MovieChat Forums > All Is Lost (2013) Discussion > Why burn your life raft ??!!!

Why burn your life raft ??!!!

posted 10 years ago by mpboylanjr-54038
6 replies | jump to latest

I enjoyed the film and it made sense all until the end.
I mean I understand he was really struggling but to just light your only attachment to life on fire seems like the dumbest thing you could do.
The ship he was trying to flag down was so far away and for a guy who went through so much to stay alive and of good intelligence I don't get that whole end.
Was there some significance to him burning his life raft so he could die or was it just stupidity???? That ruined the end for me.

THERES NO ROOM IN MY CIRCUS TENT FOR YOU!!!!

[–] Zamzummin 9 years ago

See my response to another post here: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2017038/board/thread/247310951?d=247791753#247791753

[–] Tigerlily67 9 years ago

Makes sense to me. Well put

[–] mpboylanjr-54038 9 years ago

Obviously he was desperate, that goes without saying. My question is still "why make a fire in your only line to survival??. There have been plenty of instances where people have been left out at sea for way longer than 8 days with a lot less survival gear than he had, and survived the ordeal. He wasn't drinking salt water nor was he truly starving yet after 8 days. I think it was just a bad way to end a good film. There was no reason to give up after 8 days as well as think burning a fire in your raft ( in a controlled setting or not) is a good idea in the least. I think you are giving him to much credit and thinking that he was so delirious that madness brought him to that. He was making normal decisions before that all happened. I think the director just made a mistake and turned what could have been a really good film into an ok one by ending it that way. I get your points, but still that is not enough reason for me for him to have done something so stupid !!

THERES NO ROOM IN MY CIRCUS TENT FOR YOU !!!!!

[–] snmhanson 9 years ago

This response is a bit after the fact and I'm not sure the OP will ever read this, but...

My first, and most logical, instinct is that he burnt his life raft because he felt that the boat he saw (or at least thinks he saw) was his last hope. He had just left the shipping lanes and the chances of him coming across another boat in the next weeks or months would be very slim. He had to make a decision to either sacrifice all he had left and possibly be rescued by this boat, or drift in the ocean for who knows how long and likely face a long and agonizing death. I think the decision he made - burning everything he had left - jives well with the title of the film.

My alternate and more spiritual take on it was that there may or may not have been a boat - and he realized that. He was slightly hesitant to light the fire at first and slowly became more resolute with his decision. His ultimate commitment to lighting the fire (when he threw his log book in) represented him giving in to faith, or destiny, or whatever you want to call it. Either the boat really was there and he was supposed to be rescued at that time, or it wasn't there and it was his time to "cross over" as another thread suggested.

Or another take. Maybe it was his mind tricking him into giving up. The boat wasn't really there and the more humane thing to do was to just end his life. Subconsciously he knew that, but his human spirit would not allow him to give up. So, his subconscious mind tricked him into thinking that there was a boat and that he had to light the fire in order to attract its attention. Touching on Sigmund Freud stuff here.

This movie was frustrating to me because there were just too many ways to interpret it. I wish I knew what the writer was thinking when he wrote some of these scenes.

[–] arjanbarman 9 years ago

Of course he didn't want to burn the raft; it happened by accident. He was just making a fire, which then got out of control. You can see by his reaction, he is suddenly scared of the fire himself. He wanted to make a fire inside the water container but it got too big after he put too much paper on it.

[–] mayhemkc 9 years ago

Exactly what arjanbarman said! He didn't do it on purpose!