****Spoilers*****
Having just watched this movie, I can clearly see Jimmy still standing on the edge of the cliff watching the bike crash. He obviously got off the bike before it went over.
I just thought I'd mention it as I just read a post in another thread in which people seemed to think that Jimmy went over the cliff with the bike...
Yeah I noticed that to, I could be wrong but I think a lot of people thought he killed himself because in the album, (if I remember correctly) it said he did. I don't remember though but I remember my roommate said he killed himself and she loved the album, but the movie makes it clear he didn't.
Can you draw with your feet?
It hurts a lot.
If you watch the film again from the very beginning, you will see the very first scene is in fact Jimmy walking back from the cliff's edge.
shareIt is a symbolic ending he has noticed it is the end of and era for Mods after seeing Ace working as a Bell Boy who Jimmy looked up to his basically needs to face reality.
shareThe beginning of the film shows what happened after the ending.
shareCan you please elaborate? I can't remember what happened at the beginning? Thanks.
shareA dark silhouette of a boy in a parka stands in front of the sea and the sunset for a couple of seconds. He then turns round and begins to walk upwards (towards us and the camera).
As he walks (close enough to show his face and his upper body, helping us to see it's Jimmy) almost out of the frame, it cuts to a night scene of Jimmy riding his scooter in High Street while the credits roll.
I had an impression Jimmy hadn't been to Brighton before when they were planning the trip, hence my assumption that the opening scene is the epilogue of the ending.
The film starts with Jimmy walking back from the cliffs edge, then goes to the scene where he is riding his Lambretta, therefore the film is a re cap of the events which led to him being at the cliffs edge.
shareanyone who doesn't know what happened to Jimmy also doesn't know much about Quadrophenia
shareLooks like you all answered the question I was going to ask. I wondered when I didn't see him with the bike. The reality was that through all their cool facades, they all had day jobs.
shareYes. It was a cruel conclusion, though. Jimmy thought he had a chance to escape his grim world by living the Mod life, like his hero, but seeing his hero working as a bellboy destroyed that chance/illusion. Jimmy grew up that moment, which is probably why he threw away his bike. There is a possibility that there will be a sequel to Quadrophenia, which might allow us to see what happened to Jimmy some forty years later.
shareWell I`m glad to hear that, but I have just watched it and also was of the opinion he went over with the scooter :( cant wait to see it again :)
shareIt was on TV last night. The film starts at the end with Jimmy walking away from the cliff top, obviously after the bike has gone over. Then flashes back to the events leading up to this.
shareYou only see the bile hit the rocks so there is nothign to suggest that he went over. Plus you do see him walk away from the cliffs edge now.
shareIt also could be that James Michael Cooper was catapulted into the ocean. Who knows if at the beginning when he walks away from the cliff that he's heading to his motorcycle to take it on a ride to High Street? Wish I had a definitive answer for all this. To me, Jimmy smacks of someone with my condition of Asperger's Syndrome. People with it relish being different.
share> To me, Jimmy smacks of someone with my condition of Asperger's Syndrome
Jimmy, with all his friends? His gang? Going to Brighton to mix with lots of people? Pulling birds? Engaging in a lot of immporal activity?
Well... yes. Not impossible. One thing that seemed fairly obvious throughout Quadrophenia, both the film and album, at least to me, is that Jim is a "pretender" (whether consciously or subconsciously, I don't know) and doesn't really seem to relish too much of what he does; but then, what choice does he have if he wants to survive in hardcore destructive youth culture, and impress Ms. Gold Digger?
And erm, I don't know if it's your intention or whatever, but your wording kinda seems to imply these things are way beyond the capabilities of Asperger's people, in general. While difficult, if one were to push oneself beyond one's mental blocks to an insane degree (and you can see the toll this eventually had on Jim) it certainly wouldn't be impossible. Myself being a "survivor" of hellish teenage years, I was part of relatively similar circumstances, but not often did I ever want to be. You might say I was working myself to death, just to fit in.
But indeed, the autistic interpretation of Jimmy's character is a very sound one on the whole. Maybe not Asperger's per sรฉ, but something to that degree, maybe.
Who busts the Crimebusters?
How are some people so dumb! You can see Jimmy standing on the top of the cliff after the scooter goes over because the camera pans up to look at him. It's only brief so if (as a lot of people haven't) you don't pay attention then you might not see it.
shareIf you've made a film that has an intended ending, which still turns so ambiguous that the viewers after watching the final scene twice still can't work out whether the principal character plummeted to his death or not and have to go onto IMDB to find out what was supposed to have happened to him...then I'd say something's gone wrong with the editing or the narrative or something, somewhere.
Still, it was interesting to see everyone who's ever been on 'Eastenders' ever all in the one film.
It's only ambiguous to half wits.
shareWho knows? Anyone who watches the film. He clearly walks away from the cliff edge at the start of the film wearing the same clothes he had on when he sent the Vespa over. Talk about making up your own version ffs.
shareI recall a documentary (which I think is on the DVD) in which the director (or maybe one the writers - not sure) explicitly states that "the beginning of the film is the end of the film", meaning that, as the film opens, Jimmy is walking back from the cliff's edge after he has sent the scooter over.
Make tea, not war.
on the latest blu ray release there's an alternate ending where he just ebays it.nowhere near as good as the original though.
share'70s eBay was a bitch, took fifteen minutes to load a page
Everyday when you're walking down the street
everybody that you meet has an original point of view
Yeah, they didn't even have dial-up. The internet was coal-fired back then. ๎
Make tea, not war. ๐
Plus, it was the 60s!
shareI've never seen so many idiots in my entire life. How could anyone watch the film and not realise he's walking away from the cliff edge at the start, and doesn't go over with the bike at the end? Watching any film must be a nightmare for you lot, do you ever get it?
shareI've never seen so many idiots in my entire life.
How could anyone watch the film and not realise he's walking away from the cliff edge at the start, and doesn't go over with the bike at the end?
how did jimmy have ace's keys? were they in the bike ? did ace the bellbys drop them? i keep missing this scene. sting was not a happy bellboy. i crack up when jimmy ye''s "bellboy!"
shareJimmy used his own keys. I think it was a "one key fits all" thing, which was apparently common with scooters and cheaper bikes in those days. Or perhaps the locks were so poor that you could turn them by sticking any bit of metal into them.
Make tea, not war. ๐