I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS (2020) Explained

[Music] how's it going everybody welcome to founflix on this explained video we're looking at the existential dread of i'm thinking of ending things where a young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents secluded farm upon arriving she comes to question everything she thought she knew about him and herself if you're not familiar with the works of writer director charlie kaufman he's become known for making quite bizarre challenging and bleak films for most of his career starting off as a staff writer on some tv comedies back in the 90s including one of my favorites the sitcom subverting get a life starring chris elliott it was his scripts for being john malkovich an adaptation that really brought his unique style into full bloom those were both directed by spike jones who gives those films a real spark and kind of undercuts the darkness bubbling under the surface with some levity so when kaufman started directing with the difficult synecdoty new york it was like a new level to his style cranked to an almost difficult to appreciate degree and that trend continues with i'm thinking of ending things that is truly miserable and hopeless in its ruminations on life and our greater purpose while he didn't write the book it was based on i'm sure when he read it he was like oh hell yeah this is my jam right here because it does fit right into his peculiar wheelhouse the film does tackle quite a bit in its overlong run time constant philosophical debates and questions of our existence and how society and media creates our dreams make up much of the run time it's a big swing for sure and overall i did appreciate how the story was constructed and how it handled its bigger themes and ideas but it is again a very kind of morose affair and is lacking any kind of levity making it a bit of a struggle to get through it is a beautiful poignant and mind-bending journey that is also undeniably incredibly pretentious as well it's a tough balance that it mostly gets right and without paying an extreme amount of attention to everything going on it is an experience that will leave you absolutely baffled with many questions left unanswered well that's why i'm here folks so we're gonna take a deep dive into i'm thinking of ending things breaking down the story and what's really going on the grander ideas and themes at play and explaining the ending and what it means opening on a snowy small town square we are flooded with the thoughts of a young woman mostly called lucy about how she's thinking of ending things and nothing she can do will make it go away and when mentioning going on her very first trip with her boyfriend jake ending things certainly sounds like she's breaking up with her beau admitting to not being excited for their drive to meet his parents which seems pretty quick after only having been dating for about a month and a half she does somehow feel that she knows him longer believing they have a real connection an attachment that she's never experienced before spotting an old man mumbling to himself looking down from the window onto the street overseeing lucy in a sense we'll figure out who that guy is a little bit later soon after jake rolls up the two setting off on their trip sitting in quiet already hey you want to put some music on or something no just stare at the trees and stuff all dramatic okay it's gonna be a long drive she continues dissecting the relationship in her mind yet strangely it seems that jake actually hears her and when she continues thinking he glances back again making it appear he can hear what she's thinking she considers him a nice guy not going anywhere and then maybe it's human nature to keep going even with that knowledge people stay in bad relationships because it's easier he suggests that they stop for a snack along the way explaining that his mom is ill and doesn't cook much and it might in fact be advisable to get something to eat first but she's fine stop worrying about it with the snacks in between this we flash to an older man at a table alone watching cartoons then hopping into an old truck listening to a pastor on the radio lucy continues in voice voiceover a worry over his lack of future and that meeting the parents is typically considered the next step in a relationship concluding that it feels like a curiosity to her and perhaps a window into his origins that's very very accurate in our first of many many literary references jake asks if she's familiar with poet william wordsworth and one particularly long titled work of his all about a girl lucy a beautiful idealized woman who dies young she feigns being worried over her face sharing the same name as the character and everything but he says the comparison ends there well and being ideal of course she tells him they need to make sure to get back to town as she has work to do in the morning him proudly stating there's nothing to worry about he's got tire chains no snow is going to slow me down we flash once more to the older man seeing he's a janitor at a school going about his daily business and already at this point everything kind of clicked into place about what's going on here i was honestly surprised that they showed their hand this early as essentially what we are seeing is a kind of fantasy created in jake's mind who is also the janitor many years down the line in the present day of the story him