THE EMPTY MAN (2020) Explained

[Music] how's it going folks welcome to fountain flicks for today's explain video we've got quite a doozy the empty man following an ex-cop on the trail of a missing girl and comes across a secretive group attempting to summon a terrifying supernatural entity you know i gotta say i was quite surprised by this one i remember seeing the trailer before it came out briefly in theaters last year and was like ah it looks pretty good i guess but then it got quite bad reviews overall and that along with a hefty 2 hours and 15 minute run time made me hesitate to check it out i was like two plus hours what the heck man isn't it just some ghost guy killing kids or whatever should be like 88 minutes well not exactly this has a lot more going on than i ever anticipated is a lot more complex as well as philosophical than it would appear on the surface it has as others have pointed out almost feels like several movies jammed together and that is perhaps its biggest downfall is trying to do way too much and the pieces aren't exactly seamlessly put together i mean the opening bit itself was over 20 minutes long it could have been five and accomplished the same thing so yes it is overly long and a bit all over the place but ultimately i found myself actually really digging the direction it went for and if you're willing to go along for the somewhat rough ride i feel it is worth it in the end as i mentioned it actually gets pretty dang complicated and keeps adding more and more to its philosophical concepts so we'll be digging into all of that and everything else that goes down so let's blow a bottle for the empty man trust me it makes sense breaking down these stories mini twists and turns including who james really is and what is the grander purpose of the mysterious organization as well as explaining the world shattering ending our journey begins back in 1995 on a snow-capped mountain in bhutan a buddhist kingdom on the himalayas eastern edge a group of backpackers approach a religious site including prayer wheels that they just can't help but give a spin they come to a perilous looking bridge it's fine the bearded guy chuckles and they each cautiously traverse laughing and whooping day one on screen a title informs us they take a moment to appreciate the breathtaking view greg remarking a big storm is coming in the other guy paul thinks he hears something some distant muffled ringing but no one else can hear it he wanders off following into a crevice between the rocks greg and the others get a line to rappel down into the cavern there's a big shaft of light paul's sitting there silent his eyes glazed over staring at something a strange skeleton with four arms and big hands folded into prayer position greg goes in for a closer look noticing more skulls at its feet he approaches paul who whispers if you touch me you'll die well now i want to touch even more i'm not touching you you know what i mean anyone got siblings not listening he grabs his friend asking to come along paul starts groaning softly and shudders that turns to crying he's had enough dragging him to his feet and carries him all the way back across the bridge on his shoulders the wind really picking up now fortunately they find a house and nobody's home so they make themselves comfortable and check of paw has any insect bites or anything to explain what's going on fiona asked him to say something yanking an object out of his hand at the river fetching water thunder rumbles the storm blowing right in they go over paul's body having no idea what's wrong with him and when checking his wrist sees some telltale self-harm scars but ruthie says he's been fine lately there's no sign of injury or anything greg thinking that if it's not his head then it must be in his head with no alternative the closest road five miles away and the storm barreling down they hunker down for the night rudy plays with the object blowing in an end realizing it is some kind of flute she later darts awake hearing creaking and muffled footsteps approaching the door stopping right outside she checks the other room and it doesn't look like anyone is moving around day two the storm is still howling outside fiona and greg go promising that they'll be right back so ruthie busies herself with some laundry buying someone out the window she frantically runs to the door asking if they can help the figure just stands there it's clothes blowing in the wind they then start crunching towards her ruthie growing frightened backing up and they break into a full sprint her running back inside and locking the door they slam on the other side ruthie grabbing a knife shouting to go away but then we hear it's greg asking to open the door she's confused asking if they saw anyone else out there they didn't of course telling her to calm down but she doesn't want to calm down she wants to get the heck out of here later on she's awoken to paul whispering and chanting in her ear and when she wakes up in the morning on day three he has vanished finding some footprints in the snow they follow them into the frosty oblivion and find paul back at the edge of the bridge playing on his little flute greg is frustrated shouting this is all his fault and he's been dealing with his selfish bs for years say something man he starts chanting and fiona pulls out a knife stabbing the heck out of him repeatedly tumbling over the side of the cliff then goes for fiona slicing her throat and tossing her off too she turns back to paul and they lock eyes reality it appears turns distorted for a moment and he tears up fiona slowly backs over the edge to