I'm Thinking of Ending Things / Lonely Room

[@tobiasgatfield311]

this film really disturbed me, it was just so surreal and strange. charlie kaufman is a fucking genius (genus)

[@williameyelash8053]

I saw what you did there

[@Alex-ve4hn]

Finally a full version of that song on YT! Just watched the movie just to see it again

[@riddlemethis34]

This is one of the best films I’ve seen in the last 5 years

[@JAPANquickies]

The woman who jumps when he says “all a pack of lies” is the best part. 😂

[@msgnsinh]

I'd bet kaufman intentionally orchestrated that

[@JAPANquickies]

@@msgnsinh I believe it. I think he wanted to make it like she was sleeping and that woke her up maybe.

[@WillShakes423]

_SPOILERS_ There's a kid named Jake. He goes to a high school and he likes a girl. But she doesn't like him back. He can't muster the courage to go and speak to her. So he graduates high school, but before he can even begin, he drops out of college. Afterward, he winds up being employed as a janitor at the same school he went to all that time ago. He's lonely and it hurts him to be lonely. Years drag on and he still does his job, but he's still lonely. Now he's old, and he has no one. So he decides that he won't stay. He does his job for the time he has, but once he's finished, it will all end. All the while, as he's making his plans through his shifts, he runs something different through his head. He imagines how it might've been had he had the guts to talk to the girl. He imagines taking her out one night to meet his folks, maybe even make it official while they're there. But there's a problem with his fantasy; his mind is deteriorating, slowly rotting away. So the details are not exactly concrete. Her name keeps changing. Her job keeps changing. How they met is inconsistent. The parents seem to get younger and older all at once. People finish conversations before they have the _chance_ to finish. People repeat themselves again and again. They wind up one spot in the home and then another in the blink of an eye. Eventually he imagines the young Jake and the woman in the high school, feeling he now has the opportunity to speak to her. Finally he will know what really happened when she met Jake. It's not what he hoped for. She tells him nothing happened, that there were no sparks between them. They never even spoke. She tells him that Jake was just plain creepy, just staring at her. Feeling uncomfortable by his being there, she just left. Unhappy with himself, he goes out to his truck in the snow and sits in the cold, bare as he was the day of his birth. As he's out there, a rotting hog leads him back inside, tells him he's got something big tonight, that he needs to get ready for. Once there, he claims his Nobel. What exactly for he doesn't know or care; he's just happy he won something. He sings his big solo number. Everyone he knew is there watching, old and not old all at once. Finished with his act, the audience applauds. He's given a standing ovation. He smiles. His eyes well up. Finally he's loved. Finally he doesn't feel alone. Finally he's happy. Thus, out there in his truck, engine off, body bare, with this perfect scene playing as it should, finally feeling love, happier than he had ever been, _he falls asleep._

[@TheRedbox10]

It not entirely clear he dies as the car engine starts during credits.

[@LordOfElderon]

@@TheRedbox10 he sees the pig because he has hypothermia, and at that point there is no saving him.

[@TheRedbox10]

A horror film about loneliness

[@softyy222]

I can't believe I completely forgot I watched this movie, I was vaguely reminded of this scene a few days ago and remembered this film haha

[@therickestrick9951]

This scene broke my heart 😢 💔 great movie 👌

[@michaelking7847]

I gotta call my folks

[@katykins2010]

Give Jesse an Oscar already. Both Jesse’s

[@KloppiOfficial]

Absolutely agree

[@LaffTwous]

How the fuck does this have 23k views this is the most haunting ending a movie has ever had

[@kpunk]

I tried to find this scene by typing in the name of the film and youtube gave me a suicide warning

[@wilmergimenez]

I think this movie has a 6.5 on IMDb which is crazy for me this movie is a solid 7.5 or even an 8 is so sad and heartbreaking, you feel the weight of his loneliness, his sadness, his frustrations, and his life ends with him imagining an event that never happen is just him being accepted and seen by the people around him.

[@ApertureAce]

I'm still not entirely sure what the message of this movie was (though I have some ideas), but I can't help but feel this overwhelming since of grief and lamentation in this part. A little difficult to follow, but a masterpiece in my opinion.