being able to hear her thoughts plus mention of their extreme connection and then the specific poem about a girl called lucy the idealized woman in the poem which is what our lucy is representing in jake's own story and this entire scenario is kind of jake's mind going through his life and memories but again in an idealized way figuring this out this early doesn't really ruin the story or anything and in fact having this knowledge helped me to understand the reasons behind where things go from here and what we ultimately glean about jake in his life which is extremely important to understand to get the ending he finally asks if she wants to listen to some music and when flipping through the dial the only song is from the musical oklahoma which he is quite familiar with he mentions they do it every few years she's confused by what he means and he goes on about seeing kids from previous grades coming back with their kids as we see the older man sweeping the floor staring as the group does rehearsal yeah even that little chunk alone there pretty much confirms that jake and the older janitor are one and the same i mean he's talking about the students and then putting on musicals and everything come on now he wistfully mentions liking road trips because they remind you that the world is bigger than the inside of your own head appropriate considering the situation here all being entirely in his head she brings up that she's written something and he wants her to read it to him and it's an utterly miserable perspective on the idea of home and being lonely ending with her looking right at the camera and when returning to the house of bone everything you see and know all of it is bone which sounds like a parallel to jake's own deep-seated feelings about his home which of course they are headed to right now guess we'll see what that's all about he even gushes afterwards that he loved it and felt like it was written about him specifically and as we know lucy doesn't actually exist so this poem is another one that he must have held dear and has meaning to his own misery in life the conversation then turns to another extremely important aspect in our fantasy world of jake's mind he casually says something about how if you're on the wrong train you can always just jump off but she argues that the chances are much higher that you die of trying that and accuses him of watching too many movies he admits he does filling his brain with lies to pass the time and i blink in slow motion he describes it she goes further likening it to rabies attaching to our ganglia and turning us into itself thinking movies are dangerous because they take over real thoughts such as his train jumping example straight from countless western in action flicks his actual thoughts have been tainted by too many movies fantasy and reality starting to get a little blurry there and on the side of the road they pass a weird circus looking billboard for an ice cream shop called tulsi town hearing a dissident voice calling to join him and not much later they arrive at his parents house his mom seemed frantically waving from the window above golly calm down a little too excited there tony rather than go inside he says he needs to stretch his legs and wants to give her a quick tour stopping by their barn he shows off their sheep her thinking how cold and dreary it is here then thinking what it's like to be a sheep stuck in here in this cage doing nothing all day over and over sounds like a dig at the routine and futility of human beings existence as well sheeple hello it's a little too obvious in my opinion the other stop in the barn is where they once kept their pigs all of which they had to put down and he tells the grisly story of how the animals were found all heaped in one corner of the area and when his dad moved one of the pigs discovered their underside was filled with maggots the pigs being eaten alive after this he's like woo it's cold out let's go inside wow thanks for the great great tour jake i really needed to see where all the maggots were she further thinks that animals don't know about their own impending deaths only humans do and that's why they invented hope watching the janitor rolling his mop bucket down the hall no no more hope there at that point it certainly looks like they finally go inside the house which seems strangely empty jake walking around yelling hello to no one over and over he offers some slippers of his to keep her feet warm and puts on some music as they wait for his parents to show up we then flash back to the janitor watching a girl and cowboy practicing dance moves for oklahoma and at one point accidentally slamming into one of the lockers important detail you know i don't tell you stuff unless he needs to know it it's just that you need to know everything so that's why this video is 45 minutes long lucy after looking around decides she likes the house saying that it reminds her of where she grew up well that's true because she's actually part of jake as we know so in that sense she did grow up here she notices a strange door marked with scratches and covered with tape which he reveals leads to the basement which he finds scary going back to that idea that in movies basements are inherently spooky and this too rubbed off on him to actually being afraid even if for no real reason he blames the scratches on their dog her being all oh i didn't know they had a dog and the dog appears