MovieChat Forums > Chronicle (2012) Discussion > There were no superpowers...Andrew made ...

There were no superpowers...Andrew made it up


Think about it. Andrew creates his own surreal world in which he has superpowers, because his mother is dying, he is bullied in school and his father is beating him. And who doesn't want to have superpowers when you're in such a situation like that? In the end, he commits suicide by jumping off the hospital. Let me explain.

He films ALL of it, all of the crazy stuff he does, yet when his father sees it, the only things he says is something like 'they are not your friends'. What the hell? You've supposedly seen your son flying in the sky, and that's all you say? The only reason: he doesn't fly, he doesn't have superpowers. He lives in his own world, filming cheerleaders, but dreaming about superpowers.

The whole film is his big dream. A dream from a lonely, angry and disturbed kid, who eventually wants everybody to die or leave him alone. Why doesn't anyone notice anything if a car magically moves? Because it doesn't, it's just Andrew's imagination. The car crash? The death of Steve? Just Andrew's megalomaniac mind thinking HE did it, that's how disturbed this kid is. The talent show? His ultimate dream to become popular, but in reality, he is propably the one who is filming the stage.

At the end of the movie, he sees his mother die. He goes insane, gets beaten up by the kids in his street and then desperately tries to rob a gas station but gets shot instead. In the hospital, when his father blames him for his mother's death, he just snaps. In his own world, he is the almighty superhero, better than anyone, finally beating his father up. However, in reality, he flees up the building, standing at the edge of the building, waiting to jump.

Matt tries to talk Andrew out of it. In the movie, you see this when they're floating in the air in front of the Space Needle. In reality, they're on the roof, where Matt tries to save Andrew from commiting suicide. Did you notice, when he talks to Andrew in that part of the, he says the exact thing you would say to somebody who's standing on the edge of a building? When Andrew says something like: 'why did you catch him' or 'I am stronger than this', Matt replies with 'Listen, focus!' and even 'this is not a game'. He's trying to get Andrew out of his own world, trying to get his attention, trying to get him focussed. Finally Matt says: 'we can fly away, be famliy, and, more importantly, 'this isn't who you are'. Which is right, since Matt hasn't got any superpowers.

He then jumps with the words 'I'm an apex predator'. The top of the foodchain has no predators of it own, except theirselves. And even in his flight, he images himself destroying the city and its people. He last words are 'leave me alone', and finally, in death, he is.

The actual end of the movie even makes sense now: Matt is going to be a better person, the person he never was for Andrew. He's apologising for letting Andrew go, but it was for the better. The reference to 'what happened down there'?. Maybe the world Matt lived in, or something that happened in their childhood that made Andrew such a disturbed person.

The superpowers were Andrew's Tyler Durden, but the shot really killed Andrew and not the superpowers. Makes all sense now.

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what about the talent show ...

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I disagree.

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Ehh.. maybee. It does all make sense, but the movie seems pretty straight forward.

It could be a "chronicle" of how child abuse/bullying can affect a teenager, or about what it's like inside the mind of someone living out a confused reality, like schizophrenia, but there is just no indication throughout the entire movie that this could be the case.

There's really no reason, no clues, for this to be fantasy, aside from your points showing that it COULD be.

For me, the only "escape from reality" I got from the movie was when I was remembering when I, myself was young, and was pretending to have telekinesis with my friends.

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Not everything has to based in reality :)

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No, not every movie has to be based in reality.

Found footage movies, however, usually are. That is because they are created, and marketed, as footage capturing events that supposedly take place in the real world.

There's no point to found footage movies if they aren't about showing the audience a hypothetical situation that could have happened.

Found footage requires a semblance of realism to mimic authenticity.

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I think you're thinking of a documentary. Otherwise, any work of fiction is a "hypothetical situation that could have happened" regardless of the medium.

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Yeah, just like Cloverfield.... wait.... well nevermind, just like the Blair Witch...... screw it!

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But found footage films are still... films. Meaning they are still works of FICTION meant to tell STORIES. You're getting it confused with documentaries.

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I get what you are saying. "Since it's 'found footage', it has to be based on reality (the movie's reality, of course)". But what the OP is saying (I don't necessarily agree with it) is that Andrew can be making it all up and telling us an imaginative false story through his camera. In other words, what we saw was what Andrew imagined filming, the OP suggests.





