Ending Of Return To Monkey Island
Linda Berens
Set many decades after the original Monkey Island games, Return to Monkey Island uses the framing device of an older Guybrush Threepwood telling his young son the story of how he finally found The Secret of Monkey Island. It is presented up front as Guybrush providing his son with closure to a story started many years ago, and left without a satisfying conclusion.
As the player reaches the end of the game, a fairly clear setup has been established. LeChuck and Guybrush are rushing toward the final location of The Secret of Monkey Island, with the player expecting that, somehow or another, Guybrush will decide to give up on his quest.
The player, from this point forward, is making a series of granular choices toward a series of multiple endings, without being made aware of that fact. If the player exhausts all dialogue, and explores all explorable interactions, as they will have done for the rest of the game without penalty, they may now unwittingly craft an unsatisfying ending for their story, without knowing they are doing so.
Would that make sense? Well, thematically I can see why the developers might want to tell a story about telling a story to give people closure they think they want, and the issues that come with that, but if that was the intention all along, I feel like the game did a very poor job of communicating that as the intended climax of the plot throughout the adventure.
Additionally, I think there is later conflicting evidence that rules out the reading that this adventure never happens. Certain endings make it clear the adveture did really happen, and we will return to that later.
Putting aside the fact that Guybrush is ostensibly telling the story of real life events, which he should not need to make up an interesting ending for, this feels like an excuse the game uses to avoid tackling, in character, many of the most interesting questions the game was posing as it built toward its conclusion.
We could have seen a confrontation between Elaine and Guybrush over his behaviour and who it hurt. We could have seen Guybrush make a decision not to engage. Hell, we could have simply skipped the baffling wooden false town and ended the story right before that.
If this game has gone from Guybrush heading through the final door, to him sat on the bench telling his kid that no ending to the story would be satisfying after all this time, and that he planned to leave things here where his son could still enjoy wondering how it ends, that would have at least felt build up to, even if the player was left without answers themselves.
My problem with the ending to Return to Monkey Island is ultimately a combination of its jarring rug pull, lack of narrative thread closure, unsignposted multiple ending system, and unclear sense of narrative direction.
The fact that the closest the game has to a narratively fulfilling ending can be so easily missed, by players trying to avoid missing content and be thorough, or get answers amidst a confusing change in location, is really disappointing.
After an agonizing decades-long hiatus, Monkey Island has made a triumphant return with Return to Monkey Island, a modern take on the former LucasArts series' legendary point-and-click comedy adventure formula. Serving as a direct sequel to 1991's Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, Return to Monkey Island follows the series' evergreen protagonist Guybrush Threepwood as he sets out to find the elusive "secret" of Monkey Island before his archenemy, the ghost pirate LeChuck.
Although Return to Monkey Island largely sticks to the formula established by its predecessors, the game differs by including multiple endings. After entering an ominous stone door hidden within the magma-filled caverns beneath Monkey Island, Guybrush finds himself in a pirate-themed amusement park inhabited by animatronic versions of the game's cast, with the choices the player makes next determining how their journey ends.
Serving as the "canon" ending of Return to Monkey Island, the "secret" ending sees Guybrush acquiring the secret of Monkey Island by opening a golden chest with a key obtained by the animatronic version of Locke Smith. Inside, he finds a t-shirt that reads, "I found the Secret of Monkey Island, and all it was was this stupid t-shirt." Content to have finally found the secret, Guybrush then uses the keys given to him by Stan S. Stanman to close down the park before departing with his wife Elaine.
The game then cuts back to the present day, with Guybrush's suspicious son Boybrush asking his father what was really in the chest, opening up five different answers that will alter the game's post-credits scene. No matter what the player chooses, Guybrush will explain to his son that the ending of a story isn't as important as the story itself before Elaine approaches the pair and reveals that she's found a treasure map. Allowing his wife and son to go on ahead, Guybrush takes a moment to take in the view before heading out on his next adventure with his family.
