MovieChat Forums > Coming Home (1978) Discussion > Did Luke + Sally end up together?

Did Luke + Sally end up together?

posted 20 years ago by spencerkay
20 replies | jump to latest

I saw the movie recently for the first time in 26 years and loved it even more as I could appreciate the depth of the script a lot more than as a naive 21 year old. I think Luke really loved Sally, not sure though if they could have had a life together after her husband's suicide though. As a woman I was very offended by the way Bob treated Sally, dictating that she shouldn't work, how she should have her hair, basically treating her like a child. And although many would see her affair with Luke as a betrayal, I see it more as her salvation from a marriage that was suffocating her. I think she would have been far better off with Luke who although disabled knew a lot more about how to treat the woman he loved.

[–] danahughes 19 years ago

I'd like to think that Luke and Sally did end up together. Bob clearly commits suicide and he was really the only think stopping Sally from being with Luke, in that time you just didnt divorce a military man... Saw this for the first time tonight and absolutely loved it. Man was Jon Voight hot back then! What happened to his looks? hehe I guess he passed them onto his daughter. I think Luke and Sally had something special and Bob was not the best husband (all the orderings her around etc, typical 60's-70's male ego stuff) and I think him being dead allows them to begin anew. At least thats how I'm going to imagine it... Luke and Sally riding off on his wheelchair into the sunset... :o)

[–] timmaninaz 19 years ago

Good question. I kind of doubt that they ended up together as a married or committe couple. Perhaps they were friends. I am sure that one of the reasons Bob committed suicide was due to his wife's affair and she would have to live with that for the rest of her life. For that reason, I kind of doubt that she would then go with Luke.

I can speak from experience about having an affair. I had one when my marriage was crumbling (she never found out and we divorced for other reasons). But when I was free and clear and able to become openly involved with her, it was totally different. The mysteriousness of it all was gone because there was nothing to hide. There were no more secret meetings and the excitement of it all was gone. I am sure it was due to the fact that there was nothing to hide. That changed everything and it didn't work out. It's one thing when only two of you know and that's all who can know as opposed to a situation where everyone can know and there is nothing to hide.

[–] elgatolocorojo 19 years ago

I don't know how much they thought they were hiding, though. I mean, they were out in public quite alot, and he was a public anti-war figure.

I would have liked Luke and Sally to have ended up together, but she made a decision to choose Bob over Luke when he returned home. Bob understood this.

I think that's a line you don't cross back over. It would kinda be like, well "I had committed myself to the meatloaf, but it's gone sour now, so I guess I'll have the pork chop." Somebody else may have their eye on the pork chop that would be willing to make it their first choice!

"Yippee-ki-yay..." John McClane

[–] fanaticita 18 years ago

I'd have taken Luke any day!!!

[–] dg-kalimera 18 years ago

Me too! What a man!
I first watched the movie in 1979 when it was released in Germany and got stuck to it. Since then I watched it about 100 times or something like that, always thinking about their future together after the "Lucky Out" (last scene); not Happy End.
For me it continues that way that Luke comforts Sally after Bob´s suicide and sooner or later they find out that they belong together.

[–] kitteekat80 18 years ago

I saw this movie for the first time last night, but I missed the start. Really enjoyed it, very well told story about the struggle to fit back into society from the point of view of a Vet.
I reckon Sally and Luke managed to figure out what they needed was each other after Bob commits suicide. But, I don't think he did it because he found out Sally was seeing Luke, I think he did it because he couldn't face the things he had done over in 'Nam. You know how Luke is talking in his last scene to the kids, and he's saying stuff about how he still struggles with some of the things he did over there? And back then there was no such thing as post traumatic stress disorder (which is probably what Vi's brother had wrong with him) and Bob was suffering through all this trauma he had been subjected though and just coulnd't deal with the whole picture.

[–] lamont-hard 11 years ago

In most war movies a cheating wife is frowned upon because her husband is protecting her and our freedoms, so the rarely show cheating and even more rarely show a guy commits suicide and his wife moves on with her lover. It's obviously this did not test well to show this, so the left it open where she looks as if she moved on without the lover.

They also hardly ever show a woman moving on so quickly from a suicide by her soldier husband. This is one area that Hollywood holds off on the woman finding freedom at her husbands demise.

Just think about it, how would she live with him knowing her husband committed suicide perhaps for something she did against him. It would catch up to them at some point with questions from the kids and family like how did you two meet.

