MovieChat Forums > Swiss Army Man (2016) Discussion > The Whole Movie Explained...almost

The Whole Movie Explained...almost

posted 8 years ago by MikeRydal
74 replies | jump to latest

I'm still trying to decide if this is an brilliantly clever movie OR an interesting concept that is weird for the sake of being weird.

The movie (to me) seems to be about a shy, suicidal schizophrenic who has abandoned reality in his quest for love. He created a fantasy relationship with Sarah (The girl he sees on the bus everyday) to whom, he is unable to act upon due to his abject shyness. If you note, at the end of the movie Hank runs back to the beach (where he first discovered Manny) which only seems to be a few hundred meters...Hank was building a fantasy world in, effectively Sarahs' back garden.

I believe, at the start of the movie, Hank is truly trying to kill himself (Not a fabricated fantasy) He discovers an unknown dead body on the beach. Hank, in his possible final moments, sees an opportunity for something he is missing in his life....Friendship. As his loneliness and schizophrenia develop, he becomes more comfortable with the idea of a best friend who is dead, Hanks imagination runs wild and his fantasy becomes more and more elaborate and grandiose..i.e the more Hank rejects reality, the better the friendship he can have with the corpse (Manny)

Beginning the second act of the movie, Hank realizes what is truly missing from his life...Love. He begins to remember Sarah but, knowing he will never be brave enough to even to talk to her, changes his fantasy where Manny takes place of himself (Hank) and Hank plays the role of Sarah. This is the main turning point for Hanks' psyche, He has completely given up on reality due to his unrequited love. Hank has developed a split personality disorder, the corpse (Manny) has become a Mannequin of Hank himself, and Hanks body houses the personality of Sarah. To which he role-plays his perfect scenarios...both saying and hearing the words he's longed for. (would also like to suggest that the name 'Hank' is the name of Jim Carreys' Charlie Bailygates Split personality in 'Me, Myself and Irene')

This is only speculation but, The farting seems to be symbolic of his failure...he may well have broke wind in her (Sarah's) presence to which she may have passingly scoffed at him...He wants to be loved for who he is...a human who, like all humans...farts.

There are also references to an Oedipus Complex in which (in Hanks' youth) has only been able to achieve an erection to the thought of his mother...This is discussed many times throughout the movie, although it seems to be an awkward/funny conversation (or argument with himself) it actually explains a lot about why Hank believes that Love and Friendship are so desperately needed in his life. He see's sex as a very uncomfortable and awkward subject...All indications toward the condition of his mental instability.

Another interesting (yet not so subtle in hindsight) metaphor is that one of the 'Swiss Army Mans' features is a 'Erection Compass.' When he sees a sexually desirable picture of a girl...His hard-on points to places where Hank is able to develop his fantasy, Thus - erections aid his loss of reality.

One interesting subject is the underlying homosexual suggestions...This technically is incorrect...as Hank and Manny are in fact, Sarah and Hank respectively.

During the Bear attack, Hank tells Manny that (when he was alive) He never had a relationship with Sarah...At this, Manny loses all his 'Powers.' It is the bear itself which snaps Hank to reality (if just for a brief moment) this is the first genuine/real interference with his fantasy. Hank manages to fight back by reestablishing his schizophrenia....The bear wasn't dragging Hank away....It was dragging Sarah...As Manny is a schizophrenic manifestation of both Hank and love...It is not Manny that scares the bear and carries Hank back to 'reality' (civilization)...It was Hank and love...Hank in his own bizarre way, had found love.

The final scene is an interesting one. When Manny and Hank reach the garden with the little girl..It is Manny who speaks to her, when we learn it is Sarah's garden, Manny is again a inanimate corpse. An interesting metaphor for Hanks hope.

It's the final scene of the movie that bugged me...Manny 'Jet Skiing' away from people...an actual mass of people witness a 'living super powered corpse.' I think this was too ambiguous and a total curve-ball. Which basically renders my entire understanding of this movie, null and void.

I want to know what other people made from this movie...It's entirely open to interpretation.

[–] ivan21 8 years ago

About the ending and my interpratation. I think that Manny was some sort of child/innocence/heart side.

So, the only person that besides Hank that talk to Manny, that sees him, is Sarah daughter. When Hank/Manny leaves, she runs to them. Some sort of "Dont let Manny go".

Then, all the adults, stills dont believe in Manny, who is the part of Hank that himself tries to explain. Then, after he farts theres still a moment of disbelief. Then people get to believe in this child/innocence/heart/hope, not only in Hank, but in themselfs.

Thats why they see Manny, the corpse, fart and go away.

Same as the Island Hank was into, it wasnt a real island, it was just the distance and loneliness between himselfs and others. Step by step he gets closer and closer to others, and you see that in the movie. He was just in her backyard. But you see all his journey to get to be really into her backyard. "I thought you were just happy, but i was wrong", when he realized that herself was also into another island. I think that one of the dudes tells to Hank "I think i know you", like somewhere in life they were close together, just maybe riding the same bus, but they were detached from one another.