True Self is righteous. It's a conspiracy to portray man as a savage that needs taming and policing

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He films ALL of it, all of the crazy stuff he does, yet when his father sees it, the only things he says is something like 'they are not your friends'. What the hell? You've supposedly seen your son flying in the sky, and that's all you say? The only reason: he doesn't fly, he doesn't have superpowers. He lives in his own world, filming cheerleaders, but dreaming about superpowers.


As you said, he films all the things that happen in his life, from him walking around school to him hanging out with his friends; both while they're playing with their powers and while they're just sitting around, talking and goofing off. So why are you assuming his father saw a piece of footage where he was using his powers?

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Yes, this.

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They literally talk about their superpowers quite a few times...

The point of the movie is power in the wrong hands.

The footage is also not just Andrew's camera but many other cameras from the hospital, Matt's girlfriend's, the store he robbed etc etc to show Andrew's power at work. I think it's pretty straightforward and doesn't have any underlying "reality" meaning.

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power in the wrong hands?... I agree, Matt and Steve should have never gotten their powers making them capable of stopping Andrew.

Andrew should have been the sole person to wield that power, that would have been a fun movie

1101?

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Oh really, so how will this sequel they are trying to get going work? The kid who lived really does have superpowers because Andrew died and his powers embodied within him? This wasn't that kind of movie, but you must have scored some good drugs to watch it on with this theory

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Take it easy, everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Though we'll never know for sure if everything was just an illusion or real, the OP has an interesting take on the entire premise of the movie in the very least.

Good on him/her for thinking outside the box; and let's be honest, the possibility of everything being in Tyler's mind isn't that FAR fetched.

Something of the magnitude of what happened in Seattle would have attracted the military for sure, not just a bunch of cops and/or SWAT team.

Not agreeing with the OP but let's have a real discussion on this subject rather than outright dismissing it with insinuations that the OP may be "on drugs"

Let's be civil :)

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What is the response time for the military though. I mean when everything started happening it was one night and they thought a bomb went off at the hospital so only the police and rescue were called. I see no reason for the military to show up as at this point there is no reason to believe there are super powered kids.

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Take it easy, everyone is entitled to their opinion.


That wasn't an opinion, it was a crackpot theory that makes absolutely no sense, and COMPLETELY ignores the film.

The drug explanation was much nicer than flaming the OP or calling them completely delusional, which would be a rather accurate assertion in this case.

Something of the magnitude of what happened in Seattle would have attracted the military for sure, not just a bunch of cops and/or SWAT team.


Which would have taken a lot longer to show up than the cops and a SWAT team.

After all, it is not normal to call in the military for what could have just been a gas explosion or somewhat regular incident.

By the time they saw dudes flying around and throwing vehicles at each other, there were only a few minutes left in the battle.

The military would not have arrived in time.

Not agreeing with the OP but let's have a real discussion on this subject rather than outright dismissing it with insinuations that the OP may be "on drugs"


That poster's assertion that the OP may be on drugs is a hell of a lot more likely scenario to be correct than for that rambling insane rant to be correct, yes?

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[deleted]

You don't understand. Go away.


Typical response from someone who can't handle a disagreement.

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I always here the line "Where was the military"

Any of you aware of a thing called posse comitatus?

Military isnt authorized to operate on US soil unless under marshal law.

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You don't think two guys flying around the city, causing telekinetic carnage and murdering people would be grounds for instituting emergency martial law?

~.~
There were three of us in this marriage
http://www.imdb.com/list/ze4EduNaQ-s/

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Good on him/her for thinking outside the box; and let's be honest, the possibility of everything being in Tyler's mind isn't that FAR fetched.


Fight Club discussion is that way --------------->

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Good on him/her for thinking outside the box.

The OP wasn't thinking out the box, he was stuffing too much stuff into it and trying to make it fit.

Personally, I'm tired of people always looking for the most tenuous links to prove "it was all in their own head" theories, every time there is a movie presented with supernatural or improbable events.

I came to this thread hoping to see a convincing theory and all I got (again) was a very cliched "it was all in his head because it could have been" argument with absolutely nothing in the movie to back it up, and almost everything in the movie to contradict his extremely weak and unsubstantiated points.

And I haven't really seen anyone being uncivil so far...I think.

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Yeah this idea is pretty bad to be honest. In fact it's really, really bad. Here's a few others with exactly the same thing the OP did:

Back to the Future - time travel isn't real! It's all in Marty's head as he deals with the stress of being late for class.

Terminator - None of the robots are real! It's all just Sarah Connor dealing with conflicting feelings about getting pregnant.

