You have to read the book. That life he lived as a fugitive in that little town was a fantasy while going to the hospital. Thats why in that dream he has the entire family dressed in white in the end scene. Not only that, but it was only 7 years! No one runs away from 7 years.
shareI think it was pretty clear he only imagined it.
shareNo one runs away from 7 years.
Well, seven years is still a pretty long time. Especially, when you're a "skinny white boy with no friends" as Monty put it about what his time will be like in prison. People run over less.
Besides all that you mentioned, they also show them driving on the other side of the bridge when it comes to back to reality, which shows he never took that bridge to go west.
The reason some people think he went west is that the final scene doesn't clearly show the car heading to the prison. We just see the car driving away.
But yah - he didn't actually go west. The whole sequence was the father's fantasy, based on the dreamy, fairy-tale manner in which the vision is shown.
I was one of the people who thought he'd actually fled because I wasn't paying attention, but the very last shot and grim music make it very clear that he went to prison.
shareHow did the boss Nikolai figure out he'd spend 7 years in jail? The detective made it clear that he's gonna be sentenced for 15 years to life minimum, 3 to 8 years if he plays ball, that he'll never do cuz he's got a lot to lose.
shareMasterpiece of an ending. Spike deserves more respect.
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