So thats goes into the why Manny its just the representation of that. At the end of the movie, they are all together for real, accepting innocence/hope or whatever name you like to call it.

[–] MikeRydal 8 years ago

So your suggesting that the location of the movie is not a real place, but a metaphor of Hanks' social disposition.......I like it.

[–] jurbied-45368 7 years ago

(Sorry about my english & SPOILER ALERT)

My opinion about the ending: Hank farts in front of people (he accepts himself and accepts reality as it is). All characters see a shaking dead body with superpowers... so everyone sees what Hank has been seeing from the beggining of the movie. That means they empathize (in a metaphor way) with him, cause they understand (although they don´t approve) he did everything for love (disturbed love, but love after all). It´s a happy ending for Hank who feels no longer isolated or alone (even if he´s going to jail or to a mental hospital).

[–] jonhopper217 8 years ago

I watched this last night and enjoyed it immensely....and then the final 10 minutes happened. It went from being an 8-9 to a 7 and I'm thinking of lowering that. I don't know the ages of the writers/directors, but I'm guessing they are lacking life experience, so they wrote what they knew for the bulk of the movie and then threw together an ending. The ending isn't simply out of place, it destroys the concept of the movie. It turns clever metaphor after metaphor into a reality or makes reality the metaphor, which is sillier than the film itself. While the comedic aspects can't be denied, they balanced the sincerity so well, but then when you completely expect the movie to end with the force it has built up, it fizzles completely.

This film felt so much like a Farrelly Bros movie in that it was so funny, outrageous, even poignant and then ends in the worst way imaginable. The problem with comedies these days is that if they end hilariously, people want more, so sometimes it's just easier to ruin it.

[–] TroyMin 8 years ago

The ambiguity of the ending reminds me of Birdman's ending. I think it's a trend for these psychologically weird films to have an ending that tries to warp the sense of reality of the characters that we assume normally see "reality."

[–] Garmonbozia8 7 years ago

That's exactly what I wanted to say, that the ending is almost exactly like the ending of Birdman, or a Lynch film. And personally, I love endings like this, but most people loath them because it inhibits them from being able to attach a concise explanation to the whole thing--which is understandable but not every movie should have to adhere to the same standard. Not every movie is "just" a story, some can be an experience, a fantasy, an idea, in and of themselves. I enjoy the mystery and the magic. Endings like this embrace the unlimited and magical things and ideas the medium of film can create and show. It's filmmaking with balls, as Jodorowsky would say. But, I accept that only a small minority of people feel this way about ambiguous endings.

[–] kathiehansen 8 years ago

This forum is almost as entertaining as the movie! I really liked it and laughed out loud many times.It reminds me of the time I first saw "Eating Raoul" in the 80's. It was so macabre and yet funny I couldn't get over how shocked I was at myself for laughing.

[–] Frantastic_Miss_Fox 8 years ago

I really like your interpretation of it and a lot of sounds like it could be true. I disagree with:

has only been able to achieve an erection to the thought of his mother

As someone else pointed out, that wasn't the case. The thought of his mother didn't give him an erection but, because of a comment she made about masturbation, whenever he gets an erection and goes to masturbate he then thinks of his mother which ruins it (naturally).

I also disagree about the ending. I really liked the ending and thought it was well played out. I admit I am often a fan of ambiguous endings because I like that they make people think but here I thought it was good anyway. I don't think the ending was implying that Manny really was alive or super powered. I think it's either supposed to be another hallucination of Hank's or the corpse had some gas still left in it and it released while he was in the water (including the corpse flopping about). I don't think the powerful force that we as the viewer and Hank saw was actually what happened in that case, I think it probably farted a bit while moving and got carried away by the water which is what everyone else saw but Hank saw it as the jet ski force and so did we because we were seeing things from his perspective. I also think the ending fits into the theme of accepting the 'weird' and embracing the 'strange' which was what Hank wanted people to do the whole time. He felt like he was 'weird' and 'strange' in his life and wanted people to accept that.

[–] MikeRydal 8 years ago

I did misinterpret the mother/son relationship...it suggests more the exact opposite of the oedipus complex but still, it's a contributing factor to Hanks' psyche.

[–] TeenGangDeb 8 years ago

It was odd that they were lost for such a long time (seemingly) then after getting to Sarah's house everyone is able to walk back to the sites and the beach within minutes. He wasn't really lost at all.

And seeing someone on a bus, and making up a story about them, when you never really know them, that's the point of Sarah. She is married with a kid. You can dream all you want about her being The One but she is nor.

++++++
Love means never having to say you're ugly. - The Abominable Dr. Phibes

[–] hal-9010 8 years ago

Notice how he was clean shaven when they found him in the end and also that his SMS messages did not show much indication of someone really being lost. Yes I know he used super Manny to shave his face, but assuming the powers of Manny was a construct in his mind, so was these shaving powers. I don't think he was lost for that long. In this mind, yes. But not in reality.