[–] nancyrex1 18 years ago

I think they would have stayed together; I think her meeting Luke was a sign of her growth and just becoming who whe was. I think she loved Bob in a more innocent, naive time and place. He was a nice protective, old fashioned kind of husband from an earlier time. Luke was physically damaged but almost childish in his open, honest, self-conscious, amazingly sweet human way. They really seemed to be able to communicate; I can't see them splitting but I'd never say never.

[–] dolfan0307 18 years ago

I'm pretty sure he didn't commit suicide.

THe whole ocean thing seemed more like a rebirth or a cleansing to me.

Plus the fact that he was SEEN ALIVE AND WELL at the end...I dunno that seemed like good enough evidence to me.

And to answer the question, I guess Hal Ashby intendned on wanting us to decide for ourselves. I like to think that Luke and Sally ended up together. Sally seemed like a changed person who wouldn't waste time anymore with things she didn't like.

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[–] trevor-150 17 years ago

The last time we see Bob Hyde is when he's swimming out to sea. He's not seen "alive and well" after that. Go watch the film again.

[–] billycan 17 years ago

That doesn't mean he's dead!!!

Sally goes into a market with Vi and isn't seen again. That doesn't mean they're setting up house together as lesbian lovers either.

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[–] dontcallmelisa 17 years ago

I just rented the movie off netflix to watch it for an assignment for my history class. I was 16 when the movie came out in 1978, and I remember my mom and her girlfriends going to the theater to watch it...she wouldn't let me watch it because of "the scene." What a shame! I loved the changes that Jane Fonda's character went through during the course of the movie. I feel in my own life, I have gone through similar changes, so I guess you could say I can relate. I was disappointed at the end, though, when you never find out if Luke and Sally end up together...I guess it's one of those "fill in the blank" endings. I find it frustrating sometimes when the ending isn't spelled out for us! But I agree with the poster who said Bob killed himself not because of Sally's affair, but because he was having such difficulty dealing with all the things he'd seen over in Vietnam. How awful. I thought Vi's brother's character was amazing. Definitely post-traumatic stress disorder. I get so sad when I think of the young men and women coming home from Iraq who will be going through the same things as Vi's brother.

[–] juanmonge69 13 years ago

No they did not wind up together. It was a moment when they both needed each other and they were together for that moment. In High school Luke was the captain of the football team and a chic magnet and he didn't know that Sally was alive. As they say: In war time you do not have friends you have comrades. People who would not socialize with each other back "in the world"were sharing common experiences.

Swimming out to sea was a common way to commit suicide in South America. I think that the director leaves it open. Did he come back from his trauma- many did and many did not."Bob" could represent an everyman character.

[–] birdeyes304 11 years ago

One additional thing about Bob. He got a metal for nothing. He shot himself in the foot and was no hero and knew it. Luke was a hero and took a bullet in combat for it. Bob felt like a coward and used his anger, ego to hide being inadequate.

[–] Weeluuv 10 years ago

Saw this first as a freshman in college in 1978. A friend and I were carried upstairs several times to see it again, since we both use wheelchairs. I LOVE this movie! Bought it on VHS & DVD (Why no comments from Voight & or Fonda?) Now, I don't know why this is not already available for streaming! This is a great film that doesn't get the attention it deserves!

I don't think Luke and Sally would have resumed their relationship. Though they may have tried for a while. There would have been too much guilt for both of them after Bob's suicide. Yes, he did drown himself (waiting until Sally was at the store and even removing his wedding ring). I Have always seen her at the store as her attempt to return to her old (pre-war) life. In that final shot/scene she still has no idea, as viewers do, of Bob's actions, nor that the last of her innocence will soon be a casualty of war as well.

[–] fadingviolette 10 years ago

I just saw the movie through an on demand program and see is t so differently than I did years ago. Weeluuv I agree with your comments. They may comfort one another for awhile but it will always be a sore spot between them, as adultery often is. He is a combat vet against the war and she is a widow of a cowardly man that shot himself to come home. She would always have that to think about, I loved Bob but he's a coward. I love Luke but he's a cuckold and in 1978. The FBI tapes may have been used against them, we don't know but it would not be and easy relationship even though they had many carefree days at the beach.

Yes, Bob's life and her marriage and innocence are 2 more casualties of war, actually three.

[–] lamont-hard 9 years ago

I agree with her and her lover won't end up together. She did love her husband despite what she did to him. The guilt would never let her dishonor him again even though he is dead. She has to feel she played a part in his demise. I also feel if Voight is the person portrayed he he will back off.