The Ending? Spoilers
I don't understand it. What were the writers trying to say? Why didn't she get out?
http://wtflicks.com
A few notes:
1. The father drives to the factory he works in (it's not the place where they are training the dog). You can expect like 6-8 hours before he gets back to the car.
2. The father SHUTS DOWN the engine, so no suffocation from CO2. I don't think that such an old car would have an air-tight trunk, so no suffocation from lack of oxygen, neither.
3. There are many clues in the movie. One is when the dog's trainer explains the training phases, which will determine the final behaviour of the dog. Another one is when the son kills the cat, and the mother calls the father over the phone, he says something like "the temperature will rise and the wind will fall, 5 or 6 degrees". Also, there's several points in the movie which deal with suffocation, too: the anesthesia game (which the eldest daughter most likely loses, since she felt asleep with the towel on her face -hint?-), and the pool emergency procedure (which is mainly focused on the eldest daughter -hint?-) and endurance games, holding the breath underwater (which the eldest daughter fails, as she gives up first -hint?-). From what the father says, and the references to suffocation (and the eldest daughter relevance in those scenes), we can assume that the daughter will die from suffocation in the trunk because of the heat (the car is left in the open) *if* she's trapped in, or too afraid to get out into the unknown world.
I've just watched the movie and I still can't decide wether I like the ending or not. On one hand the movie is very good, it got me from beginning to end. On the other hand, as the trunk scene went black, then to the movie credits I was like "WTF?!?", I needed to know how the whole thing continues. That's good because it means the story was good and immersive, and with an ending open to debate (we would not be here it not for it). But it's also a bit bad because you feel like you've wasted your time watching the movie, as the story ends abruptely and without a clear explanation (unless you enjoy theorizing).
The ending of the movie might have something to do with the title. Anyone else remember the conversation about when they would be ready to leave as given by the adults (I can't call them parents because the movie never showed proof that they were the real parents)?
The guy said they would be able to leave the house when they lost their dog tooth. Then they could get into the car. They could not leave the car until their dog tooth grew back. When I heard that it sounded like a perfect way to control someone. It gave them hope that one day they could leave because the adults never told them that the tooth would never grow back and it explained why the guy could come and go as he wanted, because they would assume that he had once lost his dog tooth and it had grown back.
So she's in the trunk waiting for her dog tooth to grow back.
About suffocation. Any confined space (and a car trunk is one) has poor ventilation.
But there is air movement, because it is not air tight. Fresh air can enter through the seams around the seats, and even the fabric of the rear seat (if any) and speaker cut outs.
So exact computation (at least for me) is impossible because these values are not constant for all cars.
There have been reports of those who survived for days in a trunk when provided with water and/or food.
About bleeding to death from a mouth injury. It looked like there was no continued bleeding by the time she got to the trunk. If there had been the father would of seen a blood trail leading to the trunk in the morning.
i read all comments till now so i want just to add a possible scenario not mentioned till now:
the father knows she is in the trunk, and so he has no reason then to serach her overnight. He just rushes outside to be seen from the family, then the next morning he has to just park on the sun and wait her to die.
Actually it seemed he parked his car in a uneven place, not a common parking place, but the door opened is the kind used to loading\unloading of trucks, so it's not a very confortable entrance to the factory. We must see it again and check the daiy entrance. He seeems to be a office worker instead a shop floor.
i am curious about your opinion of this scenario.
bye
There's no point speculating about the ending to come up with a possible happy scenario, everyone's life is doomed from the start, it's fair to say that's obvious enough.
If Bruce is still inside the boot of the Mercedes in that final shot, considering there is no fumbling with the latch, she is either:
1. passed out soon to be dead (or dead already) from lack of oxygen, blood loss and/or carbon monoxide poisoning (take your pick);
2. so petrified of the outside world that she realised she cannot deal with the idea of breaking out and leaving the only existence she knows (her courage of the night before gave way to fear).
Upon discovering if not her cadaver but her still live body, Father will take her back home to administer a punishment of the like practiced in concentration camps.
If Bruce had indeed chewed her way out of the boot of the Mercedes by that final shot, considering she has zero skills in fending for herself or any knowledge about the world around her, she'd either collapse in a ditch and die if she was never found, or if she was found, get carted back home where Father would administer a punishment of the like practiced in concentration camps.
Clear?