___________
** I am normally not a praying man, but if you are up there, please save me Superman **

[–] floppylobster-86-283328 7 years ago

I think after watching the 'Turned Down for What' video that they directed, I feel much less enthusiastic about this film. Afterward it just seems like these are two guys obsessed with making crude jokes through bodily functions and moving body parts.

I was okay with most of it in the film, but they lingered way too long on some shots and played some jokes out past the punchline. And the failure to actually make a point at the end of the film beyond, "better out then in" (with feelings and flatulence) kind of undermined the whole thing.

The film is an interesting curiosity, but you can bet whatever they do next will have exactly the same type of things in it, and it will get old very fast.

[–] rod-davies 7 years ago

I've read this entire thread and there are some important details that everyone is missing:

Timeline

The phone shows the time and date a number of times throughout, as follows:
1. They leave the island and get to the mainland. The phone is seen for the first time on the beach and it shows "Tue July 13, 7:25"
2. Hank steps in bear poop, they hear the bear, fall into gulley, Manny sees picture of Sarah on phone, time is "Thu July 15, 6:05"
3. Just before they try to cross river over pipes Hank looks at phone, time is "Tue July 20, 3:58"
4. Hank is peeing in the woods just before the bear attack. Time is "10:45".
4. Manny's thoughts with images (flashbacks, flash forwards?). Phone shown in a small hand-made coffin with time "Tue July 20, 10:45"
5. At Sarah's house, police officer holding phone, can't make out date but time is "10:45"
6. Sarah holding phone having followed Hank/Manny into woods with others "Wed July 21, 3:59"

So the movie takes place over 8 days. That is how long Hank drags a dead body around for. The time of 10:45 appears 3 times but only once is the date seen. Is this all the same time or on different days? What else could it mean? Well each suggests a break in Hank's delusion. The first time when he is peeing at night in the woods he sees a car go past - that car passing does not fit into the delusional world he has created for himself. The 2nd time is in the images shown as Manny is listing thoughts and on this occassion the phone with Sarah's picture showing are in a tiny coffin - does this suggest the end (death) of his delusion? And lastly is when the police officer is inspecting the phone. At this point his delusion has come into harsh contact with reality and the delusion has broken apart.

The Red Notebook

In the photo on the phone, Sarah is writing in a red notebook. Hank seems to have acquired this notebook at some point. It is an important element of the scene in the fake bus with Manny as they are acting out a possible meeting between Manny and Sarah. The notebook is also seen near the end of the movie where Sarah recognises it amongst Hank's belongings in his home in the woods.

So I think Hank stole the notebook from Sarah on the bus one day and it contained information about her (such as name and address). That may account in part for the interaction Hank and Manny act out on their fake bus, and it also accounts for how Hank found where Sarah lives and knows her name to find her on snapchat.

Fern River Cafe

At the end of the movie when Sarah, Hank's Dad, the police etc follow Hank into the woods, they come across an area that Hank presumably has been living. There is a sign showing Fern River Cafe; there is the fake bus that Hank and Manny were in earlier; there is a living space; and other creations made from rubbish, including a human-like caricature of Hank's father.

Was all of this created with Manny in those 8 days? Perhaps only some of it, like the bus and the fake people as an audience watching a show, but the rest, like the sleeping space may have been created earlier. It does seem that Hank has been living here for some time before Manny showed up.

So, the backstory based on the above evidence might look something like this:

Hank is socially awkward but his issues are clearly much more serious than that. He sees Sarah on the bus regularly and falls for her. At some point he steals her notebook which allows him to find where she lives. He watches from a distance and fantasises about a life with her. She seems happy and he wants that happiness too. He finds a way to live in the woods behind her house and creates a living space as part of his delusional detachment from reality. This lasts for some time but at some point he decides to kill himself, either as a result of the delusion or because he realises he is living a fantasy and the reality of his existence is awful.

Enter Manny...

[–] debrecenisrac38 7 years ago

In a different thread, others have said, and I tend to agree, it wasn't the actual notebook, but a mock version of it.

I think after stalking her for quite a bit, he acquired a photo of her, which was geotagged, or simply followed her home. If you've seen the short lived series Stalker, then you're aware, not all stalkers collect memorabilia. He lived in the woods for months.

Speaking of missing key points: the writers named the character Manny, because Hank thought he heard that, in reality it was most likely the air leaving his lungs.

As for Hank... I'm socially awkward, especially in crowds, he's disturbed, he fits reality to his own delusion. My guess is, before the bridge jumper washed up, he had finally accepted, that his dream girl has a loving husband and an endearing daughter, and also because he went cold turkey on some much needed medication.

I live in the Gordius Apartment Complex, my interior designer was M.C. Esher.

[–] freddy-41-529926 7 years ago

tX! Mike I truly liked and enjoyed your take on the movie. I agree in most details and want to ad that I went through an extreme mix of contradictory emotions throughout the film, from laughter to extreme sadness to love to pain...

So I thank you for your explanation which actually clarified most of what I felt.
Having gone through an extreme lonely childhood in which my self esteem was nullified helped me in understanding Hank better...

Cheers Mike, will read some of your other reviews. I truly liked what you wrote.