Charlie Kaufman’s mind-bending drama I think of finishing things The ending is not meant to be fully understood. Throughout the film, hints are dropped that something is not right, leading to twists and turns that leave many questions as the credits roll. Based on a book of the same name by Iain Reid, I Am Thinking of endless things Follows an unnamed woman (Jessie Buckley) as she accompanies her boyfriend Jake (Jesse Plemons) to his childhood home to meet his parents.
The woman has second thoughts about their relationship, but goes along for the ride anyway. Once they arrive at Jake’s family home, the young woman begins to question her relationship and her reality. The end of the movie reveals that the majority of the events of the film happened in Jake’s mind. He never met the young woman; He only admired her from afar years ago. His parents have also passed away a long time ago. The movie Serves to make a powerful commentary on loneliness and regret. I’m thinking of ending things Changed the ending of the novel, but it is still controversial.
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I’m thinking about Finishing Things Timeline: Who’s the Janitor
It could be an older Jake
Kaufman’s psychological thriller is intercut with the occasional shot of an elderly janitor working in a high school – these are the only moments in the film that actually happen. The elderly janitor is what Jake actually looks like in real life. Every scene with Jake and the young woman takes place in Jake’s mind as he lives in the pastConsumed by regret, and is stuck in a loop of what could have been. The movie relays his life as he wishes it had been up to that point I’m thinking of ending things ending
Even though Jake’s imagination in the original Netflix film is filled with a girlfriend and loving parents, the loneliness in his mind is evident. The color palette on the screen during his fantasy is cold and dark, seemingly tinged in blue – which is synonymous with sadness. The time in his imagination takes place in a blizzard, which adds to the cold feeling. The cool and isolated atmosphere is wrapped in clues that Jake remembers a time from decades ago.
Moments from his real time as a young man just unconsciously wrap themselves around his elaborate imagination.
At his parents’ house, Jake shows the young woman an old black-and-white photo of his dog, and she catches a glimpse of his mother looking like she would have dressed in the 1960s. Jake takes the young woman to an ice cream shop where female employees also look like they belong in the 1960s. It’s clear that Jake is a lonely old man in his current state of mind, so he spends his time imagining what his life should be like.. Moments from his real time as a young man just unconsciously wrap themselves around his elaborate imagination.
Jake’s fate in I Think of Ending Things Explained
He probably died
Jake was a lonely man full of regret. Life didn’t turn out the way he wanted, so he spends his days imagining life as it could have been – loving parents and a girlfriend. The students tease him, but he longs to be accepted. In the sequences with Old Jake, the high school students are rehearsing the musical Oklahoma! The I’m thinking of ending things The final scene shows an alternate version of Old Jake accepting an award and performing a song from the musical – aptly titled “Lonely Room” – to an enthusiastic audience.
Jake returns to his car and suffers a mental breakdown.
Old Jake is so desperate for a sense of camaraderie and belonging that he even wants to be the star of the musical at the high school where he works. It’s just another fantasy sequence. In fact, Jake wraps up a cold, snowy night cleaning the school. Jake returns to his car and suffers a mental breakdown. He relives moments from his life – memories of his parents and various moments from when he was a child.
During this breakdown, he strips naked and imagines another one of his high school fantasies. The final shot of the movie sees Jake’s car completely covered in snow. He never let it out of his car and probably died there. The title of I’m thinking of ending things Has a darker second meaning – Jake is deeply depressed. He never had the life he desperately wanted, and he’s probably thinking of ending things.
The movie subverts this by leading audiences to initially think it was about a breakup when it was all just another layer of Jake’s fantasy life. He was too deep in his depression to get out of a dangerous situation – it is clear that he at least considered death as a way out. I’m thinking of ending things The end is ultimately a tragedy. Life doesn’t always make sense or turn out the way someone wants it to. Living with deep, consuming regret and sadness can have devastating, long-lasting consequences.
What happened to Jake’s parents in I think of ending things
The significance of Jake’s family background
Jake’s parents seem off-kilter from the get-go. This is because Jake imagines them from different periods of their lives. Jake is an elderly man in real life, so his parents probably died years ago. In the fantasy sequences where they are introduced to the young woman, they fan over Jake – especially his mom. But later, old Jake is shown in mental anguish, reliving memories of a painful life. The audience sees a flash of his parents’ arguments. It is safe to assume that he has a complicated relationship with his parents and wishes he could have made them proud.
Jake’s dad looks physically bad, and his mom is mentally bad.
Jake’s relationship with his parents may also be deeper than that. As he and the young woman visit his parents, they are shown at different times in their lives – middle age, as younger adults, and then near the end of their lives. Clues are scattered in the sequences where they are middle-aged the fact that their health is starting to fail. Jake’s dad looks physically bad, and his mom is mentally bad. The final sequence with his parents shows his mom at the end of her life and unable to care for herself, with his dad barely functioning.