If the player chooses the first answer, "The chest was filled with gems, rubies and gold!", the game's post-credits scene will show Boybrush playing around in a hoard of treasure. The second answer, "The secret was really the friends we made along the way," will instead feature Guybrush celebrating his victory over LeChuck with several of the game's side characters on a small boat. The third, "Your mom was right, it's better not to know," shows the chest containing the secret being buried. The fourth, "I wasn't making anything up, that was what really happened," shows Guybrush and his family receiving tickets to the park. Finally, choosing "There isn't any one answer to what the Secret is," will show a banana tilting on top of a rock in reference to Christopher Nolan's Inception.
Alternatively, if the player decides to have Guybrush leave the amusement park with Elaine without obtaining the secret, the game will end without cutting back to the present day and feature different variations of the game's post-credits scene. If Guybrush leaves without obtaining the key to the golden chest, Chuckie and Dee will be shown chasing each other around the game's prologue area, with Dee holding the key in her hand. If Guybrush decides to take the key but doesn't use it to open the golden chest, he will be shown tossing the key into a pool of lava la The Lord of the Rings.
To achieve this ending and its variations, the player must backtrack to the caves beneath Monkey Island after obtaining the keys to the amusement park from Stan. If the player does this without having Guybrush pick up the key, Guybrush and Elaine will be shown triumphantly sailing off to their next adventure in the post-credits scene. If the player has Guybrush take the key but leave the chest locked, LeChuck and the treacherous Pirate Leader Captain Lila will be shown battling over the locked chest. Finally, if Guybrush obtains the key and the t-shirt, his longtime ally the Voodoo Lady will be shown returning to her ransacked shop, remarking to herself that she's got to learn not to take such long lunch breaks.
Easily the darkest of Return to Monkey Island's available endings, this one continues the Monkey Island series' gruesome tradition of allowing Guybrush to die at certain points in the game. To achieve this ending, the player must allow Guybrush to run out of air during one of the game's underwater segments. The player will then have to do this two more times, as the game will give Guybrush an additional six minutes of oxygen if his initial eight runs out, as well as an extra four on top of that. Once this timer runs out, the game will cut to an empty bench, with text revealing that Guybrush succumbed to an "accidental drowning," ending the game on a surprisingly somber note
Ron Gilbert is one of the most influential figures in the early adventure video game scene. After joining LucasArts in 1983, then known as Lucasfilm games, Gilbert quickly began to rise the developer's ranks and was soon offered the opportunity to develop his own adventure game alongside artist Gary Winnick. This game became Maniac Mansion, a 1987 graphic adventure that's still beloved today. Gilbert went on to create the SCUMM Engine, which would go on to power his Monkey Island series and just about any other 1990s LucasArts adventure title. After a 30-year hiatus, Ron Gilbert is back, once again helming a Monkey Island game, this time fittingly titled Return to Monkey Island.
Released just a few weeks ago, Return to Monkey Island has been one of the hidden hits of 2022, with an incredible critical reception. Managing to not only capture the same light-hearted, cutting humor of the original, but elevate it far beyond its 1990s predecessors, Return to Monkey Island delivers a hilarious sea-faring adventure packed with fan-service and a surprising amount of emotional depth. Nowhere is this more present than in the game's multiple endings, some of which are very heartfelt.
The general plot of Return to Monkey Islandpicks up right after Monkey Island 2: LeChuck's Revenge, and sees an older Guybrush Threepwood telling his son, Boybrush, about the time he finally set sail in pursuit of the Secret of Monkey Island. Along the way, Guybrush meets up with a colorful cast of characters, most of which come straight from the previous entries in the franchise. Return to Monkey Island features over 10 different endings, with five of those being the endings fans are most likely to see after finishing up their first playthrough.
The end of Return to Monkey Island sees Guybrush about to discover the Secret of Monkey Island, and the outcome is decided by the player's final choice. The main ending sees the player open up the locked chest with the animatronic's key. The chest opens to reveal a novelty T-shirt that reads "I found the Secret of Monkey Island and all it was was this stupid t-shirt." The camera then cuts to the present day, where Boybrush asks what was in the chest, leaving the player to choose one of five different dialogue options.
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