10 Movies That Made You Work Out The Answer Yourself
Ambiguity at its most brilliantly annoying.
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00:00 Though it may feel like ambiguous, non-committal endings are becoming increasingly common in cinema nowadays,
00:05 there is a reason for it.
00:07 The good ones get the discussion going, and it never really stops being interesting,
00:12 no matter how long it's gone on for.
00:14 The following 10 movies, then, all surefire classics in one way or another,
00:19 ask the viewer to do all of the mental legwork by figuring things out for themselves,
00:24 and we love them for it.
00:26 So, I'm Josh from WhatCulture.com, and these are 10 movies that made you work out the answer yourself.
00:31 Number 10, Blade Runner.
00:33 The question, "Is Deckard a human or a replicant?"
00:37 This question has tortured Blade Runner fans ever since the film's original 1982 theatrical release,
00:43 and Ridley Scott's subsequent director's cut and final cut only further fuelled the debate.
00:48 The main evidence pointing to Deckard himself being a replicant
00:51 is the fact that Gaff leaves him an origami unicorn at the end of the movie.
00:56 Considering that Deckard had a dream involving a unicorn earlier on in the film,
01:00 it implies that this character is aware of Deckard's dreams due to him being a replicant.
01:06 Opponents of this theory, though, argue that it could merely mean that humans and replicants share the same dreams,
01:12 further blurring the line between what is and isn't human.
01:15 Plus, Deckard being saved and spared by Batty at the very end of the movie
01:19 is robbed of so much of its emotional impact if he is indeed just another replicant.
01:25 Somewhat predictably and aptly, though, Blade Runner 2049, the sequel,
01:29 refused to shed further light on Deckard's identity,
01:32 though the fact that he didn't run through walls as K did has been interpreted
01:36 as further evidence that he is, in fact, human.
01:39 Number 9, American Psycho.
01:41 The question, "How much of Patrick Bateman's killing spree, if any, actually happened,
01:46 and how much of it was merely imagined by him?"
01:49 American Psycho concludes with murderer Patrick Bateman going on a hilariously over-the-top killing spree
01:55 as the police chase him down and he eventually makes a desperate final confession
01:59 for all of his murderous misdeeds.
02:01 Then, the following reveal shows that there's actually no physical proof of Bateman's acts,
02:07 and that his secretary, Gene, discovered profane scribblings in his journal,
02:11 which seemed to suggest that his rampage was pure fantasy.
02:14 There's even the suggestion that Bateman isn't even who he says he is,
02:18 as the film ends on a chillingly non-committal note.
02:21 Some believe that Bateman's rampage happened mostly as depicted,
02:25 but his delusional mind exaggerated some of the sillier aspects.
02:29 Others feel that he killed everyone minus Paul Allen,
02:32 who was said to be alive at the end of the movie,
02:34 and some suspect that he didn't even kill a single person.
02:38 The film's slippery logic and unreliable protagonist make all three theories valid in their own way,
02:44 though the filmmakers and actors have stated conflicting theories as to which one they think is legit.
02:49 Number 8. The Shining.
02:50 The question, what was the meaning behind the old Overlook Hotel photograph,
02:55 which features Jack Torrance, despite being taken in 1921,
02:59 some 60 years before the movie's events took place?
03:03 Director Stanley Kubrick has suggested that this scene was meant to imply
03:06 that Jack was the reincarnation of a previous hotel caretaker,
03:10 which lines up with the spectral butler Grady creepily telling him,
03:14 "You've always been the caretaker."
03:16 Some fans, however, have theorized that the picture represents Jack's soul being absorbed by the hotel,
03:22 and the other party guests in the picture are perhaps even other people claimed by the Overlook itself.
03:28 This would also fit well with Grady's line,
03:30 that Jack is trapped in that single moment in the photograph forevermore,
03:34 destined to always be there now.
03:37 So, whether you take Kubrick at his word or accept that a creator's work
03:40 no longer explicitly belongs to them once it's out in the wild,
03:43 it's a tantalizing mystery that's baffled fans for almost 40 years.
03:47 Number 7. Birdman.
03:49 The question, what happened to Rigan after he climbed onto the ledge of his hospital room?
03:54 There are a bunch of theories here, so let's run them down.
03:57 Some believe that the character died from shooting himself on stage,
04:01 and the film's final scenes are nothing more than his dying hallucination,
04:05 which would explain why it's almost comically idyllic.
04:09 Conversely, there's the rather out there theory that suggests that Rigan can actually fly,
04:14 which at least makes a little more sense as we do see his daughter Sam
04:18 looking up to the sky after clearly not seeing his corpse at the foot of the hospital.
04:22 Perhaps the most plausible suggestion, though, is that the character really did jump out the window and die,
04:28 and Sam's reaction is merely her entering a fantasy world where her father flies away,
04:32 rather than splats violently on the pavement below.
04:35 Unlike Kubrick, director Alejandro Iñárritu has refused to offer his own interpretation of the finale,
04:41 and given the film's generally surreal quality, it's hard to fully commit to one defining theory.
04:46 Number 6. Total Recall.
04:48 The question, was Douglas Quaid actually a secret agent,
04:51 or was his trip to Mars merely an implanted memory?
04:54 Total Recall giddily plays with reality throughout its runtime,
04:58 goading the audience to consider whether the events they're watching are actually playing out at all,
05:03 or merely the result of a fabricated memory within Quaid's mind.
05:07 After all, when Quaid goes to recall, the shell plot of the movie is basically laid out to him,
05:12 and a technician even mentions the blue sky from the very end of the film,
05:16 suggesting that we are experiencing this false memory all the way to the credits.
