MovieChat Forums > 9 (2009) Discussion > What if the 'happy ending' wasn't what h...

What if the 'happy ending' wasn't what he wanted to happen? (spoilers)

posted 14 years ago by joshuayeary
14 replies | jump to latest

Think about what the professor had said. He had made the machine in hopes of it bringing peace and making the world better. He put all of his traits into the machine, but realized he forgot something important, his "soul." They showed him being ripped away from the machine, so he apparently was no longer able to gain access to it. He later put his "soul" into the dolls, and kept the mechanism to power the machine back up in the office where the dolls could find it. Once the machine was powered back up, it went around collecting the "souls" of all of the dolls.

So, putting all of that together, what if the scientist's original plan was for the dolls to transport his "soul" to the machine, making it - at least as he assumed - whole, and a force for good?

[–] Nicweb1 14 years ago

I was saying that to myself the whole time once he started collecting souls. It made total sense, while the ending the ending they did, did not. But then again, what would happen once all the souls were inside the machine. It really wouldn't do the world any good since there is no other life on the planet. Whereas the original ending, the earth will repopulate again with life.

[–] joshuayeary 14 years ago

True, although with the scientist being as genius as he was, the machine may have known what to do to restart life again.

[–] Phroggy 13 years ago

…How will muppets repopulate the Earth ? They just coped out and went for an ending who'll please the religious folks with some St Sulpician imagery so they'll go all "you MUST see this movie !!!!!!!" and not think one bit about it at all (because hey, if parts of a soul goes to heaven, it IS a happy ending, alleluila, and all those who say otherwise just hate us because we are so muche better than them, bwaaaaaah !)

[–] tallard 12 years ago

I agree. This ending makes no sense at all. What was the point of making the stupid little device in the first place if not to achieve something? If the dolls are simply going to repopulate Earth there is no purpose for the machine remote control. The story line is simply ridiculous and contrived. Doll souls flying up to the heavens... sheesh... that's got to be the stupidest animation movie ending I've ever seen!

***So I've seen 4 movies/wk in theatre for a 1/4 century, call me crazy?**

[–] actionmanrandell 10 years ago

they did not fly up to the heavens they flew up to the upper atmosphere where the rain was falling. there life force caused bacteria to fall and bring life back to earth

[–] ssimpson-10 13 years ago

If he just wanted the machine to have his soul, why split it into 9 parts, why not just one? Seems to me he was splitting his soul into as many parts as he could, so at least one would complete the mission (turns out 9 is the limit, after that you die).

I think they got the mission right, get the 'source' and restart life. There's just a lot of unanswered questions in the movie.

[–] TheFatDruidofNacyl 11 years ago

Perhaps either he couldn't put it all in one doll, or perhaps if he fed the complete soul to the machine at once it would short circuit or reject it.

Come visit my blackrosecastle.com
stephentheblackroseenterprises.com

[–] Zero_Wolf 13 years ago

That's sort of where I thought it was going too.

When it first sucked up 2, and they started to run away from it, I was thinking that it was 2.

Then I figured the revelation would be they would all have to sacrifice themselves, and feed their souls into the Brain. As to why there were 9, I figured he just couldn't fit his whole soul into just one of the puppets.

And then once the Brain had fully absorbed the souls, it would repair the world.

Instead, it had the ending that it had, which made no sense, was pretty much a let down, and kind of made the whole movie suck.

[–] Craytonus_AP 13 years ago

I was hoping that it was the ending we all seemed to be thinking it was heading towards, but unfortunately they gave us the happy feel-good ending where all of them died for nothing. I thought it would have been a lot more powerful if all of them sacrificed themselves in order to bring peace back to the world. Poetic really, the last human soul turning a heartless machine into a benevolent creator.

"Tahiti is not in Europe . . . I'm going to be SICK."

[–] TheManInOil 13 years ago

It's an interesting idea, although I agree he divided his soul into multiple beings in order to create a group of living beings and not in order to make sacrificial totems out of them.

But even if that was his plan, it changes nothing. He didn't need to plan what happened (and certainly didn't). Once they existed as individual entities, the ragdolls were free to seek their own future.

"I'll book you. I'll book you on something. I'll find something in the book to book you on."

[–] henrimaine 12 years ago

I also got the feeling that the Machine was actually "good" and was doing the "right thing". That after collecting the souls of all the dolls, the scientist would somehow come back to life inside the machine and that would be good for the future of the planet. But no, instead we had some confusing ending with the souls of the dead dolls going to heaven and starting the rain.

[–] jacksparrow2k 12 years ago

The ending was obviously changed. When 9 views the video that was left for him, the scientist explains that the machine was made for the good of mankind but was easily manipulated due to not having a soul. The scientist is then shown seperating his soul in to 9, which he would have done with the others. The reason for there being 9? Each part of his soul. #1 was fear, #2 was creativity, #9 asked questions etc The device that sucked up the souls was made specifically for the machine as shown on the detailed plans at 'the first room'. The way I see it as evident by most people here was that the dolls were to ultimately realise they needed to give up their lives for a greater future. This would have made the machine pure. It was shown creating birds and snakes using machinery, although evil and twisted. It would most likely have recreated a variety of creatures to return the earth to a habitable state again ready for life to once again find a way.

[–] eps_leon 12 years ago

Was thinking the exact same thing. That's why I came onto these boards, to get clarification.

Then I saw the tagline.
"A rag doll that awakens in a post-apocalyptic future holds the key to humanity's salvation."

Now I'm thinking it's a rather muddled representation of humanity's selfishness. The obvious thing you expect, sacrificing themselves for the greater good, doesn't happen. Instead they act selfishly, choosing their own survival over the potential for re-population of the earth.

Whatever the reason for the ending, it tarnished a fairly good film in my eyes.

[–] RbSnedlap 12 years ago

"A rag doll that awakens in a post-apocalyptic future holds the key to humanity's salvation."

Frankly I dont get that either as humanity, or at least the humanity that lived in that world is extinct at the films opening.
Perhaps whoever wrote the tagline hasn`t seen the film.

I also wonder just how long after the apocalypse `9` actually activates, it must be some time later as it seems to occur as a result of a series of random events that give him a jolt to get him started.
Maybe the Scientist dosn`t actually have any master plan and has just created his robot dolls in order that something besides his flawed machine will survive the extinction of all life hoping that they`ll figure out what to do later.
Perhaps `9` is just the last he creates just as the poison gas (or whatever it is) reaches him.
He`s left `9` the message since he knows that he wont live long enough to make any more dolls and the other eight have left already,

"Any plan that involves losing your hat is a BAD plan.""