her death too back to his flute things appear distorted once again from here we jump 23 years later to missouri in 2018. james retired police officer goes for a job and takes a well-deserved smoke break afterwards yeah that's good for the lungs balance it out i suppose we hear a disembodied voice calling out where were you after seeing a bit of his job working at a security store he goes out for a nice lonely dinner just about to pay the bill he has a birthday coupon and of course they have to provide the embarrassing mexican restaurant treatment along with a flan and candle to blow out he heads home and sees someone sitting outside by a quite dingy pool gotta get your chemicals in check there james geez it's the daughter of his neighbor amanda coming to check up on him as she's worried it's been a year her father died and it was soon after when alison and henry they stammer off i mean obviously they were somehow accidentally killed and james is still struggling to cope amanda relates with her own father feeling like she is going to burst into a million pieces but she has found something wonderful and freeing that has really helped her realize that nothing can hurt you because nothing is real oh boy here we go our first taste of the movie's many philosophical considerations this tied to selopsism the idea that only one's mind is sure to exist the external world and other minds cannot be truly known and thusly might not actually exist out of your mind you're probably already going but yeah it's a whole thing we'll get to it don't worry james isn't buying this gruffing a lot of things are real are they but how could you know he smiles he learned the hard way and she goes on about what's real starts in her mind then by extension out here what we think about over and over with focus and intention and repetition we manifest essentially using the power of the mind to believe in something so much you actually bring it into existence and after all existence isn't real anyway right so no big deal she's not done yet surprisingly considering that our thoughts actually begin somewhere else and travel through us like a signal traveling down a wire thoughts old hidden and singular again hang with me folks all this stuff will come to make a lot more sense down the line he scoffs that he has no idea what she's on about her chuckling of course you do his cell vibrates and has to excuse himself from the seemingly random philosophical discussion later at home he passes by walls of family photos hearing allison presumably his wife's voice again asking where were you also including a picture of the young boy henry there's flashes of everyone smiling and having a nice park picnic then everyone screaming he awakes from the nightmare and when closing his eyes can still hear her voice taking a dose of some prescription meds on the morning of day one uh-oh here we go again nora is alarmed to find amanda has gone missing asking james for help he looks around her room including a weird all-black poster with a little symbol in the corner and in the bathroom finds a frightening message written in blood the empty man made me do it the police show up later and one cop actually recognizes james from his time working undercover in st louis however based on what they see the other cop thinks that she is just acting out she's 18 with a suitcase missing and everything but nora is adamant that didn't happen saying that she knows her daughter and or realizes they're not going to do anything probably not he grumbles looks like it's up to james to figure out this mystery he flips through a journal of the girls filled with weird writings and drawings he finds a flyer for something called the pontifex institute tulpa written on the back this being a concept of a being or object which is created through spiritual or mental powers right up the same alley as what amanda was discussing with him by the pool he asked nora to put a list of her friends together and ghost in search of answers he waits outside school meeting davara asking where she is she doesn't know but is willing to talk more after he gives her a smoke she says amanda wasn't crying in class but screaming briefly seeing the robed figure nearby empty man on the loose he asked about the empty man heard is missing it as a stupid kids thing but worriedly looks back to the spot where it is gone she divulges that it's a story going around there's some ground rules to summon him go out on a bridge at night and blow into an empty bottle while thinking about him and something would happen he asked if she tried it her sheepishly nodding two nights ago her and amanda with a bunch of other goofball friends are hanging out on a bridge it's her that finds an empty bottle suggesting that everyone tried out on the first night you hear him and can't stop thinking about him the second night you see him following you and the third night he finds you everyone groaning ah how old are you that's just a little children's story but they just have to try it out anyway passing around the bottle and each one blowing on it davara is hesitant thinking this is all stupid but succumbs and does it as well ah peer pressure you want to be cool you better blow in this bottle or else okay amanda goes off on her own blowing on the bottle and closes her eyes repeating the empty man the empty man and the wind suddenly picks up a tear streams down her cheek just as we saw with paul and already em makes his presence known hearing something out there in the darkness and then thudding footsteps they pick up the pace running right at them and they all flee in terror and it sounds