MovieChat Forums > City of Ember (2008) Discussion > Final Scene killed this movie (spoilers)

Final Scene killed this movie (spoilers)

posted 14 years ago by Glucojel
27 replies | jump to latest

Does anyone else hate the way this ended? I mean, I can buy that an underground city is made to protect civilisation, and I don't mind at all that we never find out what had happened. But what kind of disaster would get people to build a city underground, but have a hole in the ground above them with a direct line of sight down to the city? doesn't that destroy the entire point of an underground city?

And even worse- the kids grew up in this city and knew exactly how it was built, with interconnected wires lighting all kinds of makeshift ramshakle roofs from above, and yet they think a single note is enough to send word? They even say outright how easily the note could have been lost or not made it down, but they go ahead and just drop one?

When it comes to suspending my belief for a film, I'm usually pretty lax. I put up with those stupid monster moles that seemed there solely for a bit of hide and seek with the main characters (though I'm sure the books found better use for them) and nothing else- why they focused on the mole for the sneak peek clip is anybody's guess- but when those kids decide to entrust the fate of the entire city and the survival of everyone in it into a single casually tossed down note, that was it for me.

Someone please tell me that I'm wrong and explain why a single note was such a good idea.

[–] benjamin-3377 14 years ago

Yes I also thought it was a terrible ending. As if nothing fell down that hole before (like rain or sunshine).

Also did anyone find that the entire method to exit (a raft going through a cave river) was a complete abandoning of the builders advanced skills. As if they would make it that dangerous. And also its a terrible way for getting thousands of people out.

Also the whole method of getting the lockers to move by turning one thing, I'm sure once in a 200 years someone cranked that wheel before.

I mean even when I was a kid I would have said this is idiotic. Terrible writing, and I love Bill Murray but he was bad here too.

[–] deimos-13 14 years ago

The raft/cave river scene was daft, to say the least

But if you watch the trailers, it looks like it was originally meant to be a metal chute.

[–] Firefly69 14 years ago

The moles aren't even in the book. Thankfully!

[–] Blackace 14 years ago

The whole movie got a bad rap because it wasn't true to the book. A lot of details and character development that's in the book was left out of the movie. This is why the movie failed so badly. Even a movie like "The Watchmen" which was even more complex then this film, stayed a lot closure to the graphic novel. Sure there was a few things missing from it, but nothing that made the story unlikable or misguided. Everyone can blame the screenwriter and the director for the poor production of this movie. It was still a decent movie, but could have been a lot better. I gave it 6 stars, which was generous.

[–] jfuex 14 years ago

I couldn't believe the size of the plot hole. In fact it was a LITERAL hole, a decent sized one, directly above the city.

Didn't anyone ever get curious about the crack shaped light beaming down on the city? At first I thought maybe no one noticed because the glare from the city lights drowned the light from the crack out. But then I realized, they were having blackouts in the city which should have made even the dimmest light from the above blatantly obvious.

The story would have ended much better if they had just left a note behind somehow rather than relying on the whole crack in the earth thing to get word back. Or better yet, there must have been a way to get back down there assuming the original citizens didn't ride backwards up that water park ride. Hell, they just could have added some narrative text over the credits explaining they found a way back to notify everyone and not even show it onscreen. It wasn't really that critical to the story.

Still, decent movie.

[–] ewd76-944-614898 13 years ago

I figured they'd just leave everyone down there and start their own new branch of humanity.

-----------------------------------
I could care less, but I don’t care enough to bother.

[–] monkeymechx 13 years ago

Two people don't have enough genetic diversity to create a new branch.

[–] ewd76-944-614898 13 years ago

Adam and Eve managed it.

-----------------------------------
I could care less, but I don’t care enough to bother.

[–] monkeymechx 13 years ago

Hogwash.

[–] mark-hansen11 12 years ago

*Hogwarts.
Adam and Eve were wizards. Everyone after them are simply made of magic.

[–] krissd 10 years ago

Yeah. Without comparing that too the tales of the Kim family in North Korea. Even if that was true that a single pair could form enough diversity. Consider this: let's pretend they go all in and get 4 kids. Two boys and two girls. For a society to form they would then have to pair up with their own siblings. Or their mom/dad. Are you sure you really want to go down that road? No? OK. Then no. Two people will NOT be enough.

[–] morgan_mourning 13 years ago

That's one thing that I didn't like - they rushed to escape and left NO WAY to tell anyone else what they had done. And it's not like everyone would have wanted to stay; I bet most of the officials were not corrupt and would want to escape too. But they left family/friends down there, and to solve it, throw a rock with a note down a hole...really???

