MovieChat Forums > The Neverending Story (1984) Discussion > Some Questions I Have (Spoilers)

Some Questions I Have (Spoilers)

posted 10 years ago by DarkenedHeart
10 replies | jump to latest

I will start by saying I have never read the novel and the movie leaves me with some questions I don't get. I know some of them do have explanations in the novel but I'm not looking for this because a movie should be understood by what is in the movie and you should not need to read something else to understand it.

1. Why was Atreyu the only one who could undertake this quest? The quest did not involve any real “hero” skills – all he did was wander around, talk to a few people, and get his ass saved by a flying creature. Quite frankly the Nighthog with his bat could have achieved the same. Even stabbing Gmork was luck not talent – he just so happened to have a sharp stone and the Gmork was stupid enough to just lunge forward in a very basic fashion into the sharp stone. So, aside from Bastion having a thing for Indians (Native Americans), was there an in-Fantasia reason why it had to be Atreyu?

2. Why did Atreyu have to leave all his weapons behind? When he is tasked with the quest he is told he needs to leave his weapons behind and told it would be dangerous – he accepts the quest by dropping his bow and arrows to the surprise of the gathered people. But no explanation is given by the man giving the quest or by the events we see (although, granted, his bow wouldn't have made the slightest difference anyway) why he had to leave his weapon behind.

3. How was Gmork planning to control people after the Nothing had succeeded? The Nothing was nothingness – once it takes you there is nothing left, kinda the point. Gmork is a something. If the Nothing suceeded it would have taken him too, making him nothingness. Effectively, he'd be dead. How did he plan to control people?

(I do know in the novel it apparently explains he's immune to the Nothing as he wasn't part of Fanastia or the real world but something else entirely, the same place or power the nothingness comes from but this isn't stated in the movie except him saying he serves the power behind the nothing. The one line in the movie is insufficient to really explain this.)

4. The murals depicting the story events right before Atreyu finds Gmork. Either somebody who can predict the future painted them or they indicate it's all already happened before and The Neverending Story really is just a story like any other where it gets repeated ad infinitum every time it's read. That would be lame as it defeats the point of a neverending story because a story that repeats actually does have an end – the point at which the story stops and goes back to the beginning is technically an end. A genuinely never ending story would just keep going, never repeating, always new. Since the painted murals are counter productive to the point of the movie and idea of Fantasia and Bastion et cetera my question is – what is the purpose of these paintings and who painted them?

5. Why is Morla's “home” called “Shell Mountain”? It's not a mountain, not even close. It barely qualifies as a “hill”. These are supposed to be people of imagination so couldn't they give it a more creative and apt name? Or just tell Atreyu “Morla's a giant tortoise, look for her shell”?

6. Why in the Swamps of Sadness does the horse succomb so easily to the sadness and more surprising Atreyu who supposedly loves the horse can continue on without issue? If sadness endangers you in the swamp and he's just lost his friend wouldn't he have at least a little bit of sadness to make the swamps difficult? Yet, nope, he can stride off easily through these swamps of sadness. It's not until some sneezy tortoise goes “it's a long way away” that he eventually gets difficulty and was still a struggle for that swamp to pose such a danger – but the horse was taken in a few seconds – just how depressed must that horse have been?!

7. Why did the woman gnome give Falkor an injection? He wasn't injured by anything.

8. Where is Bastion's Dad? Bastion stays for quite a long time after school finishes right to the night yet there's no sign of his father. The school would have been the first place he'd check. Furthermore why didn't Bastion just go home after school finished and continue reading there?

Is there anything in-movie to answer these questions? Or did the screenwriters just genuinely suck at their job? Or are the same issues also in the novel, which means the fault lies with the story itself?

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[–] serpent-skin 10 years ago

Is there anything in-movie to answer these questions? Or did the screenwriters just genuinely suck at their job? Or are the same issues also in the novel, which means the fault lies with the story itself?

Without mental gymnastics, there aren't really any direct answers to any of your questions. They all arise from bad screenwriting when adapting the novel, which answers all of them.

Atreyu is Bastian's fantasy counterpart, so he's the only one who can have an adventure that will engage Bastian to the point where he has to enter the book. He doesn't need weapons because having AURYN means no creature will even consider harming you; I don't remember if this was stated in the movie (most likely not I guess, AURYN is little more than a prop there).

The Gmork/Nothing scenario is so, so condensed that it doesn't make any sense unless you fill in the gaps for yourself. In the novel he's just a pawn for an unseen group (mentioned in the movie) and he's glad he dies before the Nothing swallows everything because he's also afraid of it. The whole mechanics of HOW this group benefits from the Nothing creating lies in the real world are not addressed at all in the movie as far as I know, either.

