MovieChat Forums > Southbound (2016) Discussion > THEORY OF WHAT IT IS (SPOILERS)

THEORY OF WHAT IT IS (SPOILERS)

posted 9 years ago by thekatelopez
19 replies | jump to latest

I think it's PURGATORY........

The whole movie is an endless loop (DJ says "we're all on the same ENDLESS highway" and the movie ends where it begins) and each time the characters go through the loop they get the chance make the right choice and find redemption.

But.......the two bloody men have made the wrong choice too many times and so when the ground that opens up at the end, it reveals hell below and those winged floating monsters come from hell (literally through the bodies of the men's sins) to capture them and take them down to hell. The made the wrong choice too many times. The monsters oversee the other characters and make sure they make the right choice or the wrong choice and judge them, too.

The DJ Voice explains a lot of it if you listen closely......

"All you lost souls racing down that long road to redemption and all you sinners running from your past but heading straight into that pit of darkness up ahead" describes all of the characters. "They're going to try to stop you but you gotta say *beep* it and keep moving. Tonight might be the night you finally outrun those wicked demons once and for all." He's talking about the floating monsters from hell and it means the characters might make the right choice and get away. At the end he even says "You can always get it right next time." It's sort of like he teases each character since all they have to do is listen but none ever do. He's almost daring them throughout the movie to do the right thing and escape hell and find redemption!

[–] DreadFox 9 years ago

I like this theory.

So for example the guy that hit the girl with his car. We can assume maybe that was his 3rd or 4th time actually doing that, and maybe the other times he just drive off typical hit and run style. Then maybe the 5th and 6th time he gets as far as taking her to the hospital but drops her off at the front door and leaves.

But the time we saw as the audience was when he finally made the choice to do EVERYTHING he could to save her. This earned his redemption.

[–] thekatelopez 9 years ago

I think that's right. That makes sense to me. But then like the other guy in the beginning messed up too many times so he's out of chances. That's why the creatures from hell comes to take him down with them.

[–] spiritascent 9 years ago

I asked Mather Zickel about this (he plays the driver from that segment), and he said that the director told him that his character never makes it out. He said it's up to viewer interpretation, but that leads me to believe that after he gets into his shiny new car at the end, he eventually runs over the girl again and the night repeats. Something like that!

[–] Dejay 9 years ago

Well that's depressing. Thanks!

[–] thekatelopez 9 years ago

The more we talk about this the more I think we must be correct. I've watched three times and it feels like there are a lot of secrets hidden throughout. Did you see this in the trivia section? I think this answers a lot too. Also the DJ says everything we need to know pretty much whenever he speaks.

"There are numerous hidden connections between the first segment ("The Way Out") and the last segment ("The Way In"). These include: 1) the truck from the first segment is visible in the Freez'n Over parking lot at the beginning of the last segment, 2) the house is the same in both segments and many of the same shots are used, including of the hanging lights outside and when the daughter walks down the same hallway where Mitch gets trapped, 3) in the first segment, the creatures stalk Mitch and Jack in the exact same fashion that Mitch and Jack stalk the family in the last segment, first from afar before then closing in, 4) Jack is grabbed by the creature in the bathroom with a t-shirt, which is what he kills Cait with in the last segment, 5) the shaking in Roy's Cafe sounds exactly like the ground that opens up in the last segment, 6) when Jack is killed by the creature, he dies in much the same way as Cait did when he killed her by chocking and suffocation, 7) the knocks on the motel door that lure Mitch into the room are the same pattern as the knocks from outside the house in the last segment, 8) in the first segment, the motel room is numbered 6255 which is the same as the house's address in the last segment, 9) the mask that Mitch wears in "The Way In" is visible on the table in the last shot of "The Way Out," it's what he was looking at when he first heard his daughter giggle, 10) the songs "Don't Let the Party End" and "Goodbye, Goodbye" are used in both, 11) the DJs voice-over is in both segments however the ending version has slightly different dialogue."

[–] superfuncoolstuff 9 years ago

so that means all the characters exist in limbo between life and afterlife? they're being judged by those creatures and maybe the DJ/VOICES/SUTTER and either let go like the guy in the car or taken to hell like the guys who killed the daughter?

[–] YoungPup 9 years ago

5). Sadie: Her crime was abandoning her friend before the events of the film, which resulted in her death by getting hit by a car. Now Sadie has the chance to save her two other friends, fails again, and then also gets hit by a car.