Blade Runner - All the replicants were in Deckard's head! He's just dealing with the stress of the weather constantly raining.

All those movies make so much sense now. Think about it.

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It really is an unfalsafiable, fast food hypothesis that you can apply to ANY movie - as you've just shown.

The Formula:
<insert movie> - everything was all in <insert protagonist>'s head. He's just dealing with the stress of <insert lame justification>

The Rewards:
People equally as shallow and stupid as you will think you're cool, complex and a really deep thinker. You can both pat each other on the back over how original your ideas are, while still looking each other in the eye, because neither one of you is clever enough to see the other for what they truly are.

The Personality Type:
You're probably a Libra. It's possible you received either not enough attention from one/both your parents as a child - creating a vacuum; or you received too much - creating a dependency. Either way, you desperately seek it and you'll make sh!t up to get it. Your favourite colours are black, grey, topaz blue, orange, wild green and off white. You probably have regular psychic or tarot readings. You might even be a professional psychic or tarot reader. If not, you should consider becoming a professional psychic or tarot reader as a career choice. Such professions thrive on the gullibility of those around them and require someone unafraid and unashamed to administer lashings of bull sh!t Your lucky numbers are prime numbers and pi.

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They are entitled to their opinion, yes.

It's just wrong. XD

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It does start a hopeless cycle doesn't it? Everyone is entitled to their opinion; therefore, anyone is entitled to have the opinion that another person's opinion is idiotic babbling disguised as deep thought.

What a useless saying... or it should be limited to "In my opinion... x was y" statements and not attempts at persuasion, reasoning, deduction, etc...

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This only makes sense if there is a reveal (realizing that there is no Tyler Durden) in the movie. Otherwise it would be completely pointless.

I see your point, but disagree.

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What about Matt at the end saying he is going to find out what happened to them down there.

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...and how the hell did Matt get the cash to go to all the way to Tibet, and why would he, just to say goodbye to someone when he never would have shared the intense (and rekindled) friendship, as shown in the movie if everything was in Andrew's mind.

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It makes sense.
The party in the beginning actually happened and Steve and Matt discovered this hole and they dragged Andrew along to film the stuff. Maybe there was an actual crystal-thingy down there, but it didn't do *beep* The whole cave collapsed and the three got barely out alive. Andrew created this whole story, about becoming superpowers, while Steve and Matt weren't involved.
Then Matt's "what happened down there?"-reference makes sense. Because the incident altered the character of Andrew somehow (so he went nuts and did crazy stuff, talking about apex predators etc.). Matt was a psychology buff (as we see during a party where he quotes Jung) and so the "I will find out what happened"-statement makes much more sense, because he already knows alot about psychology. I really doubted, that Matt would've figured out why a blinking crystal turns them into superheroes, despite being smart.
The only thing I don't get together was Steve. Matt mentions Steve at the end, because he will dedicate his work on Andrew's mind to Andrew AND Steve. Why Steve? If Andrew made everything up, then Steve wouldn't have died by the hands of Andrew! Also Andrew wouldn't even really have known him at all, because there weren't any "exploring the powers"-moments between any of them, which actually bonded them in the first place.
The only thing that makes sense to me, is that Steve died in the collapsing cave and is directly linked to "What happened down there" and Matt thought something like "Oh God, Andrew went crazy, because he witnessed Steve's death" or stuff. Maybe that's why Andrew rescues Steve in his fantasy first, but later kills him off like "It wasn't my fault, I couldn't have saved Steve in the cave, no matter what, so I let him go!"

I loved the movie, but I felt like some parts were missing. Essential parts. Or at least parts which would clarify Andrew's behaviour. For example, why didn't he just talk to Matt or Steve? He floated there, crying in the storm and killing Steve. It felt like it would've at least needed a "Guys I need somebody. SERIOUSLY!" --- "Nahh man, we don't care, you're on your own"-scene, to justify his despair. Besides that I really liked the movie a lot and was VERY surprised to see such an interesting movie.

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It's difficult to understand if you're not one of those types of introverts. In troubled times they feel more comfortable to be alone, because that's what they're used to and that's what they like - being alone. I'm not saying introverts never want company, but it puts them at ease.

Andrew's also pretty stubborn and egotistical so I can't imagine him going to other people for help very much either.

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Thank you!
This makes much more sense of the movie and his character.
He was a depressed teenager who was beaten by everyone and was unable to save his mother so he closed in his world.
One with superpowers like his doesn't go robbing some street douchebags or some local gas station, he could've easily steal the medication he needed.

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