The Ending
I have never felt this robbed in my life. It's probably just me, but the ending is pretty freaking outrageous. Let me know if you guys liked the twist or not. Great movie til the end for me.
share*beep* ending
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MovieChat Forums > The Factory (2013) Discussion > The Ending
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This was a well made movie with a horrible ending.
Just because a movie has a twist ending does not make it a surprising ending. In fact, in this day and age, it makes it normal. Twist endings are normal! I didn't predict the twist because of the clues given throughout the film, I predicted the twist because this is a detective movie made post-Sixth Sense, post-Usual Suspects. The twist ending has simply become the way that so many movies, particularly detective movies, are finished these days. For me, the more surprising technique would be to make a movie where the characters ARE what they seem. That is now an unusual thing to find in a film like this.
My main concern with endings like this is that they add no additional meaning to the film. So the partner was a baddie all along - who cares? All this is for is to shock the audience. But you could literally have had any other character appear and do those lines and the film would be the same thing and mean the same thing.
Finally, another reason to hate this conventional twist, where "it was the cop's partner all along": it's already far-fetched enough that the daughter of the cop assigned to track down a particular killer is the next victim - that's quite a stretch. But to find that not only that, the cop's partner was in on it all along??? What sloppy writing.
Think of the greatest cop-chasing-a-badie movies ever made and tell me about the twist endings. Generally, they don't have one. Silence of the Lambs is an honest to God detective movie, with actual police work that solves the crime. No silly twist where such and such turned out to be the baddie after all. Se7en is also an honest movie where the baddie turns out to be just some messed up guy who they find through actual police work - not their buddy, not the guy they've known and trusted for years (granted - in Se7en we see the killer early on posing as a journalist, but the point is that he is not presented as a trustworthy character to begin with, only to have a great shocking twist ending reveal: nope, he was a bad guy all along).
Unfortunately, these types of movies are now no longer the norm, now the norm is to have a twist, which in turn, makes the twist the least surprising part of the movie for me.
Sooner or later, everyone needs a haircut.
So Jennifer Carpenter's character joins the police academy and becomes a cop (without exhibiting any signs that she's mentally unstable) all so that she can monitor the investigation of her hooker kidnapping/rapist boyfriend who is impregnating these women so they can have children? Haven't they heard of adoption? Nothing holds up about this lame thriller. Cusack seems miscast and uninterested in the role he's playing. Buffalo must be two blocks wide, because the coincidence of Cusack's daughter visiting a diner and being abducted by the very serial killer he's investigating is just too much too accept. No wonder this film has sat on the shelf for four years or something. They should have figured out the script was awful before they decided to make it.
shareHaha Bronzescag summed it up nicely :)
shareVery cool thriller with brilliant non-Hollywood ending.. too bad we get this kind of thrillers so rarely.
shareFWIW I just watched this film, having no idea there was supposed to be a "twist".
Not a great film, but not bad up until the last 10 minutes or so. I like films with many twists and turns ("Layer Cake" anyone?), but that was just ridiculous, nonsensical, needless, and downright implausible, if not impossible.
Bah, feel a bit robbed of 90-odd minutes of my life really.
I actually thought the movie was quite good until the end. Like you say "nothing holds up...". Like how did Kelsey get the babies out of the house with no one seeing her. She shot her partner then went down to the cellar and the cops arrive so unless she went out to a vehicle on the street with 3 babies in her arms in about 2 minutes then I don't see how it's possible.
And what happened to the other girl in the cellar? The last we see of her she is sleeping but are we supposed to believe she slept through the commotion that happened all around her including shotguns etc going off?
And who is going to want to breed with whores? Someone with delusions of grandeur and with visions of starting some sort of super family isn't going to be wanting to knock up some dirty whore - he might sleep with one but the idea of getting one pregnant would be repulsive to him from a psychological profiling perspective.
