MovieChat Forums > Pi (1998) Discussion > My interpretation of the ending... it's ...

My interpretation of the ending... it's a little different (SPOLERS!!!!

posted 14 years ago by theb1927
39 replies | jump to latest

Ok, this movie, first off, is a work of genius. The editing and camerawork is remarkably unique, the atmosphere is so palpable you could almost cut it with a knife, and Sean Guilette (who I'd never heard of) gave a TERRIFIC performance.

Anyhow, when Max drills into his brain, what happens to him isn't stated outwright. He could be alive, dead, dreaming, or anything the viewer decides.

Me? I don't think there's any chance in hell he could live through that. At first i thought he just barely dug into that growth on his temple, but i rewinded the scene. The drill goes in QUITE far. also, that was some INTENSE bloodshed. I don't see it being a survivable incident.

I know he was trying to rid his mind of the number, since it was controlling his life and that of others. but i don't think the scene with the little Asian girl was real. it would seem to me that that "scene" is what went through his mind as his thoughts were being jumbled, messed up, altered, and eventually destroyed. He found peace in his death (did you see how happy he was? it seems too good to be true), and although he wouldn't technically find God that way, I interpreted the film as being both a tragedy and a film about one's difficult journey to reach enlightenment.

Your thoughts?

Sora sees dead people!

[–] Bree_33 13 years ago

He looks so peaceful, this is the perfect ending.

------- __@
----- _`\<,_
---- (*)/ (*)------- ----__@
----------------------- _`\<,_
---- -----------------(*)/ (*)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~nec spe,nec metu

[–] hellodave5 13 years ago

Could it be plausible - like in the film A Beautiful Mind - that he had paranoid schizophrenia?
He believed that people wanted his work on numbers despite no one really knowing of his work on the 'god code'. He kept seeing flies on his pc and brains everywhere and a man in the train station dripping blood.
The ending looks as if it could have been metaphorical in that numbers no longer rule him, but also makes sense that he could of destroyed the part of his brain to do with numbers and calculations.
One very good... confusing film!

[–] professormcg 13 years ago

Before he drilled into his head, he had picked out the diagrams of the head in those anatomical books for some days. None of you mentioned that the drilling into his skull was a planned occurrence. So maybe the drilling was not at all related to his epiphany? Couldn't you make an argument for that?

I aplaud discourse and abhor discourse-challenged trolls.

[–] Rhi_Bran_Y_Hud 12 years ago

I felt the bit about him drilling his brain (no pun intended) was a symbolic hallucination of Max forcing himself to forget the number, and everything it entailed. Just as him finding a brain (his own, I presume) all over the place was part of his hallucinations. And I believe the interpretation to the seeing his brain outside of his head, poking at it, and seeing it all the time was an expression of how he felt about the number.

It's completely unnatural to see and touch your own brain, just as the number was not meant for someone like Max to stumble upon. That was my interpretation, anyway.

[–] kidzbpq 12 years ago

Shut up. I stopped reading after "interpretation".

[–] Tayte 12 years ago

I need to see this movie again to figure out whats symbolic and whats real.

[–] grizzly228 12 years ago

I believe a lot of the conspiracy stuff was in his head, but the ending I took to be literal. He lobotimized himself and learned to just appreciate the world instead of trying to dissect it.

[–] duncs-1 12 years ago

Too complicated. It's simple really, he took a bath...

[–] dim1377 12 years ago

My "problem" is with what happened before that.
There was a climax when both Wall Street and Kabala freaks were pressing him to give them the nummber.
There had to be something explanation not necessarily rational why the Hassids let him go.
That explanation didnt have to be rational.A rational explanation could diminish the film to another Illuminati or Da Vinci

[–] aimeeandevan 12 years ago

Youhave to guess why they let him go. You were given evidence to make your guess.

This is mine.

He proved to them they were not the rightful cohenim when he pointed out to them that they had the number all along but couldnt do anything with it. Also the way he kept death at bay was with heavy drugs that made him loose consciousness before the number could kill him.

He may have had one moment when he was the rightful cohenim, but he did not sustain that state either, because he couldn't or chose not to.

§ Al-Qaeda, Jihad, Great Satan, bomb, explosive, death, Allah

[–] Slammer01 12 years ago

My interpretation . . quite simple, the entire movie was a dream/nightmare, only when he drilled into his head (still in the dream of course) he awakened. Him sitting with the little girl was real life, not an afterlife.

haha . . .different twist huh . . . :)

BTW, there is going to be a sequel in which Max is saved through the power of Jesus Christ and becomes a devout believer . . . sequel's gonna be great!

Absolute truth is an objective reality that exists independent of what anyone thinks