at the door all wet and shaking himself off but something seems off and immediately after his parents suddenly joined them also noticing that jake recoils from his mom when she tries to give him a kiss on the cheek which we see he does every single time that she tries to touch him must be some deep-seated issues there boy and once they introduce themselves there's already some nice uncomfortable silence dad's suggesting they eat and it's a pretty extravagant setup considering jake said his mom doesn't cook it's like a freaking thanksgiving sprout over here mom proudly states everything on the table is from the farm causing lucy to suspiciously look at the ham maggoty ham my fave mom asks about her being an artist and his dad butts in that he doesn't like abstract art calling it a con mom pipes up that jake used to be an artist too grumbling mom like a child in embarrassment as she continues he was very good she shows off pictures of her paintings to mild reaction but dad still isn't very impressed feeling with no person in the landscape showing emotion the art doesn't work for him she offers to think of himself as actually viewing the landscape which causes you to feel something the feelings aren't inherent to the place but the person who brings their own view to it sounds kind of like our whole story here again mom stammer is asking about her studying quantum psychics jake correcting her physics mom wow dang so she's a poet an artist and studies quantum physics we talk about an idealized woman indeed that's like a real renaissance man well woman at this point got some very high expectations there jakey mom asks her to tell the story of how they met and lucy divulges that it was at a trivia night but the details seem to not quite add up lucy's starting to stammer just like jake's mom does and losing her words she found it endearing as jake had no game whatsoever and kept trying to impress her with obscure literary references must be his go-to there for eventually telling him to cut the crap jake scoffs calling him an [ __ ] not suited to talking to people which in a little reveal tells us volumes about the reality of who jake is he's kind of an outcast and not very good at socializing and all that kind of stuff the story wraps up with jake blurting out to ask for her number the rest is history she laughs and remembers that it was just six weeks ago but feels like forever in a way the other's disappearing leaving her isolated and alone at the table while she chugs down her wine we catch up with a janitor watching a romantic comedy and eating a sandwich the scene starts off quite realistically with a customer asking a waitress about which choice of burger to go for including the santa fe one but a young man interrupts and speaks of the waitress's grand ambitions of becoming an animal rights lawyer and a vegan in a very grandiose over-the-top way she's annoyed and pushes him outside he keeps yelling and tells her that he loves her the movie ending with them holding hands together this is another example of how jake's mind has been warped in a way by the reality presented in movies you're getting a very unrealistic idea of what romance is which is reflected in his mental fantasy presented also that the faux movie was directed by robert zemeckis is pretty funny the guy behind back the future forrest gump castaway and all that kind of stuff yeah definitely a purveyor of that magical idea of movies hyper reality to be sure mom fetches dessert from the kitchen overhearing the couple sounding like they're arguing and her attention is drawn to a photo on the wall of what is clearly her as a young child she asks who it is he coyly asks can't she tell it's him the picture has changed to being him but was definitely just her seconds ago another indicator of the real connection of her just being part of his mind and memories mom plops down a delicious looking chocolate yule log which reminds her of jake sucking his thumb older than he should have been saying yule over and over uh well that's weird there's a lot going on with his skin and it seems that she has tinnitus a kind of ringing in the ears all the time but she describes it as being more like a constant whispering in her head lucy gets a call which everyone forces her to take down saying they might need help as it's a blizzard out there now lucy going ah great now it's a blizzard i'm never gonna get home the voice on the call is an older man's voice certainly the older jake janitor guy talking of just having one question left to answer but after this brief exchange the call ends lucy saying that her friend is fine mom determines that friends are important and of course jake never had any friends even when he was older asking if they remember his 50th birthday party jake stepping in says uh 20 right again all a jumble of jake's past and memories colliding all at once his mom moans about life on a farm being hard a fast train to heck she laughs that then turns to real pain dad says she was always funny but that is fated and that he misses her terribly and it turns out lucy is also studying how age is treated in society thinking that it is terribly unkind as it is the natural life cycle of all things to inevitably die but the elderly are generally forgotten and society leads them behind to die alone which is obviously what jake must think about himself in his old age looking back on his life lucy checks the weather and it's looking