Also, what took Cusack's character so long to make the connection with the catering guy? All the clues were there that he was involved when he talked to the prostitute that hit the guy with a bottle. And then he all of a sudden realizes the truth after some catering company returns his phone call?
If you ask me, there was no need to involve Carpenter's character in the baby farm. Surely they could have come up with something better? Surely if the writers had held a brainstorming session with a group of crack-smoking underage, dumb-as-two-shoes whores then they would have come up with something better?!
I disagree with your first two points:
We have no idea how much time has passed between the shootings and Kelsey calling in for backup. The call that we were initially led to believe was for backup was actually a warning to the kidnapper. For all we know she could have allowed plenty of time to take the babies out of the house and home (she probably lived relatively close to him as they were lovers) before she called for backup. It would take a long while for the backup to get there due to all of the snow and traffic.
If his particular psychosis involved "saving" the girls and forming a *beep* up) family with them, then I don't see the problem with their having been prostitutes. He gets them off of drugs and healthy before he breeds them and they would be prime candidates for Stockholm syndrome. His whole spiel about prostitutes breaking up families and how instead he is going to make a family seems like a reasonable delusion; especially if you consider how much easier it would be to kidnap prostitutes than girls with families (e.g, no one is looking for them, prostitutes come and go all the time so might not even be missed, etc...).
Your third point is entirely valid. I would have thought that the whole reason he talked to that girl was because he suspected the guy after hearing his informant's story about the bottle. Confirmation would be nice to have, but you'd think he would have already been following up on that guy.
a couple things...
Kelsey took the babies from the house when Cusack went upstairs looking for the creepo. He had left her there to guard the door to the basement and when he left she got them and took them to her vehicle. While in one of the rooms upstairs, he heard the car door shut and looked out the window and saw her running back across the street towards the house..
I was under the impression that the girl was dead when he pulled her from the well. she wasn't really sleeping at all, she was dead/dying. The daughter took the pregnancy test and made him think that the girl had awaken and taken it and fell back asleep.
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By your definition, there shouldn't be any corrupt police officers, psycho nurses, or unknown sex offenders then?
shareBuffalo actually isn't as vast as people seem to think it is. Much of Buffalo is actually abandoned buildings...
But I do think there are a lot of unanswered questions about the motive, methodology, & means. And as soon as it was mentioned that Jennifer Carpenter's character could not have children, and here is this guy trying to make children, I already had suspicions that that piece of information was given to us for a reason. I think the real mind-blower was that the phone call she made after the daughter first turned up missing was to the kidnapper. Some of those connecting events were pretty well-maneuvered without being a giveaway.
Well yeah! they were the big hints that made it very obvious she was involved! I dont know how anybody can think they were "pretty well-maneuvered without being a giveaway"!
Carperter was on the phone saying "Just do what you've got to do"!!! hmm wonder who she is talking to!!
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I agree. This movie sucked big ones. No way is this gonna happen and that chick is just going to drive off into La La Land and say "Yeah you like my 3 new kids". The dead guy would have tracked back to her somehow and like the cop said, if this is a baby factory, where are the babies? BS all the way.Cusacs daughter even has a bead on her already.
shareI liked the twist. I love films with unexpected twists in the end. The ending is well connected with the rest of the story so I think it's a good ending with a nice twist.
shareThe twist was non-sensical and ruined the movie for me.
shareMaybe it's because I've seen too many movies, but I saw the "twist" coming about 60-minutes in. Even before then I was highly suspicious because it seemed like such an odd character trait to make her infertile and by the hour mark, I figured she was in on it and I just waited for it to be revealed.
Better question, though, how exactly did she get those kids? Is the system that messed up that she's able to get them without anyone noticing? If she was able to adopt them, how? Do they allow a single mother to adopt 3 kids? Mind you, they're the products of rape and certainly wouldn't just get lost in the system.
I won't even go into how she's able to buy a new house in, from the looks of it, a highly desirable neighborhood.
