The end of phase 4 always struck me as being a bit odd, particularly with the way that the girl acted as she came out of the sand in the ant colony. I think that I've got a handle on what this is meant to mean, but wold like to hear everybody elese interpritations on it.
English Language Anime: Dub it, don't pervert it.
I watched it again last week and my own interpretation was that the girl had become brainwashed or on some level had come to understand that the ants weren't malevolent. If you think about it the ants tested the humans in the same way that the humans tested them. Then again I could have totally missed the point but the ending hardly tied up the loose ends of the film and in many ways the film has so many unresolved plot points its maybe meant to be left to your own interpretation.
That's what I thought lol sure everyone else has their own thoughts and it would be good to hear them.
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Very simply: "Resistance is Futile: You will be Assimilated." The ants changed the humans so they could communicate directly with them and (perhaps) serve as ambassadors between the two species.
It wasn't a very good movie. The human scientists acted about 50 IQ points shy of a PhD and the girl had no purpose except to be pathetically helpless ant-bait.
Heh, I loved this movie and loved the ending.
First, something fell or was "transmitted" into that hole in the end. It was obviously crater like, and my thoughts are that an alien inteligence sent something there or that the strange magnetic event talked about in the begining was focused there. Basically that something came from space and ended up in that mound. Which does explain the odd blue pulsing in some of the nest scenes and shots of the queen. Once there, it effected the ants simple because they were the closest. And so the ants went outwards, looking to do the same, spread the "higher" sentiance. They found humans, and tried to establish a connection, both with the towers and the crop squares, but only got the humans to what we always do when faced with something new.
The reason they didn't want Hobbs was because he was obviously unstable and was tanited from the ant bite.
At the end, the ants had brought, or she made it by force of will, to the queen and the phenomenom that gave them inteligence, and she too was affected by the influence. The same when the other guy got out there too.
Once they got out there, just like the queen ant gave birth to servants of that influence, so will the two humans, and as such they will spread outwards to the rest of the populace.
I like that idea you have about it being an alien message that only the ants gets by coincidence and tries to spread further.
That could really be another good movie too!
You can't say the girl served no purpose at all. The ant got to slip up her shirt and feel her up. That was pretty cool.
shareWell, I think that the ending was one of humanity needing to succumb to the ants and be one. According to the book "Future Tense" by John Brosnan Saul Bass created a 4 minute montage of what the new Earth was to be like but the distributor cut this footage for some reason, perhaps to make it more ambiguous like in 2001 A Space Odyssey.
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Well it would be nice to see it as either reinserted footage or an addendum for a high quality DVD release. I hear Paramount will be releasing a DVD of this on Today June 3rd.
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I don't believe they are the service of the ants, I believe they (ànd the ants) are at the service of the alien thing that landed.
Always ask yourself :"What would Neil Patrick Harris do ?"
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According to the book, the thing that sparked the new intelligence died shortly after it had finished its work. Some have suggested that the ending shows them merging into one creature with ant genes, but from what I read in the novel (directly based on the original screenplay, including the cut extension of the ending) I think what happened was that they did become "one" but not physically, I think they where being altered, most likely with the intention of they and the ants meeting halfway and becoming and entirely new species, but based on what I read, the "union" was if their minds, much in the same way the ants connect with their queen, I think they connected together, it DOES suggest that she is his "queen" but it also suggests that they become one, based on the imagery, it MIGHT be that they more or less begin a hive, but based a little more on our own social structure, I will have to read again from the beginning to double check that theory, but there are a lot of pieces to that ending.
sharethe Italian version there is a voice over in the end explaining that the ants created a mutation in them and that they are now in their service, though they are not aware of the bigger plan coming up (referring to the monologue given by the other scientist earlier in the movie about the ants' organization) >>> I just watched this on YouTube and that is exactly what the ending states.
I don't like the whole alien idea that some are on about. I am of the opinion that it is a weird leap in evolution, something that is beyond man's ability to understand. This lack of understanding would naturally be interpreted as aliens and such, but the simple fact is that we don't know what it is that has caused the change, but only that it is happening. The ants were taking out anything that was a threat to them...insects, animals, and yes, some humans. They recognized intelligence in humanity, hence their desire to alter us so that co-existence could take place. That's just how I see things after watching it.
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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?
^In response to your dismissal of the alien idea -- the film opens with a shot from space with Michael Murphy's voiceover stating "We were all watching the events in space, wondering what the final effect would be". There is explicit evidence in the narrative to suggest that the ants' acceleration of collective intelligence is the direct result of some unknown cosmic phenomenon (it even states this on the back cover of the DVD). Does that mean aliens are responsible? Perhaps not in the conventional sense that we have come to conceptualize 'aliens' but a force originating from the unknown depths of space, in my opinion, suggests something alien going on.
shareCosmic phenomenon and the unknown does not equal aliens. Not in line with the definition of a consciousness not of this Earth anyhow. I was aware of the alien ideas some fans have before I watched the film, but I don't see it as even being hinted at in the film itself. I prefer to use the term "unknown".
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Whose idea was it for the word "Lisp" to have an "S" in it?
True, it could just as well have been a meteorite carrying some sort of radiation which kick-started the change in the ants.
I don't think there is any proof either way.
"The elderly, they seem friendly enough, but can you really trust them ?"
I always thought it was a cosmic event that kickstarted their evolution. Like perhaps the magnetic fields of the planet went out of balance due to a conjuction or something. I think the opening space montage gave me that impression.
Thousands die every day for no reason at all, where's your bleeding heart for them?
Just saw this film and well,i think some weird cosmic event
took place that sparked the ants to evolve in a giant step
forward into some kind of advanced intelligence.
If its alien or natural is open to speculation i think. But
this blue blinking lights suggests that the phenomena
could be artificial and not entirely natural and by chance.
The film is vague and just focussing on this first contact
situation in which in the end a couple humans are altered in
some way to communicate directly with whatever other intelligence
has established a foothold on earth.
At the end it appears that indeed the humans were experimented on
with the aim to alter them fundamentaly. For what purpose and why
and how is all open for discussion.
The book also explains that, as some kind of intelligence, though it really does not specify what that intelligence is.
shareYou can find the film's true ending on Youtube (which was lost for nearly 30 years until recently) and it's pretty much worth it.
I warned you not to go out tonight
I believe the two surviving humans were made a part of the collective hive intelligence of the ants at the end.
I'm a totally bitchin' bio writer from Mars!
That's also what I figured. They are the Adam and Eve of a new breed of humans, one in tuned with the ant hive mind and nature. That's what I believe the fourth phase is, the creation of a sort of hybrid to begin the alteration of mankind. If you have seen the lost ending, it does seem to imply some of that.
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"That's me as a vampire? I'm so evil. And skanky. And I think I'm kinda gay!"
Maybe this will help:
Update on Dec 2021:
The YouTube links and some articles linked above are now "unavailable," probably due to a copyright strike.
This is the ending the Hollywood Reporter article refers to. It's also the ending I saw today: https://youtu.be/oHWSAZ3fZsQ
Later, I found this longer-montage ending that includes the "reverse-mermaid," some nudity, interacting with animals and other scenes others have described. It appears to add about 5 min to the version I saw:
https://youtu.be/0rMqT4GD944
Though there are some great "Saul Bassy" scenes in the longer one, I personally prefer the one linked at the top. It has more punch.