much worse but when turning around suggesting they go everyone has vanished again she calls for jake hearing his voice somewhere else in the house and the dog is there drying itself at the door again jake's saying that he's upstairs now it seems eerily empty up there too hearing only the howling wind outside she comes to a door labeled with a piece of paper as jake's childhood room and inside is like stepping into a time capsule everything exactly as it would have been when he was a child another peek into his memories and the important moments of his life amongst the belongings on the shelf we see an urn for the pump jimmy along with several vhs tapes in a big fat book by long-heralded film critic pauline kale filling us in on where his critical kind of dissection of movies and their meanings come from and even these self-labeled discs we see all kind of represent a lot too with titles like lasting memories of sorrow and futile efforts at success and unforgettable mishaps wonder what's on that one noticing an open book we see that it has the exact same words from her poem that she said earlier meaning that it was in fact from another important memory of jake's not something that she made up i mean she can't make up anything because she's not real but you know what i'm saying his dad enters looking much older now complaining his memory is going and has early signs of uh trailing off before finishing lucy asking dementia dad's like yeah i think that's it and he is taken to labeling things around the house a glimpse into what must have happened in the later years to his father and also tying to that whole idea of aging and how terrible it is and everything you just start falling apart and then you die she hasn't noticed the labels he says you will notice and offers that they can sleep in jake's bed even though it's too small and only made for one child so probably not enough space for [ __ ] he groans and wanders off disappearing well thanks for that pops now when stepping out the doors and other things are all covered in labels just as dad said this memory obviously from a much later date than when the dinner scene was set we then see the same concept with his mom now older and ailing she keeps mumbling about how great jake is and the diligence pin that he was awarded in school while not as bright or skilled as the others he always works so hard thinking that that is more impressive jake says that they can leave as soon as he's finished up seeing out the window snow is only falling on their car the rest of the lawn clear and green lucy is impressed with the compassion and care that he is showing for his mother and he says he appreciates it as sometimes it feels like no one sees the good things you do just alone her whispering she sees it but is back to thinking of ending things wanting to just end it in a clean break feeling that she doesn't know where she starts and jake begins which we know all about why that is already she ponders what her purpose is in jake's life as she loops up and down the stairs that he needs to be seen and it's her purpose to live to approve of him and keep him going look at my girlfriend see what she did see what she has she can do this that emerges forgetting that they already met and jake introduces her as luisa apparently now representing another lost connection in jake's life no longer lucy in his memories dad holds over a nightgown covered in some fresh vomit which she politely turns down and besides she has to get home tonight dad is confused jake explaining that she's a waitress and that that's where they met when he was asking about the santa fe burger we're seeing another example of how movies have warped his memory because not only has their meet up story completely changed but is now directly lifted out of that zemeckis rom-com the old man was watching again his memory and fiction is getting all mixed up kind of hilarious actually this mom re-emerges now much younger and the culprit behind the vomit is a younger jay asking her to put it in the laundry down in the dreaded basement lucy brings up the jake doesn't want her down there and she says that he's all about control that he gets nervous about everything and started shutting out the world and now there's not much left well it says a lot about him right there too she asks what she means mom emotionally commanding her to do it and live dangerously clicking away in her heels she ventures downstairs and jake appears asking what she's doing they gotta get on the road in a hurry all of a sudden and then it is snowing outside at the top of the stairs can't really trust anything going on here anymore his brain has fallen apart the washer is already in the middle of a load lucy pulling out a school uniform shirt many of the exact same kind in the wash and nothing else the same high school where he went and where is the janitor now obviously coming to another room the same works that she supposedly painted are hung on the wall but are credited to someone called blakelock again she's not real so her being a painter and what she paints really comes from jake's mind and memories and see other paintings on the ground done by him she considers how tragic it is that people don't really possess their own souls before they die and there's nothing rarer than a man that acts as his own usually our thoughts are someone else's opinion our passion is quotation within jake realizes that that's actually