It's far-fetched and, plot-wise, seemed to come from an episode of "Criminal Minds". Cusack is OK and I can't place that much blame on Carpenter as I can't think there are many other actors who could've done that much better. Anyway, it is pretty obvious why this sat on the shelves for so long and then quick, unceremonious bare-bones DVD release (there isn't even a scene selection on there).
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She didnt need to adopt the babies. The babies were completely off of any kind of tracking whatsoever since they were conceived in the dungeon.
shareRefreshing to see an American/Canadian movie without an American “All warm and fuzzy feeling" ending, obviously the reason why it was not successful.
Watching the Americanized version of "The Vanishing" was a classic example of how a good German production almost copied to the letter but with a ridiculously warm and fuzzy American ending that completely ruined the entire premise and shock value of the original.
The comments on here from those that cannot handle the hero dying should reassess the reason why they watch movies in the first place.
This is a damn fine movie that apart from the ridiculous driving scenes gets a solid 8 from me.
NEVER TRY TO TEACH A PIG TO SING....IT WASTES YOUR TIME AND ANNOYS THE PIG
Oh please--lots of indie films are released by Americans that do not have a warm and fuzzy ending, and that has NOTHING to do with why people disliked this. They disliked it because it was poorly done and made no sense!
shareI couldn't disagree more, this movie would firmly be in the sixes rating-wise if it had a nice happy Hollywood ending.
shareAre you saying that if a movie ends where good prevails, it's sentimental and "warm and fuzzy"? Was the ending to Fargo "warm and fuzzy"? Was the ending
to One False Move "warm and fuzzy"? No. Those are 2 superior thrillers that didn't need such an artificial twist and to kill off the main hero, just to try and be "different". Cusack's character was the one we identified with the most--the hero, the father, he was a really good guy. To just kill him off so this sick woman can get 3 babies, so the cynical audience would love it, was just so disappointing, and it hurt the film, because it wasn't even necessary. The villain was good, and even the twist I was willing to accept, but not the female cop prevailing. It also makes no sense when you go back and look at it--she's one of "daddy's girls", but she's made it through the police force and even detective and even on Cusack's cases, and she's still the same fawning slave-girl?
That makes no sense whatsoever. She was an adult when he picked her up, not some 12 yr old girl whom he could brainwash over several years. Killing off the most sympathetic character should have a payoff in any movie--a feeling of catharsis or heroism. Instead, this cynical ending just kills him off and he never even knows his daughter is safe, and the sicko woman walks away scot-free as a mother of 3 children, despite being a cop-killer. Yeah, "damn fine movie" my ass.
I watch movies as escapist entertainment. "The bad guy gets away, The End" doesn't do that. If you watch movies hoping for everyone in them to get an unhappy ending, then I think possibly you are the one who should reassess the reason why you watch movies.
shareThe twist ending was great! 7 out of 10 movie.
shareHATED IT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
i couldn't understand why it had a low rating on IMDB.. I was right with it until..... ugh!!!! are you kidding me???? omg!
I agree with you and I didn't like the ending either. I could have predicted it as soon as I read that there was a twist. I knew that Kelsey couldn't have a child and I spotted something coming from that. It made no sense though, especially when she's getting in her new home with the three babies and she calls the daughter. It's pretty implausible.
shareI liked the movie up until the ending.
***SPOILERS BELOW***
It made no sense due to Jennifer's character's age of 30. She went from no job to being this guy's first victim, then she somehow went on to become a detective and was still under the guy's spell? No way, not possible time-wise. Brother and sister would've made more sense, too.
I'd prefer it if John lived and the two baddies died. I'm tired of unhappy endings in movies. I have real life for that. I'm tired of twists, too.
As to John Cusack, I love him in all his movies. His character was literally severely sleep-deprived in this movie which is why he seemed to be "sleepwalking" throughout it and had trouble putting some things together. I have severe insomnia and it really messes up your mind and your body. It's almost like being drunk until you get some solid sleep. You don't think straight, no matter how important a matter may be.
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