And the creatures being so big...did not make sense at all. In fact, I first thought that maybe they had been shrunk somehow and to escape, would have to go through a device to become full-sized. It was okay, I'll check out the books and be much happier, I'm sure.

Goblin Cannonball: I hit something! Yes?!? No?!?

[–] huh_oh_i_c 14 years ago

Well they "lampooned" the single note, so thats how they think they're getting away with it.

Another plothole: in the rafts they went DOWN a LOT, yet they ended up above the city??

Condoms cause SEX like roofs cause it to RAIN

[–] mark-hansen11 12 years ago

You must have missed the part where they went up a long ass staircase after arriving at an underground lake in the boat.

[–] huh_oh_i_c 14 years ago

Well they "lampooned" the single note, so thats how they think they're getting away with it.

Another plothole: in the rafts they went DOWN a LOT, yet they ended up above the city??

Condoms cause SEX like roofs cause it to RAIN

[–] sidewind69 14 years ago

pineapple

[–] quetzalcoatl2012 13 years ago

How about that the river flowing DOWN HILL, somehow brought them hundreds of feet above the city?

[–] RickinHK 13 years ago

I've not seen the movie but the book explains this clearly.

There boat ride doesn't seem to go down to much (although there are a couple of periods of the boat leaning forward), mostly they go through some rapids but followed by lengthy calm patches. When they get out of the boat at the end of the river there is a plaque, written by the Builders, that states:

"Welcome, Refugees from Ember! This is the final stage of your journey. Be prepared for a climb that will take several hours."

This is just a guess, but climbing for several hours might (maybe) put them into a higher location than the city.

[–] NautumRose 13 years ago

@RickinHK I was about to say something about that, in the movie they also had to climb when they got out of the boats but it wasn't very well explained.

As for the hole above the city, consider this: The city is MILES below the surface of the Earth, from that far away the medium/large hole would appear to be pretty small. I doubt any light showing through it would be visible. Even if it were visible, you must also take into account all of the lamps/lights hanging above the city which would obstruct ones view. Secondly, most (if not all) of the people of Ember go inside/to bed when the outside lamps are turned off.

Besides, I very highly doubt that the hole was there the entire 200 years. It had to have been formed over time. As for why a city was built underground and the disaster.... you'd have to read all the books (which are very good by the way).

Lastly, the note... ahh, the only true explanation I have for this is that the kids are kids. They wouldn't have known if there were a way to get back to Ember and they had left in a hurry in the first place. They dropped that ONE paper on faith that someone would find it. The fact that they had any paper and something to write with was more surprising to me.

[–] 13 years ago

[deleted]

[–] zandylovesRISK 13 years ago

In the book after they ascended the stairs and slept outside for that night, they go looking for something and find a little cave. It's about 20 feet deep at a 20 degree angle. At the end they can see the city probably a mile down. Doon throws the note with a rock tied to it wrapped in blanket aimed toward the middle of the city. They weren't any large creatures in the book.

Half-Blood #18 and Son of Poseidon, Son of Adam, Gryffindor 7th year

[–] saygmo 12 years ago

It annoyed the CRAP out of me how this ended. I was willing to put up with the lack of character development, radiation mutation inspired giant mole and beatle, and general idiocy of everyone involved.

But a GIANT hole, depending on where this was on earth, during summer the sun would have shown DIRECTLY down at them during mid day, and been quite obvious.

AND whatever end of the world scenario going on up above would have come in through the hole as well!

How about the theme park ride to escape, going downhill for 5 minutes, putting them miles ABOVE the city. ummm WTF?

Could have been a pretty decent, cool movie. Start off with not letting us know it is underground! Add some more character development so we care about them more. Make the mayor more evil, and make him have an ACTUAL plan, such as an escape plan or something. The guards, who should have families too, and are starving, probably wouldn't ransack the gardens, destroying their only source of food. And leave out the ending where they can see the town from the outside, maybe just have one of the kids say "we need to go back and let the others know!"

/End of rant

[–] Gwasgray 12 years ago

But a GIANT hole, depending on where this was on earth, during summer the sun would have shown DIRECTLY down at them during mid day, and been quite obvious.

It was NOT a giant hole, it was narrow and only a couple of metres across, plus that city was thousands of feet down, so I'm guessing any light going through it wouldn't really be noticeable down there. Plus not much rain would get through, to them it just seem like a few drips and they'd assume it was just moisture dripping down from the ceiling of the cave they were in.

[–] Shiddy 12 years ago

did everybody miss the part where they walk up like a million stairs? even the candles they are holding are melted down by the time they get to the top