The murals are not present at all in the book, though it does feature a loop that, as you point out, "breaks" the neverending story and must be avoided (characters treat it as an apocalypse of sorts); maybe it's some sort of misguided reference to that. While most of your questions' answers can be KINDA inferred, the murals just make no sense whatsoever.

AURYN protects Atreyu from the swamp, he tries giving it to the horse in the novel but the horse refuses (the horse can talk in the book). I guess you're meant to infer this protection thing in the film.

In the book Atreyu meets "Falkor" while he's being attacked by a poisonous eldtrich abomination huge monster thing; the woman gnome saves him from this poison with herbs and stuff. I assume at some point they planned on including this scenario before scraping it and the scene is a remnant of that, but as it stands it makes no sense.

In the book Bastian vanishes for like three days and he is only in the real world until midnight, his dad assumes he ran away. I guess sans the vanishing part we're meant to assume the same in the film. Bastian doesn't want to return home because he steals the book, no notes or anything, and is afraid of jail and stuff. Yeah, in the movie his behavior doesn't make any sense at all.

Actually Bastian and his dad are completely different in the film, so even if you've read the novel you're kinda left wondering wtf is going through their heads the entire time.

So yeah, just really bad screenwriting when adapting the novel (which is even WORSE when it comes to the sequel).

[–] DarkenedHeart 10 years ago

It's good to know the issues are more screenwriting that the book. I'd like to try and read the novel some day. The story presented, despite these issues, is very interesting.

Many thanks for your reply!

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[–] AcademyAwardWinnerJordy 9 years ago

Where are you?

Ruin is a gift. Ruin is the road to transformation (Eat, Pray, Love)

[–] khhydc 9 years ago

This is a late reply, but, having recently rewatched this.,. Bastian is late for school (the kids throwing him into the dumpster, finding the book, etc), he runs into school and spy's on his math class, he says something to the extent of 'math test oh no' so he skips class and goes to the attic since he's already there. I think at that point he just looses track of time. The only remaining question would be why isn't his dad looking for him.

[–] khhydc 9 years ago

Fack *loses >_<

[–] punxgurrl 9 years ago

1. Because the Childlike Emplress knew that Atreyu would be the one to bring Bastian to Fantasia.

2. it's all a part of the Hero Quest mythology to leave your weapons behind.

3. Gmork was going to cross over into the real world and control people there. But he was basically a manifestation of all of the bad in the world.

4. Well, considering it's a fantasy land, someone painted them *before* the events of the story. It just harkens back to the fact that we're in a fantastical land.

5. Mythos. No one had seen or spoken to Morla in thousands of years, so people just assumed she lived on Shell Mountain without knowing that she *was* Shell Mountain. Plus, I doubt many people had even gone to the Swamps of Sadness.

6. Someone already answered this, but AURYN protects Atreyu.

7. It was from a previous scene that was cut that explains why Falcor was injured.

8. We only see the story from Basitan's perspective, and we don't see outside of him reading. He didn't go home after school because he didn't want to get in trouble from skipping.

[–] henrimaine 9 years ago

Why was Atreyu the only one who could undertake this quest? The quest did not involve any real “hero” skills

I had the same question as I started to watch the movie. But I guess it can be explained by the fact that Atreyu didn't really have to do any hero stuff, he just had to hold the attention of the boy reading the book.

[–] fistoffury 9 years ago

Atreyu did display some hero skills, when he gets past the two statues that shoot laser beams and later on when he gets through the mirror.

As for Falkor getting the injection, I always thought it was put in as comic relief, it was a good dose of juicy vitamins as the gnome put it. If it was part of a scrapped scene Im glad they kept it in, it had to be one of the funniest of not the funniest moments in the movie.

[–] PreachCaleb 9 years ago

1. Audience surrogate to get Bastion emotionally involved. Plus, he was the great warrior of the plains people.

2. He was on a quest to find a cure, not to kill things.

3. Gmork wasn't planning to control anyone. The power behind The Nothing was planning to do that. And it wanted to control people, humans, not the residents of Fantasia.

4. It's part of the meta-theme of the story. It shows Atreyu someone's been watching his story, just as someone is watching Bastion's.

5. They did have imagination. That's why they called it a Mountain.

6. The horse was very sad. It was too difficult for him. Atreyu was sad, but he there was still some anger in him as we can see when he's arguing with Artax. And at that point, he still had hope he could complete his mission.

7. Vitamins.

8. Probably worried about his son. Or maybe he worked late.

Or did the screenwriters just genuinely suck at their job?

Not having every little nit-pick addressed does not mean they suck at their job. If they did, they wouldn't be making movies.

Let's be bad guys.

[–] Rinzzler 9 years ago

Want to see funny check out his twitter page.

@preachcaleb

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