like they're gonna suffer similar fates to our backpackers from 95. he asked about the last time that he saw amanda it was at the mall whispering into brandon's ear just as we saw paul do in the mountains she looks worried staring off again seeing the whole gang sitting next to each other and they all creepily look over to her in unison yeah you guys are weird he gets brandon's address from her and she leaves peering back to her friends and quickening her pace his parents aren't much help barely letting him introducing himself before slamming the door in his face next up is lisa and the entire house appears empty seeing the same weird black poster on the wall from amanda's he also sees an ad for the pontifex institute on her desk and outback finds a dead dog with buckets of blood in front presumably what was used to write the message in the mirror he pays a visit to the bridge where they called for em and happens to find a bottle at his feet and decides to blow on it sure why not sounds like a blast he throws it over the side the wind immediately rustling and the forest sounds of insects cut away to complete silence then hearing distant metal clanging he notices the manhole cover is still open and hops down finding most of the gang hanging dead along with a note scrawled on the bridge the empty man made me do it the only missing one as devara her off alone at a spa just try to relax she gets in a sauna the room instantly filling with steam obscuring everything the em appears and grabs her and takes scissors to her face stabbing repeatedly and viciously but we see it's actually her doing it to herself slumping down weakly in the blood pooling by her the em steps into the reflection as she croaks and gags eyes fluttering clothes it's worth pointing out too that all the deaths so far could be considered suicides not actually straight kills so perhaps the empty man is something else entirely james checks in with the cops and learns that she died but there are no suspects as they all appear to be suicides he has growing concern over what is happening in his small town these murders are poisoning the atmosphere just as sewage with the water supply calling it communicable and that it actually changes people showing again how the spread of an idea and what people believe actually grant it more power he concludes that there's no real way to solve crimes like this as you can't indict the cosmos and james watches as a group of townfolk gather with candles and flowers meeting at a gazebo and comes home later snorting out blood and assigns to look into the mysterious pontifex institute a simple google search reveals that it's a doomsday club of sorts an article mentioned in 1991 six members died during an occult experiment gone wrong trying to create a tulpa again the idea of a thought form made body illustrating this in a simple equation thought plus concentration plus time equals flesh now that's my kind of math nora surprises him with some chinese food and suddenly breaks down unable to deal with her worry she says she's sorry but not for being upset but because it's been so long hmm heavily implying they had some kind of previous relationship he embraces her assuring her it's gonna be okay and stroking her hair she asked if she can stay the night it looking like they're about to kiss and things get awkward boundaries she smirks james offers her a drink and of course i want one idiot about to leave she grabs his hand telling him it was good to see him and he later stumbles down the hall past his family photos back to the flashbacks of his kid and wife and everything then police sirens remembering back the first night you hear him and we see him in a flash hey there's sleepyhead a woman whispers and he wakes up in an agitated state he hears floorboards creak and sees nothing out there but the sounds continue he slams the door going for a bat the steps getting right up to the door seeing a shadow underneath he peeks under and can't really make out anything just the shadow walking away he opens the door tiptoeing out the front door wide open empty man is coming for you jamesy he starts day two off by paying a visit to the institute seeing the place is bustling lots of people out in the waiting room and based on flipping through some pamphlets definitely looks like some kind of cuckoo cult setup the employee's oddly offering what they have to give is as old as time he's given a questionnaire that shows him that this is even more wacky than he anticipated with questions like can the brain itch or is scientific method a tool of oppression he asks about this nonsense and she starts to prattle on about something but he interjects oh i know all about cuckoo cult stuff okay i grew up in san francisco but this is a whole other level of nonsense his questioning is cut short when a hoard of people come in for a presentation man this place is hobbing she whispers he's looking for something and invites him to come along to find the answers you're looking for presumably the leader arthur addresses the room with similar talk that we heard from amanda which essentially amounts to nihilism he knows they're looking for something lost but he argues there's nothing they've lost but in fact there's no such thing as loss what wakes us up each day is a struggle for more but the question should be the opposite how much less can you use there is no struggle because there are no distinctions to say you are right and i am wrong divides us but feels it is merely a construct to foster illusion and difference there's no such thing as disunity only a great binding nothingness of things again