No Country For Old Men ends on a rather calm note, with a long monologue from Sheriff Bell, where the policeman discusses his dreams. However, his speech isn’t just about filling some empty space.
Instead, Bell recognizes that he tried to make a difference but that he’s now too old and tired to fix the world around him. He let Anton Chigurh get away and failed to make the world a better place. His monologue about his dreams outlines his own feelings about his failures, drawing out the true meaning of the film.
The Shining
The Shining director Stanley Kubrick decided to throw a big twist into the ending of the movie by showing Jack Torrance in an old picture of the Overlook Hotel. For years, fans have debated what the photo means, but they haven’t been able to come up with a logical answer.
Considering Kubrick likes to mess with his audience, it’s likely that the picture doesn’t actually mean anything. Instead, it was just an attempt to add a little intrigue at the end without contributing to the overall story. It has certainly kept people guessing, which is precisely what Kubrick wanted.
Primer
Yet another time travel conundrum, Primer follows Aaron and Abe, two friends who accidentally create a time machine. While messing with their device, the friends create overlapping timelines and versions of themselves that have the capability to cause some serious damage.
By the end of the film, the friends take opposing viewpoints. Aaron works with his former self to revamp the original time machine, while Abe tries to prevent his former self from learning of the time machine at all. You’ll probably have to watch this movie more than once to truly get it.
Hereditary
The plot of Hereditary is somewhat straight-forward, but it leaves viewers with one big question – who are the cultists who appear at the end of the film? Well, the answer is found in the very beginning of the movie, when Annie is confused why so many people showed up at her mother’s funeral.
The cultists are actually friends of Annie’s mother, who all found each other through their shared love of demon worship. That’s certainly one way to bond with your neighbors.
Donnie Darko
Honestly, all of Donnie Darko is pretty confusing. Throughout the film, Donnie is haunted by an evil spirit in a bunny costume. What the movie fails to clear up – and what the director has stated in the aftermath of the film – is that Donnie Darko actually involves parallel universes.
Donnie himself is living in a parallel universe. The film follows him as he tries to fix a time rift in “Universe Prime.” When he dies at the end of the film, he acts as a sacrifice that then saves everyone he loves. It’s really a heroic story.