an oscar wilde quote and now we're really getting the picture of just how much media has mutated things in jake's life there's truly nothing that is entirely of jake and even his paintings are poor facsimiles of the blakelock pieces just trying to copy what's already been done back upstairs mom is on her deathbed lucy freaking out and asking if she's dead shushing her a tear rolls down his cheek she's asleep he says and now they can finally go after a hug from younger dad telling her it was great to meet her they stick the chains on and get on the road he asks what she thought of them saying they were really nice but a bit pushy he says that they liked her too when doing the dishes his mom beamed she's so smart relating to what lucy was talking about on the stairs about her role as his partner someone to boast about their accomplishments and only acting to prop jake up not really a partnership but any sense of the word she's confused because she doesn't even remember him doing the dishes feeling something was off about the whole night yeah i'll say and it's as though the mental fantasy is starting to become more and more distorted and warped over time conveying the jumbled state of jake's mind currently the next sequence further informs this as things turn existential and even more philosophical and even a bit meta in their next car ride in the snow lucy pontificates that people think we go through time but we're stationary it instead moves through us leaving us hollowed and dead feeling as though she was that wind tonight at jake's parents seeing them as they were and will be and then in the end only she's left this is pretty much exactly what lucy's purpose to the story is she's kind of an avatar or cipher being brought along on this journey with jake through important memories and moments in his life and allowing her to piece together his full history and story piece by piece she also acts as a kind of counterpoint to jake's own opinion as we see when discussing the cassavetes classic a woman under the influence jake thinks that the character mabel was a relatable strong character but lucy vehemently disagrees thinking gina rollins was a much stronger one instead much of her opinion expressed here is taken verbatim from you guessed it pauline kale's review of the film and bemoans the film's extended length that it kind of shambled along and seemed sort of planned out to the end but not that far out this almost all feeling like kaufman is actually getting fourth wall meta on us here and talking about this film again two hours and 15 minutes long and this exact sentiment lucy shares about the movie feels targeted at kaufman himself kind of shambling along and yeah we got some planned but we're gonna be farting along along the way it's too bad deal with it jake relents and deems her the expert on all things cinematic but appreciates the compassion shown to mabel in the film feeling that there's a kindness missing in society but it's hopeless he feels his old body going hearing sight everything you can't see and you're invisible seeing the many wrong turns that he's made in his life and the lie of it all the lie that things are gonna get better that age is just a number and other motivational quotes like that she spits back that those are just platitudes yelling for his compassion for the mabel character to sit down and shut up blowing raspberries in disgust at his rosy perspective on things seeing another sign for the mysterious tulsi town jake suggested they stop off to get some ice cream despite the torrential blizzard going on and everything once they make it he immediately brings up another book lucy annoyed and just wanted to get the ice cream and get back on the road he says that he knows some of the employees and would come here after visiting his parents admitting some of the girls have been mean to him and they won't even come out if they know that it's him two girls open the windows one asking jake if they can help but he sheepishly keeps his back turned so she orders for them him muttering that he'll have the same under his breath the girls giggling hit two seams coming right up these must be the girls that gave jake guff as he mentioned and here we understand another layer of jake's past as another girl with rashes on her arms approaches and lucy thinks that she recognizes her and she responds with strange warnings about how she doesn't have to go forward and can stay here whispering she's scared for her then things snapped back to normal telling them to have a good night right so assumingly the other girls were mean to jake and his youth and it was probably pretty awkward in the same way seen here too afraid to approach them and turning his back and everything while the girl who is maybe considered different or whatever with the rash is someone he relates to as an outsider just like him as we come to see throughout their trip jake was obviously a slightly off but still quite intelligent boy but ultimately still struggled to fit in with society due to what seems to be a heck of a lot of insecurity this is made clear in his next few book references first an essay about tv and how pretty people tend to be considered more pleasing to look at than non-pretty people and this is what distorts the viewer's mind into buying into this celebrity's appeal and thusly that idea of what someone in society is supposed to look like is radiated out of the screen he feels