I'm not averse to slow burn character driven movies where you empathise with the character thereby understanding the motives behind their action, but for the life of me I just cannot understand why she committed suicide.
Does anyone have a clue?
(a bit peeved that we didn't see the rocket or see it take take off)
She did not commit suicide. She stayed on Earth because she believed it was still possible to live there, and that the environment was restoring itself. And she was right, since it shows her with her son several years later at the beach.
shareI debated the suicide thing for a minute myself, then I came to the conclusion she lived. The big question to me is, why did the guy leave without her, now that he knows the atmosphere is livable, and why did he still have his mask on?
shareShe feels guilty for spreading false hopes among believers by broadcasting the record of his father's voice. The clue is her saying "Thank you for telling me the truth". There, she realizes she is not alone but taking a bunch of people in great suffering with her going down with the ship (the dying earth). Her suicide is an act of despair and guilt, a final effort to fulfill her father's promise to those believers.
shareShe didn't commit suicide. Did you see the ending scene?
shareLet's say she made a suicide attempt then. But honestly speaking, I think the one I saw (an alternate ending or by missing the ending scene) is better. From the interpretation that I read about the ending scene you saw, the miracle of the pregnant woman somehow has adapted to that toxic environment would ruin the seriousness of the movie for me. If you don't find that miracle ridiculously unrealistic then you are surely very optimistic.
shareI did find it ridiculous. No explanation to how she survived?
shareDid you guys not watch the movie and pay close attention to all the times that she injected herself with I am assuming the air from outside or something of that nature her and father developed to try and boost their immunity to the air to make it breathable? Mica even asked her about the scars on her abdomen and she replied it was something it was something she and her father did to boost their immunity. It's at the 55:40 mark in the film and she also explained about mutation and that's what I believe happened. Her body mutated to adapt to the air. Why does everyone always assume a dream sequence? LOL
shareRegarding the question in OP, do we at least agree that her taking of the mask is more a suicide attempt than an experiment on her immunity? Otherwise, there is a professional way and a proper place to conduct the experiment. So, I am sticking with my previous speculation about her suicidal mentality at that moment.
Now, why am I skeptical about her adapting into human 2.0? Because the movie didn't convince us that it is possible. Showing some low-life form in toxic water or that one mutant bee survived the toxic storm is far from implying the same mechanism could work on advanced life form as a human. I call that huge leap a miracle and I guess the director intended to present it as an ending twist. Can you blame some of us for not buying that?
BTW, I hope no one gets the idea of injecting weird stuff to himself to treat back pain or else. Not kidding. Injecting air into your body is dangerous!
I guess I could buy the sucide attempt because she didn't really want to leave Earth. It wasn't a good movie overall sadly.
shareThere are two possibilities here. She may have died when she removed the helmet, and that dreamlike sequence at the end is what went through her mind while she was dying. Or the treatments she was giving herself actually worked - and maybe her boyfriend Elon decided to join her instead of going off to Proxima Centauri, they had a son and lived by the ocean. I think the ending was meant to be ambiguous.
Unfortunately the movie never really tied together, or delivered on, most of its various plot threads. It felt like the two main characters were half asleep. Very little emotional range even in scenes where you'd expect some intensity. And I was left feeling like nothing happened, it was an hour and a half long and nothing much happened. We got to see some nice mountaintop scenery and some cool post-apocalyptic cityscape but that's about it. If that girl actually did save the world, it was the most boring piece of heroism I've ever witnessed.