That's where it doesn't make any sense. She didn't leave the club with her friend, so the friend died. That's not exactly her fault. Could she have prevented it? Maybe, but that doesn't seem like a reason she'd be there. And also, why would her 2 friends be there, and how could she have saved them? She tried to not go with those people, but the 2 friends pretty much convinced her.

Even though I enjoyed this movie, there are a LOT of things that go unanswered. Who was talking on the phone with the guy in the Hospital segment? It seemed like it was the woman who then went into the bar, because she was on the phone, but who was she, and who were the other 2 people taking to him? What did the father do that the mother was surprised over? "You told?" she said something like that. What happened to Mich? What were those things out in the dessert that got Danny? Why did some of the people of the town, seem like werewolves? None of the segments really ended with answers, besides the 3 girls one, but even so, "Isn't there supposed to be 4 of you? "ENOUGH!!!" what was that?

[–] 9 years ago

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[–] YoungPup 9 years ago

But how the people on the phone started laughing once the woman died, it kind of seemed like it was going to be people pulling a prank on him or something.

[–] StaunchWoman 8 years ago

Who was talking on the phone with the guy in the Hospital segment? It seemed like it was the woman who then went into the bar, because she was on the phone, but who was she, and who were the other 2 people taking to him?

Perhaps one and the same? It's creepy to think about just that one woman on the phone, projecting all 3 voices. The folks in that specific town (monster dive-bar town where Jesse's been tattooing folks since she killed her parents) are all demonic in some way it seemed. Maybe they're the ones orchestrating events within each segment! Either way, I like to think all 3 voices speaking to Lucas came from one entity.

We've met before, haven't we?

[–] I_Created_U 9 years ago

Surprisingly, i really enjoyed Southbound, gave it a 7/10.

All you guys should check out the movie Triangle (2009). It is in the same vein as Southbound, but far superior and much more complex as far as i'm concerned. Give it a try!

People who don't like their beliefs being laughed at shouldn't have such funny beliefs

[–] retalato 9 years ago

Im so sick of purgatory. It's always purgatory. That, or insanity. Does everything have to be a metaphor?

[–] MaynardMorrissey 9 years ago

Exactly my thoughts. We've seen that sort of crap too many times before.

[–] Ghost_Of_Me 9 years ago

Sadies sin was definitely lust. Since she didnt leave the club with her friend because she wanted to have sex with a guy. And presumably her friend Alice died because of that.

Mitch and Jack were wrath. They took revenge on the Dad and his family to far. Hence why they became stuck in purgatory.

The driver was probably pride. He was to proud to admit he made a mistake by hitting someone? But not really sure on that one.

Danny didnt have a sin since he was just there to 'rescue' his sister, who was a murderer. Unfortunately for him he got killed by the lost souls in the desert.

At least thats my take on the film. Definitely leaves a lot of unanswered questions thats for sure.

[–] oscar_ray2_jimenez 8 years ago

This is not about "sin" per se, this is about guilty conscience over provoqued death.

Danny wasn't killed by those lost souls in the desert. They were undressing him and leaving him bare just like them in a very delivered and matter-of-factly manner. One more for their ranks, for eternity. And yes, he didn't belong there, in that supernatural slice of deviant alternate reality as he beared no guilt himself: he'd been looking for his sister for thirty years, that's all, he was not "tainted", so to speak. Time had passed for him in the "real" world since her sister dissappeared into that Desert Bermuda Pocket Hell from which never did and never will come back -unlike Lucas- because she was given the chance after passing her test to leave -just like Lucas did- but she chose to stay instead by her own free will. The only reason why Danny was able to cross into the Silent Hill-like version of the real place where he'd been looking for her sister during thirty years was because this time and this time only Sandy -the 911 operator from Hell- had negrectfully left the door of the Silent Hill version of the bar open AND unlocked thus allowing for this guiltless man with no death in his conscience to slip into a place he has no business being in, as he's repeatedly -and quite benign and condescently, all things considered- told so by the resident evils.

And before anyone asks, no, I'm not making this up -unlike that guy in some other thread who's convinced himself and tries to convince others that Lucas is a serial killer obeying to the voices in his head, WTF-, nor am I associated in any way or form with the writers of this or have any intimate knowledge of some intricacies of the script that didn't make it into the final product. Everything I just mentioned comes from the dialogues, the characters' actions and the very events we're presented with. I just can't wrap my mind around the fact that so many users here are complaining about this movie's story and its perceived open-endedness and lack of explanations about what's what when essentially there's not a single relevant element of it that it's not clearly -albeit often subtly- explained one way or another.

[–] 9 years ago

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