MovieChat Forums > Soylent Green (1973) Discussion > I'm kind of confused...(there be spoiler...

I'm kind of confused...(there be spoilers...)

posted 10 years ago by hightp
7 replies | jump to latest

I just watched Soylent Green and one part confuses me: Why did Sol 'Go Home' after he visited the exchange? Apparently the exchange concured with his conclusion that the oceans were dying. We know Sol was considering his mortality earlier in the movie, but why wouldn't he share what he discovered with Thorne?

I have seen the movie a few times in the last 40 years and I alway had wondered why he just took off. Did he want to spare Thorne the anguish of watching him die? It seemed a bit too random for me.

He who fights and runs away, lives to run away again!

[–] Avenger69 10 years ago

The Exchange confirmed that Soylent Green was being made out of people, and that someone needed to get proof of what they were doing before they brought it to the United Nations.

The whole concept - the fact that humankind had fallen so far - was too much for Sol. He decided to go Home without telling Thorn, taking the horrible secret with him in the process. However, during his death in the euthanasia chamber, he has a change of heart and tells Thorn the secret, and that he must find proof to bring to the Exchange.

"It's people..."

[–] hightp 10 years ago

Thanks, that helps. Of course, if Sol had added another line to his note, it may have helped a bit too.

He who fights and runs away, lives to run away again!

[–] mimosveta 10 years ago

why wouldn't he share what he discovered with Thorne?

Well, after learning what he learned, he couldn't go on living, he decided to go get eutanaized, so why'd he tell the truth to anyone he loves when they might feel the same way?

The problem is, what can you do with that piece of information? You can go on living, disgusted, spending every last penny on super expensive alternative food, disgusted with your self, tormented, unable to tell anyone? Try to get the information out, closing the factory, and with it, cutting the only food source available to all of the people (if you speak out, you kill everyone)? or opt-out like he did?

If those are your choices, if you choose to die, then you'd want to "bury" this secret with your self so no one else has to go trough same horrible dilemma.

___
Anyone who has ever read any spoilers,
knows that Winter Is Coming

[–] finktypedink 9 years ago

I agree mostly with what you're saying. However I think Sol thought that Thorn would tell everyone about the secret of Soylent Green, thinking that the problem could be solved somehow, and Sol couldn't let that happen. But when he was on his deathbed he couldn't bear to hide the truth anymore.

Additionally, I believe he didn't want to give Thorn the chance to talk him out of his decision. After he'd had the drink in the death center it was too late for Thorn to intervene.

[–] bastasch8647 9 years ago

Yeah, the shock of discovery simply shut Sol down. Perhaps if Heston had been at home when Sol came back to write his Goodbye note, he could have unburdened himself to Thorn and maybe the two, and the Exchange, could have done some undercover subversion...although that's not likely. Probably the main reason was to give Robinson his final chance at a great role - one in which he has a powerful, touching death scene with Heston. Heston's performance here is pitch-perfect and restrained. Sol's secret-keeping and death actually form the film's background... I can't think of the story being improved by a surviving, but shocked, decrepit Sol trying to incite Thorn to rebellion against impossible odds...

[–] cinecephale 9 years ago

He could'nt live with what he learned, like the priest, then Thorn, and even Simonson. Looks pretty obvious...

[–] jim-85613 8 years ago

He could not handle the truth that Soylent Green was people. I'm sure he lost all hope for humanity as he experienced what the world used to be like.