all this is basically nihilism is what he's talking about one time they were all one and soon will be again their message coming directly from the empty man it beckons you to discover the true face of the world everyone bursting into applause while some members stomp their feet in unison james goes to chat with arthur wondering if he was going to mention that name the empty man arthur cryptically saying he called out to you james all uh or not weirdo he asked for more details and he reveals that em is a meditation focal point for targeted manifestation of hidden energies the same concept from the formula just as man is fed by the biosphere and atmosphere our thoughts feed and are fed by the so-called new sphere the sum of all conscious thought again as a real philosophical thing they didn't make it all up okay transmissions from the sphere of unified consciousnesses can be stimulated with certain vectors he describes it as a veil between form and flesh he pats him on the shoulder declaring that they were each blind in her own way distractions rob us a focus technology robs us of memory and repetition robs us of comprehension he brings up the old child's game where you would say your name so many times that it becomes gibberish believing this also holds true in some way for consciousness as well as lines of thought for example the famous quote from niji if you stare into the abyss it stares back into you he feels it's been so overused that it's lost its meaning and is now simply a harmless cliche he asked when the last time you really thought about it was what is the abyss what calls it into you and by the same token then you must be calling it now when you think about it it's anything but harmless we are bringing the abyss to ourselves in a sense and he finds that that is worth considering which is more true your name or the gibberish that's the empty man it's all about how you think about it he tells james that he's glad he came back him groaning that he's never been here before and he stares back remarking oh no there just must be something about you then getting a cup of joe he meets another kid with a hairdo garrett asking about amanda shrugging that he hasn't seen her and he doesn't believe him seething liar as he walks off james is able to journey deeper into the bowels of the building with surprising ease heading down into an area covered in plastic sheets there's a woman speaking similar chance over a loudspeaker nothing exists even if something exists nothing can be known about it and goes on in a loop of sorts seeing a bunch of new recruits with shaved heads sitting and staring at one of those black posters that we saw back in each of the girls room and clicking their tongues he finds himself in an absolutely massive room of records focusing in on one box marked manifestation 14. he goes even deeper downwards to sub-tunnels that appear to go on forever and to what seems to be kind of the next level for members of the institute here the group is chanting themselves our thoughts come from dreams from dreams come power from the bridge comes man from man comes thoughts starting to loop back at the beginning see the whole thing it's like you don't really know what anything is if you start questioning it and that's the whole idea when taking a careful step he accidentally makes a sound the woman stops a watch asking if someone is here to make themselves known there's another thud from elsewhere in the room and she welcomes them to show themselves as everyone in the group blows on bottles in unison hearing an odd scraping sound he's been made the overheads flick on two suits waiting to toss him out back hairdo is out in the alley ribbing him that'll never get anywhere being that direct and finally divulges that he has in fact seen amanda but not here they got big plans for her he ominously states she's been moved to a camp called elsewhere where the students go to achieve their first threshold of achieving singularity it comes to them in their dreams he whispers whose dreams james asks baffled yeah he doesn't know but they do so that's all that matters you just gotta believe according to him pontifex is not just a bunch of kooks an outcast touting their 500-year plan warning he has no idea how dangerous they are james always single-minded on his case asks for directions to the camp and wouldn't you guess it's right by a bridge naturally also worth pointing out that pontifex actually means bridge builder he comes to a fork in the road heading to an unpaved one a sign reading camp elsewhere there's weirdly not much activity on the grounds in one cabin there's only a bunch of bottles left behind in the pile the room filled with bunk beds man this thing is way bigger than i realized got a big scale recruitment thing going on here and everything he comes to a couple of tv vcrs and a stack of tapes one marked manifestation 13 and sticks it in there's a little cheesy intro graphic for pontifex their motto we transmit you receive it's statics to footage of a group doing the dream power chant from earlier they suddenly stop a crackly breathing herd they pan over seeing what looks like a leg briefly everyone freaking out it glitches back to a guy on the stairs muttering and croaking they see he's bleeding and doing something weird with the wound whatever it is it looks like it hurts he puts his hand in a bowl of blood drawing a figure on the wall and james looks over seeing it's still there this all happened in this cabin previously and it looks like it must not have been used since there's rapid hissing the boy staring at the camera with piercing glowing eyes