that people don't know how to be people anymore asking if she's read ghee to moore's society of spectacle but of course i have it's my favorite book it considers that society is actually a worldview that's been materialized a glass projection of media that becomes our brain like a virus yeah i'd say that alone tells us exactly how jake feels about his place in society never able to fit in with what he was told he was supposed to look like always feeling like an outcast he keeps freaking about the melting ice cream wanting to throw them away and worried about the cup holders getting sticky oh okay and gets upset punching the steering wheel she yells it's not a big deal him responding he knows that aims leaving her wondering what that's short for and again it seems her kind of perfect girl avatar position has shifted to another in jake's memory desperate for a trash can he knows a place on a nearby road that for sure will have one revealing that he is taking her to his former high school where he says he spent every tortured day for so goddamn long he seethes she's baffled by the tiny road and how buses would even get down here anyway but he tells her it's okay as everything has been tinged the color is tainted by objective reality which as we know is jake's own reality here so just don't worry just go along for the ride you're part of his brain anyway she complains of the road seeming excessively long him retorting it seems long which is an object of time well we do get older he says but sometimes admits that he feels younger like a kid inside she asks him if he thinks being younger is better he's confident that it is calling it healthier brighter more fun and hopeful again his rosy media saturated version of life which she writes off as sounding like a coca-cola commercial it's the idea of youth that he's been sold by media and society you've been doped my friend they arrive at the massive school and jake knows the layout in detail like the back of his hand he says she sees someone else is parked there a truck nearby him assuming it must be a janitor or something yeah obviously he goes to dispose of the ice cream but he keeps walking past the truck lucy growing worried about him taking so long he returns without incident and she pleads to leave but he takes the car keys out finding it peaceful and quiet here and wondering what the rush is losing her temper she yells she's been telling him she needs to get home all night long he mumbles in return yeah i guess that's true yeah it is true you've been paying attention or what but he apologizes and they have one actual kiss the first time feeling like they've been in any kind of romantic couple throughout this entire trek and there's a flash of the old man watching them causing jake to lose it and wants to give him a piece of his mind pounding on the horn in anger she begs him not to leave but he does so anyway to her frustration moaning to herself that she shouldn't have come well it wasn't really an option because you're not real left alone for an indeterminate period of time her mind starts to wander once again thinking about how it's harder to say no and easier to say yes the problem being one yes turns into a whole bunch more she then wonders how long it would take to get hypothermia and considers it not a bad way to go she decides to get out and look for him and finds that the doors don't open in the car so she has no choice but to go into the school or freeze inside she encounters the older janitor jake and tries to hide but he eventually approaches her she says that she's looking for her boyfriend and responds with his mind's voice asking what does he look like she shrugs it's hard to describe people and says that it was so long ago that she barely remembers she is now revealing the truth of the extent of her and jake's actual relationship in the real world that they didn't even really ever talk she remembers that jake kept looking at her at a bar definitely giving off creeper vibes remembering thinking that she wished her boyfriend was there with her but then she cursed herself thinking it's sad that the only way a guy would leave you alone is if you're there with another guy as though she were marked as his property well there you have it the real lucy and jake were merely one of the many thousands of non-interactions in her life as she considers it and nothing more a completely blank canvas in a sense for jake to essentially play out this fantasy of their potential relationship and how perfect she would be his own happy ending that he feels he deserves yet this version of her is still worried about jake the man saying that there's no need to worry if he's here as it's safe and quiet just as jake called it she goes in for a hug asking if it's okay to look around for him and he requests that she take off her wet shoes handing her the same blue slippers from his parents house she pushes them back calling them his a pretty daggum concrete piece of evidence that jake and the older janitor are one and the same as if there was any flip in question at this point she walks off looking teary-eyed and jake emerges down the hall two others step out that looks similar to them but not quite the same as our original duo and take their place proceeding to do a big dance number all in blistering light their prettier tv appropriate avatars taking center stage their choreography here must at least be partially inspired by the two