05:21 Some fans believe, though, that the schizoid embolism Quaid appears to suffer
05:25 is merely part of the fantasy, to better convince the recipient that the secret agent adventure is legit.
05:31 Others, of course, are dead set on Quaid's adventure being real,
05:35 while director Paul Verhoeven won't give one side credence over the other,
05:39 as suits the film's reality-warping core theme wonderfully.
05:42 Number 5. Lost in Translation.
05:44 The question, what did Barbara whisper in Charlotte's ear?
05:48 When asked about the famously ambiguous ending to her film,
05:51 writer-director Sofia Coppola stated that the line was improvised by Bill Murray himself,
05:56 and only he and Scarlett Johansson know exactly what was said between their characters.
06:02 However, a video emerged online in 2007,
06:05 which claimed to reveal the whisper through post-processing techniques,
06:09 with Murray apparently saying, quote,
06:11 "I have to be leaving, but I won't let that come between us, okay?" end quote.
06:16 Yet, the muddy quality of this audio means that it's hardly definitive proof.
06:21 While there have been countless other attempts by internet sleuths to decode the source audio,
06:26 not one of them has been especially convincing.
06:29 We know he says something poignant and meaningful,
06:31 but beyond that, it's forever destined to be a mystery.
06:35 Number 4. The Thing.
06:36 The question, at the end of the film, who is infected by the extraterrestrial life form?
06:41 MacReady or Childs?
06:43 John Carpenter's ferocious sci-fi horror film ends on an all-timer classic cliffhanger,
06:49 reinforcing the movie's overarching theme of paranoia by having the two remaining men
06:53 committed to freezing to death to ensure that the alien doesn't escape out into the world.
06:58 Most of the prominent fan theories out there seem to point towards Childs probably being the thing though,
07:03 as his breath isn't really visible in the low temperatures, which could suggest that he's not human.
07:09 Also, a more adventurous suggestion is that MacReady placed gasoline in the bottle of the alcohol,
07:14 and when Childs drank it without spitting it out, it indicated that he was indeed the thing,
07:19 which wouldn't know the difference in taste between the two substances.
07:23 Some believe this is why MacReady laughs after Childs takes a sip, as he finally knows the truth.
07:28 The mutually assured destruction on the basis of distrust is pivotal to the ending's bleak power though,
07:34 so while it's fun to try and figure it out, the lack of a concrete answer is kinda the entire point.
07:39 Number 3. Inception.
07:41 The question, was Cobb still dreaming or not?
07:44 Christopher Nolan's ingenious sci-fi thriller had just about everyone debating its agonisingly ambiguous final image,
07:50 where the spinning top totem is either still spinning or beginning to wobble, depending on your interpretation.
07:56 The important thing to remember of course, is that this was Mal's totem, not Cobb's,
08:02 which has been theorised to in fact be his wedding ring.
08:05 Nolan suspiciously obscures the ring from view during several pivotal scenes,
08:10 presumably to keep the film's mystery keenly intact.
08:13 Likewise, the director himself has refused to confirm the truth,
08:16 but he has noted that viewers need to recognise that in those final moments,
08:20 Cobb has just accepted whatever reality has been presented in front of him.
08:24 At this point, he doesn't care, he just wants to be with his kids, whatever form that takes.
08:29 And dream or not, he has embraced this wholeheartedly,
08:32 and that's seemingly more crucial than what the nature of his reality actually is.
08:37 Number 2. Under the Skin.
08:39 The question, where did the alien creature come from, and what's she doing on Earth?
08:43 Jonathan Glazer's 2013 masterpiece is one of the greatest sci-fi films of the 21st century so far,
08:50 and a big reason for that is how terrifically, ominously vague it is.
08:54 Scarlett Johansson's otherworldly entity shows up out of nowhere,
08:57 resembles a human, and spends her time in Glasgow trying to figure out humanity.
09:03 Where she came from, how she arrived on Earth, and her intentions are never even remotely explained,
09:08 giving the audience an awful amount of leeway to cobble together their own theories.
09:13 Though Michelle Faber's book has its own set of answers, given how unfaithful the movie generally is to it,
09:19 it's not really reasonable to expect any meaningful parity between the two sources.
09:24 In the book, the alien is sent to Earth by a corporation on her home planet to farm humans for food,
09:29 which would explain how much screen time is devoted to her feeding process in the film.
09:34 However, the film also makes no indication whatsoever that she's stockpiling any of the human remains.
09:40 Number 1. Rashomon. The question, who is telling the truth?
09:44 Akira Kurosawa's 1950 drama is the ultimate cinematic statement about the flimsy reliability of eyewitness testimony,
09:51 and the fleeting quality of truth.
09:53 In regard to the central case of the murdered samurai, the stories of the bandit, the wife, the samurai,
09:59 as told through a medium, and the woodcutter are all subject to their own fair share of scrutiny.
10:04 And the entire point seems to be that, due to their own agendas,
10:08 none of the witnesses can bring themselves to deliver a proper, truthful rendition of events.
10:13 The fun of the movie is in trying to figure out whose story is the correct one, or the most correct at least.
10:20 But if Kurosawa had concluded the film with a concrete answer,
10:23 it would have torpedoed the movie's brilliant meditation on the elusiveness of the supposed truth.
10:29 If nothing else, it provokes a fascinating discussion afterwards,
10:32 and remains fiercely provocative so many decades later.
10:37 So that's our list. I want to know what you guys think down in the comments below.
10:39 Where do you come down on these movie endings?
10:42 And are there any other hotly debated ones I missed off here?
10:46 While you're down there as well, could you please give us a like, share, subscribe,
10:48 and head over to WhatCulture.com for more lists and news like this every single day.
10:52 Even if you don't though, I've been Josh. Thanks so much for watching, and I'll see you soon.