MovieChat Forums > Making Mr. Right (1987) Discussion > The ending makes no sense

The ending makes no sense

posted 19 years ago by adam977000
13 replies | jump to latest

If Dr.Peters is in the ship instead of Ulysses, then surely he would die quite soon after being launched into space. The ship is designed for a robot, not a living, breathing human being. How would Dr.Peters live in deep space without any food, water, or any of the other necessities for human life? In closing, the mission would be a failure because you'd have a dead lump of flesh inside the ship. I guess they though the romance would make everyone forget this little discrepancy.

[–] reverie98 18 years ago

The doctor was very unhappy on Earth. Maybe he was suicidal.

Booze... It's what's for dinner.

[–] m_hebner 18 years ago

its possible that he was suicidal, like he said at the end over the radio he's not real good with people. but then again he did design Ulysses to be a lot like a human, so maybe there was enough food on board to last the 7 years he was going to be up there for.

[–] cwilson2007 18 years ago

Although he may have been unhappy on Earth, I believe the doctor was not suicidal, but instead was living HIS dream of traveling into space, instead of Ulysses. What does everyone think of the idea that the doctor created Ulysses NOT for space travel, but instead as a replacement for him on Earth? Far-fetched? I think its quite possible: an underlying idea of the narrative of the film. It somewhat proposes a moral: don't be lazy and let others do for you, instead do it on your own. Any thoughts?

[–] rpowers17 14 years ago

Dude, you almost just made my head explode. No sarcasm intended, I just never thought of it that way, but you might be on to something.

[–] jpnomad 18 years ago

This movie was on late night and there was a scene at the wedding where the Doc was eating some toothpaste looking stuff. When asked about it he said it was a food source he was working on that contains all the nutrients a person needs for 4 weeks. He would just need water and O2. Unless the paste takes care of the water too, then he would just need O2.

[–] Kman13 18 years ago

excellent point. thats why that scene was put in the movie, in my opinion

[–] Psyche-8 18 years ago

In addition to the 'toothpaste' scene, don't forget what Jeff tells Frankie when she first encounters Ulysses. Frankie says, "He looks so real" and Jeff replies, "He is real," gives her some spiel about Ulysses being constructed from synthetic parts and adds "He's no different to you or I." This would imply that Ulysses is basically a synthetic human and would therefore need air to breathe.

That's what I always reckoned anyway - that Ulysses was more human than machine and that Jeff had basically built a man-made human. That would also explain why Ulysses asks Jeff if he can have a baby. If he was a proper android he wouldn't ask that - and Jeff doesn't reply implying that perhaps that is a possibility because Ulysses is so 'fully-functional'.

"He murders his wife every night. Other than that, I think he's pretty harmless."

[–] aks4532 17 years ago

what made no sense is that she chose to be with a robot...she's gonna be an old lady with an android lover..that's just ridiculous

[–] WarpedRecord 15 years ago

Ridiculous for the old lady, or for the android? I don't think either would complain. Do androids even age?

[–] p-shopcreations 11 years ago

I just watched this again, and I always thought the same thing, that he gave up his life to live his childhood dream, by letting ullessies (sp) experience love..

[–] jinglebat 11 years ago

Ulysses eats in the movie. When the receptionist (sandy?) takes him out thinking he's Jeff, he's eating a bunch of stuff at the diner and he tells her he doesn't usually get food with so many colors so she asks him what he usually eats and he says that paste thingmabob that Jeff is seen eating at the wedding later. So Ulysses was obviously designed to get fuel from food like we do. Jeff will be able to survive fine.

I'm sure somebody would notice it's a human in space eventually but by then it would be too late to stop him. As for Ulysses and Frankie, I'm not sure that they would last as a couple but who knows...

[–] SinisterTwist 11 years ago

I thought about that as well! I forgot about the toothpaste stuff and those lines about him needing to breathe and all that. For a while there I looked back on the film and thought "Gee, essentially the film ends with this guy going into space where he'll slowly die of hunger, thirst, and lack of oxygen. Meanwhile on Earth the girl ends up with a robot she barely knows and is barely capable of human interaction/excitement without his systems overloading, so she eventually ends up regretting her choice to fall for the robot- especially after she realizes that he isn't capable of sexual intercourse (even though he's anatomically correct). Then she gets in boatloads of legal trouble if she didn't go to the authorities and report the switcheroo immediately." (Cheery ending interpretation, huh? Made me laugh at how morbid it was.)

edit:

Wait, didn't he have sex with her best friend? I can't remember if they just started or if he short circuited before they could get that far. Either way, I figure he probably wouldn't be able to do much in the long run.

EDIT:

Found the film and re-watched the scene on YT. He is capable of intercourse, but his body short circuited and his head spun backwards while he was going out of control, necessitating a restart.

[–] Splarne 11 years ago

"Gee, essentially the film ends with this guy going into space where he'll slowly die of hunger, thirst, and lack of oxygen. Meanwhile on Earth the girl ends up with a robot she barely knows and is barely capable of human interaction/excitement without his systems overloading, so she eventually ends up regretting her choice to fall for the robot-

the human doctor goes into space and dies like a person who is adrift in space is supposed to.. unlike sandra bullock in gravity.

as for the other, ulysses was capable of learning. to what extent, we don't really know, they left it pretty vague. they did want to lead us to believe that even the smallest task was a complex series of programs. how this android goes forward without updates and tweaks to his programming is left for a sequel. i'm sure they are working on it as we type.

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