Garden State Ending (Spoilers)
Uncle Rich
My wife and I saw Garden State tonight, and we enjoyed
it very much. I actually enjoyed the quirky humor more
than my wife did, and I laughed out loud a lot during the
movie. I was especially impressed by Natalie Portman, who
showed a pretty good acting range and nack for humor that
I had not seen before in any of her other movies.
But here's my question: as the movie opened, the Zack
Braff character, Andrew Largeman, was sitting, almost
catatonic in an airliner which appeared to be crashing with
all the other passengers around him screaming and crying
as they seemed to be headed for their doom. Did Largeman
die in a plan crash or not?
The scene then changes to Largeman in bed staring at the
ceiling with his father talking to him on his telephone answering
machine. At the end of the movie, when Largeman decides
to go back to California to resume his film career, he gets
on a plane again.
The next scene shows his girlfriend, Natalie Portman (Sam)
crying her eyes out in a telephone booth. My first thought was
that Largeman had died in a plane crash and Sam had just
got the news from a phone call in the booth where she was
crying.
Suddenly, Largeman appears and in an almost surreal scene,
(which I though was a dream), he decides to get off the
plane and return to Sam. I'm wondering if there might have
been an alternate ending in which Largeman actually does
die in a plane crash.
The reunion scene at the end of the movie seemed so unreal
to me, that it really could have been a dream Largeman was
having just before the plane crashed. But the only reason
I reject this scenario is because the people Largeman was
sitting by in the opening scene were different from those in
the final plane scene, and also he was in a different location
in the plane.
If Largeman had indeed died at the end, it would have been
a fitting ending to a life which was so filled with tragedy and
missed opportunities.
-Richard
Jesse Mazer
Uncle Rich wrote:
>Spoilers ahead ...
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>My wife and I saw Garden State tonight, and we enjoyed
>it very much. I actually enjoyed the quirky humor more
>than my wife did, and I laughed out loud a lot during the
>movie. I was especially impressed by Natalie Portman, who
>showed a pretty good acting range and nack for humor that
>I had not seen before in any of her other movies.
>
>But here's my question: as the movie opened, the Zack
>Braff character, Andrew Largeman, was sitting, almost
>catatonic in an airliner which appeared to be crashing with
>all the other passengers around him screaming and crying
>as they seemed to be headed for their doom. Did Largeman
>die in a plan crash or not?
>
That first scene was definitely a dream. Didn't you see the part where
he reached up to adjust the air and suddenly saw his alarm clock where
the no smoking/fasten seatbelt signs were supposed to be? Then they cut
to him in bed with his alarm clock going off, showing he had
incorporated the sound into his dream before waking up.
Jesse
Uncle Rich
"Jesse Mazer" <vze2...@mail.verizon.net> wrote in message
news:413107D...@mail.verizon.net...
Yes, the first scene appeared to be a dream, but the next scene
cut to the bedroom could have been a flash back. In fact, the
whole movie could have been a flash back during the period
of time when Largeman was going down in the plane. This is
a common technique used in many films where you start
with the ending, then flash back to how you got there, and
then the movie picks up at the point again where you entered the
movie near the end. I think the ending could have been
just as much of a dream sequence as the beginning appeared
to be.
-Richard
Jesse Mazer
Uncle Rich wrote:
But it's not a common technique to have elements from the flashback
intrude on reality, like the ringing phone appearing where the no
smoking sign was supposed to be on the plane.
> I think the ending could have been
>just as much of a dream sequence as the beginning appeared
>to be.
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>-Richard
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Unlike the scene on the plane, there were no bizarre elements to signal
that the real ending, where he chose to stay with Sam instead of getting
on the plane, was a dream. Also, his total lack of emotion on the
crashing plane fit with his drugged-out state early in the movie, but
not with his attitude towards life by the end of the movie...to have
that crash scene be the end wouldn't make sense in terms of his
character arc.
Jesse
Andrew Ryan Chang
Jesse Mazer <vze2...@verizon.net> wrote:
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>Uncle Rich wrote:
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>>"Jesse Mazer" <vze2...@mail.verizon.net> wrote in message
>>news:413107D...@mail.verizon.net...
>>
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>>>Uncle Rich wrote:
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>>>>Spoilers ahead ...
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>Unlike the scene on the plane, there were no bizarre elements to signal
>that the real ending, where he chose to stay with Sam instead of getting
>on the plane, was a dream. Also, his total lack of emotion on the
>crashing plane fit with his drugged-out state early in the movie, but
>not with his attitude towards life by the end of the movie...to have
>that crash scene be the end wouldn't make sense in terms of his
>character arc.
Yeah, but the last plane scene did have the same fast-motion
around Largeman that the first one (and the party scene) did. Arguably,
he was near-catatonic in the later plane scene cause the enormity of
having left Sam behind was hitting him.
I'm mostly just playing devil's advocate here; I'm about 75%
behind the theory that he just got off the plane for real.
--
"If the president of the United States can find time to go to a rodeo, he
can find the time to do more than one hour in front of a commission that
is investigating what happened to America's intelligence,"
-- John Kerry, Mar 8, 2004
Jesse Mazer
Andrew Ryan Chang wrote:
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> Yeah, but the last plane scene did have the same fast-motion
>around Largeman that the first one (and the party scene) did. Arguably,
>he was near-catatonic in the later plane scene cause the enormity of
>having left Sam behind was hitting him.
>
Speaking of the final scene on the plane, I was thinking about this
thread the second time I saw the movie, and I'm fairly certain the
passengers sitting next to him in the ending scene were not the same as
the passengers next to him in the dream at the beginning. Also, the
movie opens with a distress call from the pilot, and I think the pilot
mentions that the flight is *to* Newark, although I'm not sure...if
anyone reading this thread sees this movie, maybe they could watch for
these two points to see if my memories are correct?
Jesse
Michael Buffridge
and noticed how incredibly foggy it appeared to be through the windows
of the airport when Large returned to the terminal. I would think too
foggy for the plane to have even taken off.
I also noticed that Large had on a different shirt in the dream at the
start of the movie and inside the airplane at the end of the movie.
By the way, is there any possibility that there will be a sequel to
this movie?