practicing earlier that the old man saw as these two also whack a locker just as the others did and their performance is almost like a theatrical dance interpretation of their happy relationship developing and to the point of getting married happy that is until they're interrupted by a version of the janitor that tries to take the woman away reality's seeping in already in the fantasy running to the gym where it's snowing the handsome jake returns and the two tussle a janitor pulls out a knife and they struggle for control but ultimately the janitor prevails and stabs a man in the chest collapsing and ribbons of blood flying out even in this fantasy the reality of jake's life will always be the victor the dream will never be the truth the real janitor is then seeing cleaning up the mess back to his peaceful and depressing reality finishing up his shift the past starts to overwhelm his mind seeing his parents arguing and hearing a high pitch ringing in his ears seeming that he is the one that actually suffers from tinnitus not his mother or maybe they both did i don't know and then takes off all of his clothes hearing a woman singing on a loop to come join me the view through the windshield becomes a retro looking commercial for tulsi town which must have been something he saw as a child and burrowed into his skull ever since even i have some stupid fast food jingles from a kid buried deep in my head oh i feel you jake the scene then morphs to an animated pig that asks him to tag along naked he follows the pig back into the school who has some lamentations on his own existence bad luck being a pig with maggots he says but that it's just the luck of the draw and all you can do is move on then he gets existential once more considering that everything is the same thing you me ideas it's all one thing in this case that is particularly true as we are experiencing everything through jake's mind but also seems to hearken to the idea of universal consciousness that we all share of the same cosmic energy no matter who or what we are the pig instructs him to get dressed as the alternate now aids jake gets to have his final massive delusion of success in his dreams coming true the stage is set for oklahoma as he is presented with a nobel prize for his lifetime of work and his latest greatest discovery he thanks everyone in the audience saying that they are the reason he is who he is amongst the crowd is mom on stage and his dad in the audience along with lucy and the girls from tulsi town and presumably the audience is made up of literally everyone he has ever encountered in his life all in some small way a part of his life and memories it's a quite poignant and appropriate speech for this situation which makes it extremely funny because it's actually again directly lifted from the film a beautiful mind dang he really is just an amalgamation of media references and goes for broke with one big finale singing an equally thematically appropriate tune a lonely room from his favorite musical oklahoma it's all about unfulfilled dreams and the end result that he's finally going to go out and get what he wants out of life and he impressively brings the house down the entire crowd giving him rapturous applause and a standing ovation happy tears streaming down jake's face this is his final big fantasy kind of losing himself to those long-held dreams and goals and ultimately decides to end things by taking his own life that's what the title was actually referring to if he didn't pick up on that yet seeing his truck the next morning completely swallowed by the snow and while we don't see jake he most likely succumbed to hypothermia which as you remember lucy earlier was saying wasn't such a bad way to go in the end the story ends up feeling like one long suicide letter courtesy of jake looking back over his extremely miserable and long life and ultimately knowing that he can't ever fulfill his dreams decides death is the only answer and really giving in to that fantasy and happy ending kind of letting that swallow over him since it won't ever happen in reality at least he can live in his mind in the in between place of death and existence completely miserable thanks charlie you monster and with that we have reached the conclusion of this in-depth explained video on thinking of ending things well not a perfect or necessarily entertaining film i do appreciate the high level of thought and consideration that went into the story and now it was presenting as bigger statements on life and its meaning or really lack thereof essentially we've all been duped into thinking we deserve a big hollywood style happy ending to our lives but the truth is that simply isn't the case we're all the same shuffling on this mortal coil until death inevitably claims us all fun what did you all think of i'm ending things and it's ending what is your favorite charlie kaufman flick let me know your thoughts down in the comments below make sure to like subscribe and follow thanks for watching found flicks see you next time

Channel: FoundFlix

Views: 1,604,093

Keywords: im thinking of ending things, im thinking of ending things explained, ending explained, explained, meaning, analysis, trailer, clip, final scene, netflix movie, charlie kaufman, book, im thinking of ending things book, end scene, dance scene, foundflix ending explained, foundflix

Id: Uwht8fTVcFc

Length: 33min 19sec (1999 seconds)

Published: Sat Sep 12 2020