The Ending? Spoilers

You guys are really underestimating the resilience of the human body. Bled to death? Really? Come on now, she just knocked out a couple teeth. Also, trunks are not air-tight so as long as it isn't too hot in there she will be just fine. My guess is once she starts becomes severly dehydrated and starving she'll bang on the trunk and the father will let her out.

Many interesting thoughts here. I'd say she didn't get out, because she couldn't. And it's not SAFE outside the car. I don't think she'd be dead yet. But better question to ask is, why is the father not concerned ? He's going to work after all instead of looking for her. She couldn't survive in the outside world. He doesn't seem concerned that she'll go to the authorities and turn him in. Why ? There's no bottles of water in the trunk. The father took the labels off before taking them in to the family. No doubt the father is going in the trunk later. He's picking up the dog after all. I gotta figure, if he finds her alive, she won't be for much longer. This guy looks like my father-in-law. You think YOU'RE going to have nightmares, ha !

It's just a sick movie, but I like the way your guy's minds work. Finding the "deeper meanings". How about this one -- in an isolated world, you can believe anything, and be controlled by anyone. With knowledge, like awareness of the world via the Internet, comes the chance for freedom in Egypt, for example.

Or maybe, this husband and wife are just one of the many sadist *beep* out there who lead to so many screwed up children. Hey - someone like Lisbeth in "The Girl With the Dragon Tatoo" had it rougher - but at least she knew what reality was, she knew right from wrong. These kids, clueless. "Zombies" indeed.

Why did the father go to work the next day when you child has escaped? Wouldn't he look for her the next day?

i'm not sure if anyone else posted this before me, as i don't want to read through seven pages of thread.
was it just me, or did anybody else hear a light sawing coming from the inside of the car? it could have been her cutting open the trunk. she wasn't holding anything in her hands, but she could have easily stashed something underneath her dress.
i thought this was a fantastic movie with the most uneasy ending i've ever seen

I'll go further than others and claim that she does not know that she is SUPPOSED to get out of the car.

Her father mentioned that the only way to the outside world was in the car. Well, she's in the car. It's small, cramped and dark. She thinks THIS is the outside world (isn't this why her parents told them never to go there?). The sad part is she might still be happier to be there, in the dark 'outside world' than in her house.

wow I can't beleive all of you missed an obvious point here.

The father goes to take his dog back from that place. Thats where he parks his car and runs inside.

what do you think will happen next? he takes the dog to the car in order to take him back home.. and his dog will be barking at the trunk because it knows someone is in there.

That's when he finds her. she hasn't ran away. She's there probably confused as to what she is going to do, her understanding of the world around her is like a 2 year old baby, so you can't judge her actions by logic.

I think the point of the ending is that no matter what happens next, those kids' minds are warped for life.

Just imagine the different possibilities: she successfully escapes and finds someone from the outside world to help her, she suffocates in the car, her father comes back and finds her still alive in the trunk, she escapes but her father recaptures her before outsiders can help her.

No matter how you look at it, it ends badly.

How would those children feel once they realized that in the outside world, siblings don't have to turn to one another for sexual release, people can be safe without being in their cars, housecats don't devour humans, airplanes are bigger than a person, a swimming pool is not the sea, etc., etc., etc? In short, every bit of their reality has been manipulated and distorted by their father (with their mother's help) in order to keep them submissive prisoners.

That would be such a devastating betrayal of the parent/child bond that I don't think any child could ever fully recover from it.

The ending shot of the car reminded me of the ending of Henry: Portrait of a Serial Killer. You just know that no matter what happens next, it won't be good.

"The night was sultry."

My feeling as that she had no idea what to do. I imagine her sitting there in the dark waiting for something to happen. She wasn't equipped with the emotional tools to figure out what to do once she had escaped.