[@nonamesam]

The ending of this movie is a literal summation of the main character's existence. He lived on a farm taking care of his fucked up parents, never seeking a new life, never taking action against his sorrows, literally rotting away in a lonely room. The message is simple - do something. Take action. Don't be a miserable sack of shit that imagines happiness and never grasps for it. Or else you'll end up like this guy!

[@alinaiyana]

underappreciated !

[@FilmingMiller]

This is cinema baby

[@racc_the_British_one]

such a great film

[@AhmedAbidelli]

god this is so beautiful

[@Soooooooooooonicable]

"Everyone dies alone"

[@lolledopke]

I love this scene but it feels like I'm missing some deeper meaning. Or is it just played straight? In other words, is Jake just singing some song from a random musical in which the character expresses the same emotions he's feeling?

[@moatrboat]

you really need to watch the movie multiple times to pick up on the meanings.

[@Arc77crA]

The song Jake sings “Lonely Room” is actually from the musical “Oklahoma!” The main character sings it in regards to a woman, Laurey Williams, who is the object of his affection, yet the woman strongly dislikes him. The song is about the urge to make her his in an attempt to solve his loneliness, delusionally ignoring the fact she does not like him back. Take of that what you will, I actually wrote a collage essay about this scene :)

[@electricark5065]

This is my take on it - it's being played straight, for the benefit of our seeing Jake's most unguarded moments. This scene takes place while Jake - the unfulfilled janitor - dies in his car, envisioning moments from Oklahoma (the musical commonly performed at the school he works at), and transplanting himself and his imaginary lover onto the various characters. He first replicates the Dream Ballet from Oklahoma, with Jake as Curly and the young woman as Laurey. Later, he is onstage and sings a song from the perspective of the musical's antagonist, Judd. Jake then gives a heartfelt speech accepting his award - which is taken word for word from A Beautiful Mind. These moments are Jake presenting his most genuine, honest self - and it's still just a shallow repetition of pop culture. He has nothing new to say. Much like all his ideas and thoughts on art, film criticism and poetry came to nothing in his life, he dies without really having much new to offer. This kind of relentless, internal self-critique is also the default tone of Kaufman's novel, Antkind, which is part of what made me consider this take. It's a pretty bleak take.

[@Jackrabbit7]

He’s singing goodbye to himself

[@moatrboat]

it cut off

[@saralyons4552]

So I’ve literally watched this movie more times than I can count and this scene has never played for me I’m confused

[@codyallen3729]

that's pretty wild?? This is one of the last scenes and my favorite part of the movie lol

[@heelmoxley365]

Male loneliness is just so utterly soul destroying. A woman eventually finds the courage to speak up about it, but in most cases for the other it just doesn’t happen.

[@desuMaKun]

This movie have made me wanting to see Oklahoma, but what I've seen of adaptations in youtube, it's quite an stupid and bad musical. Doce anyone know why they used Oklahoma in this film, and if there are any good verisions of it? This scene, and the whole movie is so unbelievably good and overwhelmingly devastating

[@kittymasks]

I like the 1998 version with hugh jackson

[@desuMaKun]

@@kittymasks thanks. I'll try to check it out ^^

[@rushingbrooks5509]

I think they used Lonely Room from Oklahoma because it is sung by a character (Judd) who builds a relationship between himself and the female lead entirely within his own head. He wants her, but she is uninterested and frightened by his advances. So, he imagines having a relationship with her instead which he describes in Lonely Room. Judd and Jake are very similar characters in this regard, so the song was a good fit for the narrative. It's also helpful in understanding the ending. (Also I agree that the 1998 version is the one to watch lol and I'd definitely consider reading the original book for I'm Thinking of Ending Things as well! It's quite different from the movie but I think they capture a similar tone)

[@TheCosmicFailure]

​@rushingbrooks If I recall the protagonists even tells Judd that he should just kill himself. In around about way, correct?

[@rushingbrooks5509]

@TheCosmicFailure yep, I think he does that right before Lonely Room but I haven't seen the musical in a while lol