I’m Thinking of Ending Things
Warning ! MAJOR mollycoddler for I ’m Thinking Of cease Things ahead .
Charlie Kaufman’sI’m Thinking Of Ending Thingsfeatures an conclusion that is drastically unlike from its source fabric — here ’s why he changed the ending . The film isadapted from Iain Reid ’s novelof the same name that follows a vernal couple as their relationship begin to devolve . As it progresses , it becomes increasingly percipient that it is n’t their shackle that ’s pause apart , but rather the boyfriend ’s genial stability . With a bizarre close that features a speech fromA Beautiful Mindand music fromOklahoma!,the ending of Kaufman’sI’m guess Of Ending Thingscould not be more unlike than the original .
I ’m think Of Ending ThingsstarsJesse Plemons as Jake , Jessie Buckley as the young cleaning woman ( Lucy / Louisa / Lucia ) , as well as Toni Collette and David Thewlis as Jake ’s parent , Suzie and Dean . Kaufman is know for take a leak movies that explore the internal workings of the human soul alongside romantic relationship , such as his 2004 filmEternal Sunshine Of The Spotless Mind . The Netflix original film is complex with countless twists that create the unsettling suspicion that nothing is what it seems . It is an inexorable psychological thriller that has the capabilities of appal its hearing with existential debates on the true meaning of life and the forlornness of dying . I’m Thinking Of Ending Things’ssource text contains just as many complexity as the celluloid , but with a brutal destruction to the principal theatrical role .
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Despite the fact that Kaufman changed the ending from Iain Reid ’s original , I’m Thinking Of Ending Thingsconcludes with an off - putting scene that rivals its source . They offer two separate reading of Jake ’s brain and his confrontation of loneliness . Ultimately , the music director chose to alter the ending based on the brutal facial expression of Reid ’s novel that could be seize in a nuanced and catch way , such as what was draw in the movie ’s last second .
Iain Reid reason his novel with a brutal scene between the young woman and Jake . The Janitor ( erstwhile Jake ) gives her a coat hanger , which she then forces through her neck opening , killing them both . It reveals the novel ’s two biggest twists : the young woman was always a figment of Jake ’s imagination , and he had been consider of ending his own life for its entireness . Kaufman altered the view in ordering to capture the same realizations in a much more hushed way . It ’s quite potential that he was also avoiding a controversial portrayal of self - trauma which could have mirrored Netflix’sinfamous Hannah Baker scenein season 1 of13 Reason Why . The director also did n’t want to rely entirely on the bounteous reveal .
Instead , he choose for a more nuanced glide slope by cater the young woman ’s character with the agency to bring Jake back to world . The startling reveal of who she truly is fall out minute after she first meets her supposed boyfriend as a gamy schooling janitor . When the youthful woman states she is looking for her beau , she goes on to say that she does not in reality know him , and that he was just some " tree creeper " at a bar she does n’t even remember . This is Jake ’s outbound perception of himself being separate to him by the fair sex of his fantasies and imagination . Kaufman gave this character the power to leave , which inadvertently allow Jake with the resolution he needed to face how lonely he actually is and the hopelessness he can not run .
As Jake undresses in his railcar , nose candy get to pile on top of it until it is completely bury . This ending suggests that Jake has died within the frozen vehicle after finally accepting that he does , in fact , wish to end his life history . Charlie Kaufman chose to endI’m intellection Of Ending Thingsin this way in parliamentary law to preserve his characters , give them agency , avoid shock - value , and provide nuance to Jake ’s death rather than brutality .
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