What happened at the ending? **SPOILER**

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This movie is one of my favorites. I always thought they might die at the end, but hoped not. Though any other ending would be sad as well. I'm glad that this discussion is here and that I'm not alone in my appreciation of this really remarkable movie.

The ending of the film is a victim of technical limitations. If the screen could have really gone to "total" white, perhaps in the lab, it would have made more sense. The point is, Watson has crossed over into Playfair's world. She "sees" Moriarty as he does. They finally belong together, "in the light". The final written title is not part of the actual screenplay, but a studio addition. The studio didn't seem to trust the film as written, and they botched it up. If you can ever find the published screenplay (a Lancer paperback), you'll see what I mean.

i am simply amazed, frankly, that a movie I have watched and re-watched and treasured for over 30 years has such a following that I could find spontaneous, intelligent and insightful comment here, or anywhere. I honestly had never met a person who recognized even the name of the movie (as a reference from from Don Quixote), let alone the movie itself. I cannot improve on the observations and theories above, but can only say that my feeling was always that the two died (influenced probably by the horse reference and the white light), though "death" in this context can mean "translation" to an altered perception in which Holmes and Watson indeed take on their character's qualities. Alternatively, that "translation" could be the release in each as they recognize the other as their needed counterpart to battle their interior demons, finally identified and solidified for them. The two are not so far from each other, after all . . . The most valuable part of this movie, to me, is the ability to watch it repeatedly and find new gems and thoughts reflecting your own stage and current perspective. That is superior moviemaking, and perhaps the point of all storytelling.

To all those who enjoy the thought-provoking, I salute you!

I thought the many replies on this movie were OUTSTANDING.

What struck home for me is mcerion's comment about:

"This film is about personal heroism" and facing up to one's demons.

I have a social anxiety disorder, previously called social phobia, and the recovery method most reliable for this is what's called "graded exposure therapy" or "in-vivo desensitization" which literally means facing your fears in person. Its very difficult to do, that is to confront one's fears because, because they're contained in our primitive limbic fear system (emotion based) and are not subject to the rational cerebral coretex part of the brain.

Anyway, i became part of the staff of a SAD non-profit organization. So one day, i went down and joined a local support group of the National Alliance of the Mentally Ill (NAMI) to see how they ran and organized their support groups. For 6 months i went to their meetings. NAMI traditionally is populated by patients and families of folks with either schizophrenia, borderline personality disorder, bi-polar, depression, i.e, the really difficult mental illnesses that make my anxiety problem a walk in the park.

The courage displayed at these meetings was consistently impressive and heart-warming. If you want to see heroism on a daily basis, go see someone that is struggling daily with a mental illness. Perhaps thats why i get such a thrill out of seeing this film, it works on so many levels. Its about the process of life, not the ending. The last quote of the film about the heart seeing what the eyes cannot. So this film is about "heart" and courage and facing demons. Good comments all.

Phil

I had always assumed that the clopping of a horse's (only one) hooves was from an approaching London hansom cab carrying Professor Moriarty (with, perhaps, a henchman or two) to a final, decisive, existential battle with Holmes and Watson -- which Holmes knows he might well lose -- and that Watson and Holmes (and us) were now "in" the fog of late Victorian London -- and that the distance between fantasy and reality was much narrower and less distinct than is usually believed.

They might be giants indeed...

All of these well thought out posts are evidence of what a superb film this is and how well it's held up over the years. But going through everybody's theories for the ending (and most, if not all, of them hold serious water) I started asking myself - what's the happy ending? What's the change in the Justin/Watson dynamic that allows them some happiness and catharsis? It's not them dying, surely - in any fashion. It's certainly not Justin being "cured." And in a way it's not even Watson's joining Justin in his Holmes reality. Looking at everyone's very personal opinions here, it strikes me that there's no ending that would be satisfactory. This is definitely one case where the ambiguous ending is truly earned and is a blessing - prudent, intimate storytelling - because following them into either a fantasy or a harsher reality would undermine everything that built up to that moment. And that moment is, everyone seems to agree, a pitch perfect way to leave them. Because depending on your outlook as a viewer, their triumph or their failure - whichever is more potent and appropriate to you as a romantic or a pragmatist - that moment is suspended, but not necessarily definitive. It can be open ended, it can be closure. There are great arguments for almost any scenario, but almost anything would certainly demystify the preceding. The ending as is is just kind of magic. The cherry on top of a magnificent film.

My gosh, so many interpretations of the ending. And I don't want to argue or tell people they're wrong, but I must testify to my own observations. And I say: Of course they were about to die. That's the only interpretation that works. Any other scenario would have meant that Holmes/Playfair was indeed merely a lunatic. No, I would rather believe he was on the trail of something, something very elusive and very evil and very fundamental, and the world was simply beyond human ability to redeem. Isn't that what we're living through? Life with death waiting inevitably at the end, and in the meantime, so many ways to go astray or be dragged down by mishaps or by others that have gone astray. Life is a struggle even for the most privileged of us. Playfair learned this and went mad, leaving a vacuum in his soul that was filled by Holmes. And Holmes was rendered less vulnerable than Playfair by his lack of humanity. Until Watson, who served as a bridge by which the intellect Holmes could regain his lost soul. And this opened the window for a moment of love, a thing that had supposedly died with Playfair. Holmes is human again, and he has his love; these things are miracles. Oh, yes, and he's vulnerable too, and Moriarity has been given his chance to strike and finish off Holmes, and this turn of events is unstoppable. But isn't it worth it? Wouldn't you say the doomed Holmes, and the likewise-doomed Watson, have gotten the better end of this bargain? This night they lived. They found the thing that so many don't find in a lifetime. "Let it be said that they found us very close together. In the light." Can one go into eternity, as we are all doomed to do, on a better note than that? I think not.

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