) is over, even if he hadn't been shot. But if William takes the car, and the new life he's now offered, he can overcome being raised as a second-rate Cleland (notice how they bullied him right at the beginning?).

So, I took it as Dwight's well-wishes for William.

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