It is unclear when his parents passed in relation to where Jake is in the present timeline. But without them, Jake is truly alone. Whether he wishes he had more time with them or could have done with the time they shared, he clearly thinks about whether there was anything he could have done differently in regards to their relationship. because he can’t I’m thinking of ending things Old Jake imagines life with his parents as he wishes it could have been.
Is Lucy real? The young woman in I’m Thinking About Ending Things explained
She is a woman from Jake’s past
The young woman is not Jake’s girlfriend, but a woman he admired years ago. throughout I’m thinking of ending thingsThe young woman’s backstory changes constantly. Jake refers to her by different names, he changes the story of how they met, her career constantly switches, and her childhood is even altered a little. That’s because she’s technically a figment of his imagination. As shown in the US I’m thinking of ending things Finally, he did see her from afar back in a bar, but he never had the courage to talk to her.
Jake regrets that he never spoke to the young woman, so he imagines what life might have been like with her.
The young woman and old Jake have a confrontation at Jake’s high school in the I’m thinking of ending things Ending, where she shares that Jake never approached her at the bar. He just watched her, and she recalls how unsettling it was. Jake regrets that he never spoke to the young woman, so he imagines what life might have been like with her.
He thinks so much about this young woman that moments of his daily life influence the story he creates about her. In his real life as a janitor, the audience sees Jake on his lunch break watching a romantic comedy in which the female lead is a waitress.
In the next sequence of his fantasy, Jake decides that his would-be girlfriend is also a waitress. Jake sees the young woman from the bar as the one who left. It’s safe to assume that he never had a girlfriend in his life or any sort of lasting romantic companionship, so he romanticizes the woman he wishes would have been his girlfriend all those years ago.
Jake is so lonely that the only way he can find a twin of happiness now is by imagining what could have been with a beautiful girl he spotted in a bar years ago. She is one of Jake’s biggest regrets, an intrinsic part of his fantasy world.
What are the phone calls in I think about ending things?
They are a symbolic link to the past
throughout I’m thinking of ending things, The main character Lucy gets phone calls from a mysterious voice, with the calls never fully explained.
Although there are many interpretations about what the phone calls are, I’m thinking of ending things Strong suggests that the calls are actually Jake speaking to his own subconscious.
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The real meaning of I think of finishing things
The film’s deepest themes: love, loss and mortality
I’m thinking of ending things‘ Surrealist narrative is full of different ideas that Charlie Kaufman wanted to express, however The main idea is definitely lonely. The whole film is about how Jake’s loneliness has driven him to madness, with him dreaming up the fantasy world to cope with the lack of relationships in his life. However, these fantasies are clearly unhealthy for Jake, as they push him into worse positions than the film holds. I’m thinking of ending things is a truly tragic tale, with Jake’s loneliness at the center of the film’s real meaning.
As the I think of endless things endless is received
Critics loved it, but audiences were split
I’m thinking of ending things Has an ending that is always going to frustrate some audience members. It’s a trait of Charlie Kaufman movies, where his biggest fans eat everything up, but mainstream audiences often fail to grasp what makes his stories so interesting. This was evident in the Rotten Tomatoes scores for the movie. The film has been certified fresh by critics, sitting at 82%But the audience Popcornmeter score is a much lower 50%, showing dissatisfaction.
The audience members who praised the movie loved the ending for what it was trying to say. One audience reviewer wrote, “The movie is clever, intriguing and also…interesting, once you understand the ending, everything makes sense…well done for an amazing film.But, just as many didn’t get it. One person wrote, “Terrible, unsatisfying ending, pretentious, art nonsense.”
Peter Travers of ABC News wrote, “Let Buckley and Plemons—both electrifying—lead you to a shocking ending that Kaufman makes indelibly moving. One thing’s for sure about this mesmerizing mindbender: you won’t be able to stop talking about it.“However, in one of the negative I’m thinking of ending things Critical Reviews, Matt Singer of Screen crush wrote, “I felt like I would absolutely appreciate the film more if I watched it a second time, and can’t imagine having the patience to sit through it again..”
I’m Thinking of Ending Things is an original Netflix movie that was released in September 2020. The story centers on a young woman who decides to visit the mysterious farm of her boyfriend’s parents. But after arriving, she realizes that he is not the man she thought he was. I’m Thinking of Ending Things stars Jesse Plemmons and Jesse Buckley and is directed by Charlie Kaufman.
- Director
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Charlie Kaufman
- Release date
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September 4, 2020
- runtime
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134 minutes