The Fountain - Ending Sequence {Truely poetic Sci-Fi}
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Stumble ThisMAJOR SPOILER WARNING. THIS IS THE END OF THE FILM.
Using almost ZERO CGI in the entire film, The Fountain is one of the most poetic and extraordinary Science Fiction films in recent history.
This has immediately become one of my absolute favorite science fiction films of all time. The rhythm of it keeps your heart in time with the characters and the tragedy and rebirth that defines their lives. The movie is best taken without reading descriptions or spoilers. If you take a moment to suspend your disbelief and take it in, you will understand the complexity of it and who and what is when and where. The connection of the stories is both tangible and symbolic and rhymes in a way almost as if it were more of visual poetry than basic story telling. The only perhaps incongruous moment is that of the fate of the conquistador who seems to meet his destiny unintentionally. I'll say however that that is the only moment I was disappointed with in the entire film. I could see this film being loved by foreign audiences more than American. If you are a lover of old fashioned slow, pure, and thought provoking science fiction, you will love this film. If you're looking for Star Wars or the like, look elsewhere.
The score is also legendary.
That and Hugh Jackman's finest acting performance of his career...
Using almost ZERO CGI in the entire film, The Fountain is one of the most poetic and extraordinary Science Fiction films in recent history.
This has immediately become one of my absolute favorite science fiction films of all time. The rhythm of it keeps your heart in time with the characters and the tragedy and rebirth that defines their lives. The movie is best taken without reading descriptions or spoilers. If you take a moment to suspend your disbelief and take it in, you will understand the complexity of it and who and what is when and where. The connection of the stories is both tangible and symbolic and rhymes in a way almost as if it were more of visual poetry than basic story telling. The only perhaps incongruous moment is that of the fate of the conquistador who seems to meet his destiny unintentionally. I'll say however that that is the only moment I was disappointed with in the entire film. I could see this film being loved by foreign audiences more than American. If you are a lover of old fashioned slow, pure, and thought provoking science fiction, you will love this film. If you're looking for Star Wars or the like, look elsewhere.
The score is also legendary.
That and Hugh Jackman's finest acting performance of his career...
The whole "tree in a bubble journeying to the crab nebula" thing made me roll my eyes.
I really enjoyed it, made me think a lot while watching it, which is always a good sign for me
The beauty of this movie is that it allows for multiple interpretations of the entire time line and not just the ending.
One interpretation is that the movie is told using non-linear story telling. The non-linear interpretation leads to the following time line:
The protagonist loves his wife (in the year 2000). She dies while writing a book about Spain set in the 1500s. The protagonist's medical research leads to life extension technology. He prolongs his life for 500 years until the technology to travel through space becomes available. In a romantic gesture he casts his wife's remains (the tree) and himself into the nebula.
The second interpretation of the movie, which I feel more comfortable with, is that the scenes in the movie occur on a linear time line set in the year 2000 (i.e., There is no space travel). The scenes in the bubble are a visualization of the protagonist's inner space. We see this inner space every time the protagonist withdraws into himself. The scenes involving Spain are a visualization of the chapters in the book. They are shown every time someone writes into the book. In beginning the wife is doing the writing, and towards the end the protagonist is writing the final chapter as per his dead wife's wishes. The final scene shows the protagonist coming to terms his wife's death; the blooming tree is a visual depiction of his mind having an epiphany and the conquistador's death shows how the protagonist ended the book (accepting death as the spring of new life). Finally, once he has made peace with his wife's death he is able to fulfill her last wish - planting a tree over her grave.
Obviously Aronofsky wanted to make the movie consistent with the first interpretation. That is why the movie has the whole subplot involving the life-extending medical research. It is also the time line suggested by the movie's trailer. But I also think he consciously wanted the movie to be consistent with the second interpretation and this is not just me reading way too much into the story. The metaphor of 'mind as deep-space' is common in many mystic philosophies. You might have heard the term 'psychonauts' to describe people who engage in deep meditation or those who consume hallucinogens. Also, some of the scenes in the bubble show transitions of the protagonist withdrawing into his mind: example, consider the scene where he lies down with his wife on the hospital bed; the very next scene begins in the bubble and you can see the ghost image of the hospital bed and his wife slowly fading away as he is drawn into his mind.
For this and many others reason I love The Fountain.