in the tape ends what the hell was that about he turns back seeing some kind of light across the pond crossing a bridge he comes to a huge group in robes all running around a bonfire they then come to a stop james slinking down to get closer the chants continue and the flames grow much higher and they start chanting faster the flame plume reaching in a tunnel all the way into the sky the stars turn distorted appearing to actually blink closer he looks again and it's normal everyone resumes chanting and looking back there is no fire and everyone is staring at him menacingly the lights cut out completely losing sight of the group the herd starts to move slowly in a shuffle together james watching in disbelief he takes a step back and they all take one forward another they do the same thing yeah no he grumbles and breaks into a full sprint lightning flashes as the others chase after crossing back over the bridge he gets to his car everyone tossing bottles from every direction as he struggles to get it turned over after a few more cranks it roars to life and he floors it in reverse everyone's still in hot pursuit and gets back on the road and just as confused as everyone else watching at this point yells what the [ __ ] was that indeed james and boy it seems that what we saw with the chanting and everything is kind of an example of their groupthink in action they were able to actually manipulate reality in a way again they're trying to bridge between all these different universes and spheres and biosphere and all that stuff we see a little taste of that so big old flames in the sky and bringing the stars closer back at the station they're no help as usual and possibly trespassing could have screwed up the entire case harshly reminding james he's not a cop anymore ah well well i'm sure he'll just give up right no of course not he's only got one purpose finding this girl in a paranoid state he asks nora to leave her house for a few days filling her in he thinks amanda's joined some kind of cult to prove just how serious he is he states that he thinks that it was them that killed those kids and that's enough for her to go and get a hotel room outside she cries she's dead isn't she him vowing no she's not we get a bit more tidbits on their assumed past relationship him asking does she know now looking like he actually had an affair before his wife and kid died still carrying that guilt i'd wager but she thinks maybe they've punished themselves long enough his dreams that night align with what was suspected by hearing allison again whispering where were you there's someone there with wine and james shows up in a suit as they put on a record and placing their hand on his on the second night you see him a voice reminds him the car swerves on a snowy road and there's an empty chair scene bathed in a shaft of light now it actually appears that not only was he having an affair with nora but he was actually with her the day that his family died now that is tragic and has a lot more guilt on his shoulders i'm sure he started awake slapping himself to get his bearings stupid brain stop being so crazy about to light up a smoke he sees something odd at the end of the hall that rises our pal em quickly coming for him he goes for his bat and they've disappeared second night you see him as we recall all these nightmares of the past no doubt caused by the empty man illustrating the kind of effect as it takes over your mind about to take another pill he stops himself putting it back and rather puts his wedding band back on apparently trying to deal with the [ __ ] finally it seems just as day three begins or maybe he's just going completely further off the deep end finding him hanging out in the front of the pontifex building drinking at like nine o'clock in the morning so yeah maybe not doing so hot after all he's tailing hairdo and some other kids watching as they stop at multiple places around town and pick up a kid at each location dang a lot of people in this thing they come to st louis hospital a gate closing behind them and yep they're stuffed some kids even getting let out of the trunk they enter via a back door and james is able to parkour to it just before it closes smooth moves buddy even when you're drinking you still got good moves he keeps following and it sure looks like the kids know exactly where they're going entering a room and drawing the curtains he peeks around from a window seeing a man hooked up to machines and they all fall to their knees in prayer james manages to get the jump on garrett and mazes him sneaking him away for questioning he asks about the guy in the bed garrett's saying that he's like an antenna they tune two frequencies through him transmit they receive that whole pontifex tagline thing he drags him somewhere else and he explains kind of the next level in depth of what the institute is trying to do the fundamental idea is that all thought is communicable and similar to the atmosphere and biosphere where we physically reside there is again the new sphere the universal sum of all consciousnesses not just humans but all ancient and even angry once in a while a kind of prophet emerges the between one they need the empty man as a bridge between these planes of existence and remember like i said pontifex literally means bridge builder that's their purpose the idea to erase all of these boundaries everything unified in one realm as they're always on about james tries to take this all in garrett prodding him you're coming down with him already aren't you got an itch in the brain huh james is sick of his [ __ ] randomly again bringing up about