MovieChat Forums > Drugstore Cowboy (1989) Discussion > Ambiguous ending

Ambiguous ending

posted 19 years ago by jay-line
34 replies | jump to latest

Hope I'm not being really stupid here, and I haven't seen this question asked already on the forum...

I found the end of the movie ambiguous...when he says he's paid his debt to the hat, and now he's being transported to the largest Drug Store in town...is this saying that he's going to get back on drugs again? Or is he going to stay off the drugs, and that's why his destination is ironic?

I certainly don't mind an ambigous ending, I just wasn't sure if I'd missed something obvious, and I was curious as to what how other people interpreted the ending.

Love this film!

[–] againstglobalism 8 years ago

Well, I guess you can say that the irony of the ending is that Bob is being transported to the hospital, where he will most definitely get hooked on drugs again. With the whole "hat on the bed" philosophy, the ending symbolizes Bob's relentless amount of bad luck, even after attempting to become clean and quit drugs. The ending also symbolized how Bob's past caught up with him. Even though Bob tried to quit drugs, in the end, his problems still caught up with him...in one way or another.

[–] [deleted] 5 years ago

I assumed he lived.