MovieChat Forums > These Final Hours (2014) Discussion > The ending (spoilers)

The ending (spoilers)

posted 10 years ago by Korios
9 replies | jump to latest

What did you think of the 4-5 second all-white sequence of the ending? Earlier on the radio guy says "What if we could meet again, imagine that!". So, I think the all-white seconds of the ending, right after the couple was consumed by the fire, was a question : Paradise? A second question right after that might be the totally silent end credits, suggesting that nothing of them survived, they were all consumed by the void, the nothingness. So, echoing the radio guy, I think these two questions are asked : paradise (or whatever after life stuff you think is possible) or nothingness?

Fanboy : a person who does not think while watching.

[–] jack_face 10 years ago

You could view it from a scientific or religious perspective. The religious aspect is obvious. Scientifically, it could relate to near-death experiences where people see white at that near moment. We don't see them engulfed by what was coming (which could've made for a better ending) so the white was their near moment. A mistake in that scene was not having them turn their heads when that much ash, heat, wind, and sand was coming at them. Her final remark at the end was spot on but simply closing their eyes while facing the disaster isn't a natural reflex. While predictable, the ending reminded me of Pompeii and Sunshine.

[–] tecnogaming 10 years ago

Wanna see where this movie took the ending?, go watch "Last Night", I'm sure they used that movie as inspiration for this one.

Alex Vojacek

[–] FilmWatchingPerson 9 years ago

The similarity to Last Night is far more than could be a coincidence.

[–] brumby058 10 years ago

What did you think of the 4-5 second all-white sequence of the ending?

It was appropriate, and possibly the best way that the film could end.

Earlier on the radio guy says "What if we could meet again, imagine that!". So, I think the all-white seconds of the ending, right after the couple was consumed by the fire, was a question : Paradise?

I wouldn't credit his words with any symbolic meaning whatsoever.
Nor do I think that whoever-the-radio-announcer was is an important aspect of the film.
The voice indicates he's not a professional either. He's a loner.
The actual radio personnel have stayed with their families

A second question right after that might be the totally silent end credits, suggesting that nothing of them survived, they were all consumed by the void, the nothingness.

Precisely. The end is the end. I liked that simplicity.
It was a bold, and effective, conclusion to the film.

So, echoing the radio guy, I think these two questions are asked : paradise (or whatever after life stuff you think is possible) or nothingness?

There's no need for a religious interpretation.
The film presented a particular situation to which people reacted in their varying ways.
Then it was over.

At least we didn't get soaring strings or a mournful dirge as the credits rolled simply to let us know how "sad" it all was ... in case we missed the point.

[–] goatman86 9 years ago

I wouldn't credit his words with any symbolic meaning whatsoever.
Nor do I think that whoever-the-radio-announcer was is an important aspect of the film.
The voice indicates he's not a professional either. He's a loner

He is more or less a plot device basically to let us know time is running out which works because otherwise it would be start of the movie, then rumbling towards the end and fire wave, by having saying Canada is gone, Thailand is gone gives you the impending doom.

I agree and don't take the religious stuff as a certainty, many people would contemplate a god or some such in that situation, others would go nuts, other tackle it head on and this film shows that.

Last Night had a similar plot device of the running woman saying "3 hours" "5 minutes" and then "its over"

[–] trazey34 10 years ago

I was too busy shaking my head, that even in the last seconds of the apocalypse, a woman can STILL pick a fight lol But on a serious note, I hated that it was fire. Even if they got into the water it would be boiling, ugh a tidal wave seems more merciful that incineration at the end until the release of nothingness

[–] KLHoldings 10 years ago

All the water would have boiled away behind and right in front of the wave of fire, so there would be no big tidal wave of water making its way to Australia's shores.

[–] goombatommy 9 years ago

I'm sure anyone hit by that fire-wave would probably feel nothing because it would near incinerate them before they ever even knew it hit them.

[–] MoviemanCin 9 years ago

I thought it was great.

As to the paradise/nothing question, nobody really knows. Nobody alive that is.

Schrodinger's cat walks into a bar and doesn't.