him being from san francisco and he just wants to know where amanda is she's on the bridge what bridge there is no bridge garrett cackles back haven't you been listening james frustrated sucks him a few times with no real effect and he keeps laughing as he speeds away james eternally unwavering in his search for answers returns to the institute ready to break his way back in with bolt cutters but strangely find the gate is unlocked easily allowing him access and after some suspicions right around this point when i was watching i was kind of going hmm was he set up in this whole operation here which becomes much clearer when he makes it back to the records room retrieving that manifestation 14 box inside is the file of the man from the hospital including admission forms and how he was transferred there but shockingly he too has a file in there it has his whole history jotted down in notes age 41 a prescription for his medications even the coupon for the birthday meal at the mexican place he's dumbfounded even finding personal photos of his wife and kids totally confused how they could have all this and then the icing on the cake a picture of that weird chair in the light has been seeing but he's sitting in it oh no wait i don't know what that means but it's not good i can promise you that much his mind is flooded with images from the crash and garrett going on about the antenna and itches in the brain the record is starting to scratch in a kind of loop on a way he decides to pay a visit to this so-called antenna he squeezes a scan amount of info from the nurse that he has been here for at least a year and that it is odd for someone to be in the icu this long she knows that he was admitted to a hospital 23 years ago and transfer around a couple of times until winding up here she also finds it odd because he doesn't have an official name on file but someone must be paying his bills and he sure does get a lot of visitors and there's one in there right now we see the visitor is amanda a shock james telling her that he's been looking for her well you found me she casually tells him back he asks about the man saying he's like a carrier in both senses like a disease and a signal modulated by an input signal the message is contagious it sounds like they again are utilizing this dude like an antenna everyone using their mind powers together and he amplifies their signal but also their spread of their message he's all dang i need to call your mom let her know you're okay but bafflingly she has no idea who he is and hangs up leaving him confused as usual amanda remarks on the man's condition that he is weakening and there's only so long a body can stand this kind of power and we put together that this is paul the guy that survived from the beginning who must have been acting as the group's antenna since 95. definitely looking worse for wear they'll need to find a replacement soon and considering it was 500 years between their last carrier and paul they don't have that kind of time to dilly dally so they decided to try something different an experiment they decided to make a carrier the ekg starts going haywire and james winces amanda tells him to listen to his thoughts and how you can hear him the empty man crowding him out you know like a brain itch imagine an overwhelming itch taking over the base of your skull that's him the em he yells it's not real she plays along okay sure well in that case why fight it informing him that he must disconnect from our reality and attach to another one she reveals something quite shocking for james she actually created him and knows everything about his history asking him questions and they both answer at the same time but not his birthday because it turns out that was just three days ago rewriting him of the time at the mexican restaurant the group all focused on his biography to conjure him into being as you remember from way back artulpa our empty man don't forget time plus concentration plus thought equals flesh that's like their whole thing flashing back to that foreboding chair they tried it once before but failed which must be what we have seen on the tape at the camp learning that they can only transmit their signal via grief and guilt but we're missing a key ingredient fear that's why they built his tragic story to define him everything was designed to make him the perfect vessel or new antenna for their purposes now when seeing the fam at the park they're all blowing on bottles and she digs it in asking where were you when they needed you the most poor king nora but none of that was real anyway completely shell-shocked she comforts him that nothing he does is in his control he's not his own man you're our man she considers isn't this a relief anyway isn't this what you most want so just let go she gives him a hug hearing people chanting about the bridge and thoughts coming from dreams that old chestnut down in the institute bowels he emerged clutching his red file folder finding him in the massive room back with everyone chanting from when he was here earlier she as before stops her watch asking if anyone is there he walks out sheepishly seeing himself from earlier up on the catwalk so yep he's clearly been played and manipulated the entire time everything constructed to bring him to this point and a big realization of his true purpose everyone in the group including amanda starts blowing on their bottles together he blinks and looks back now somewhere else entirely yep at that old chair from his dreams hey buddy and then he's back in the cave in bhutan with the weird skeleton which must be the empty man's resting place a bone cracks a slight spirit essence seen moving the empty man steps out from the wall chasing him through the dingy halls he stops and pulls his gun the lights blink off away from him em appears and he still tries to fire at it having no effects now she's really still trying to fight your fate at this point huh buddy well he's got no real choice and gives in it gets right up on top of him pulling off its mask flanked by a bunch of tentacles it vomits black goo into his mouth followed by the entire physical being entering right into him reality getting all shaky again and his eyes turn black the unification is complete james acting as the bridge with the empty man to all planes of consciousness he stumbles back outside his brain again flooded with all of his planted memories seeing in full detail what happened which was kind of obvious at this point and also ultimately doesn't really matter again because none of it was real basically the same night his wife and son died we know he was with nora but it was also after her husband's funeral so yeah pretty bad and would phil james with plenty of that sweet sweet guilt and fear and all that stuff the group needs he breaks into what he thought was his house but in reality is completely empty and things continuing in learned that it was thanks to henry choking on a coin and his wife looking back that they crashed off the side of a bridge i'm sure that's on purpose considering what that means thematically he comes to a door with a blinding light on the other side and steps through back at paul's hospital bed he pulls out his gun and blasts him away his first shot being in his so-called third eye spot i'm sure that's on purpose too and even the splatter of blood left on the wall looks exactly like the same one drawn by the previous manifestation that failed not this time though he steps out of the room to a group of onlookers giving him the once-over he appears in the light shaft and the lights then go out hearing more whispering they all fall to their knees and worship the words you transmit we receive ringing in his head as reality starts distorting once more right so i feel like we got enough bread crumbs to figure out what's going on but just to reiterate james was not born in the traditional sense but born through the power of thoughts from the group in a similar way the empty man is as well kind of an urban legend that took on a life of its own though we also understand the empty man must be some kind of ancient evil entity as they mentioned the new sphere or consciousness fear connects us to thoughts across all time including evil ones so they need james to act as a bridge between the biosphere our typical reality and to that of the consciousness one and then they put them together you gotta have the empty man and the antenna guy and that's the whole idea that was her whole intent from the beginning and his entire ever unwavering purpose to find a mana turns out to just be one big wild goose chase everything was constructed to reveal to him who he really is over the course of those three days it's a bit hard to pinpoint just what we saw was real or an entirely constructed reality and i think that's also kind of the point here like nora he calls her and she doesn't know him so like she's real in a way but they didn't have an affair or whatever you know what i mean and assumingly is actually still amanda's mom so perhaps that explains her tying into the story but then there's like the cop that recognizes him and a bunch of other things like that point being at least in some capacity these people and what we are seeing is real but also not quite entirely trustworthy either if that makes sense regardless it sounds like the group did succeed in their master plan as for me it seems those shakes are representation of reality as we know it kind of breaking each time it seems appropriate from when it's utilized again the bridge coming down between these worlds and in the end it does look like james did work as designed we also come to understand just how massive this movement is with a big church and a camp and all that stuff which obviously reeks a bit of scientology so for all intents they did as arthur said bring unity back to things but we are just destroying reality in the process fair trade i suppose with that we have reached the conclusion of this inning explained for empty man that ended up being a lot more complicated than i expected like i said i really thought it was just like a cop investigating a creepy ghost dude or whatever some kids die you know and all that stuff you know the drill it really went into a way way unexpected direction and while it was admittedly scatter shot i still ended up liking it just for how big of a swing it took and it was at least interesting and definitely unexpected and don't forget before we go you can send me requests for any movies or tv shows you'd like to see me explain by sending them my way on any of my social media accounts at foundflix what did you guys think of the empty man and its ending was it what you were expecting let me know your thoughts down in the comments below make sure to like subscribe and follow thanks for watching foundflix see you next time

Channel: FoundFlix

Views: 1,473,858

Rating: 4.9470124 out of 5

Keywords: the empty man, empty man ending explained, ending explained, ending, explained, explanation, meaning, twist, spoiler, pontifex, trailer, clip, final scene, end scene, james badge dale, comic, philosphy, foundflix ending explained, foundflix, new horror

Id: r45uNO0Ra-o

Length: 34min 4sec (2044 seconds)

Published: Sun Feb 07 2021