I love how Don manages to paint this actually quite sad picture of what it would be like if Bill had not died under the tree and was immortal (what the narrator wanted), but it's so strangely beautiful that it almost looks appealing.
I watched this movie a couple years ago and it profoundly changed my perspective on life for this reason. Bill should have died under the tree. He lived happiest when his memory withered so every day was beautiful. It taught me that monotony is just a perspective and taking things for what they are leads to happiness. Live every day to find the pleasant things and embrace the life you have while you've been lucky enough to experience it.
Watched this last night for the first time ... this is the best example I've ever seen of why being immortal would be so meaningless, why living forever would be much more of a curse than a blessing. Great film.
I believe that Bill no longer remembers anything due to his amnesia taking control of himself, and the narrator thinks he's dying, although I think he passed out. He tells Bill to get up, but it's too late, causing the narrator to dwell off into a fantasy of Bill being immortal.
I couldn’t agree more, and the film specifically puts forward this alternate ending to Bill’s life as a response to audiences/those who complain that Bill dies at the end. If you’ll recall, immediately before this little section, there is a voiceover of a stand-in audience that asks “why does bill have to die? Why did he die at the end? He can’t die!” Don adds this little ending as a response to that, and it’s purpose is to show that immortality and achieving all there is to achieve in life (Bill reads all the books, etc.) is empty and ultimately a depressing and nihilistic life. It is the impermanence of life, the suffering, and the scarcity of time that make life and our relationship to it meaningful. In this last section, it even says that Bill lives so long that other humans mean nothing to him. One of the central theses of this movie is that, though life is incomprehensible, unfair, sometimes cruel, and far too short, this is not to be viewed as a bad thing per se, as the alternative (a life removed from those central aspects - what Bill experienced in living forever) is empty and without purpose. It is the suffering, the unfairness, the incomprehensibility and brevity that gives life its meaning, and in our collective struggle against those forces we are fully realized.
I love this scene. It shows an alternate ending to any death - that ending we all wish for, and demonstrates how in the end, really, nothing is any different. So no matter how you look at it, it's the present moment that is the most valuable thing. This film, and especially this ending, is the most comforting thing I've come across when it comes to grieving loss. Btw, the piece that's playing is Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 (2) Romance
Something about this ending really speaks to me. The entire film was both the Narrator and Bill trying to accept that we will eventually die one day. Bill has been told he doesn’t have long to live since the beginning, and it shows that Bill has not been living peacefully since his diagnosis. And yet, despite all that, we still will never learn to accept death. Even in our last breaths, even when we are in pain, even when we know that we need things to end, we don’t want to accept it because life can be beautiful and amazing, and we can’t leave just yet. No matter how much we can philosophize our existence, no matter how much we say we want to die, we just want to keep experiencing this beauty we call life, for better or for worse.
Great subversion of the "oh no the main character can't die I really like him!" Don is like "well ok, here's what it'd be like if they didn't die, just like you asked". He even narrates the supposed audience reaction: "he's not gonna die here right? No he's not gonna die, he can't die." That's why I absolutely love the end of this movie.
Listen, I don't cry easily. I can sit through the end of Titanic without a single tear. I sob at the end of this movie, every single time. It is so, so beautiful, and so, so heartbreaking. I can't even put into proper words how it makes me feel. Because Bill, and the Narrator, is everyone. We all wish at some point that we could live forever, but, as Don so perfectly shows us, that is not as wonderful as it sounds. This is the best movie I have ever seen in my life, and I don't think that anything even comes close to the amount of emotional power that these little stick figures hold for me. It's just perfect.
Well to me it shows that we are all on the same forever Jouney, what you don't want is to be stuck in time or space, live forever with going together beyond Earth obsolete lower density frames, beyond the past for the future is forever now, Amen~i am
God I first saw this movie when I was like 11. It was on Netflix and remember watching it over and over. Even after all these years it brings me to tears. It’s very bittersweet.
I thought it was interesting that Don decided to go with this ending and I'm glad he did. It's almost as if the narrator denies that Bill dies and almost childishly makes him immortal to feel better about the story's ending. Almost like the ending being given is what you would tell a child that is divested in a character. Death was something not "fitting" for Bill, to go the way he did and live under the circumstances he did. But immortality also isn't appealing either. It's that sheer arrogance near the end of the story is what made it so powerful and sad. You even hear the narrator say "Wait a minute, he's not gonna die here? But he doesn't die here. No, no, no, Bill, get up. Get up, Bill. Bill, get up. He can't die here. He's not gonna die. He can't ever die" as if he refuses the "proper" ending and tells us one that we know isn't the actual ending. Damn good film.
I love how in the end it shows how no matter the people, time, or place feelings of loneliness, love, heartbreak, nostalgia, anxiety, depression, death and so much other stuff will always be there. That those concepts will eventually get to us all at one point in our lives.
2:07 The "beings of light" shown in this scene are the exact same as the camera effects used earlier in the film when Bill is in the emergency room (about 39 minutes into the film, where the hospital staff are saying "Bill? Can you hear me, Bill?" "Look at me, Bill, look at me" "140 over 90", etc.) It took me several viewings to catch this detail.
@@KingustheDingus I suppose the straightforward interpretation is that Bill was having a near-death experience in the ER, and then at the end of the film he dies and so has a similar (actual-death) experience. But it could also go the other way, if Bill lives forever at the end of the film: in the ER Bill was getting some sort of glimpse of what transcendence/the afterlife/whatever feels like, and then at the end of the film he actually achieves it. I'm sure there are other valid interpretations!
This really has to be one of my favorite endings to a movie. Its so beautifully nieve. We all wish we could live forever. As they say "now is the envy of the dead."
This movie has affected me like nothing else I have ever watched, the ending is really what managed to stick with me for the longest time. It can be interpreted as being sad, but at the same time, it always gave me a beautiful feeling of optimism. The feeling of wanting to live forever is a feeling that many of us wish for, but once you have seen how the film portrays it, the reality sets in that you don't realize that your life has much meaning until its already over, and how much it sucks to perpetuate it. That's why it has taught me that life shouldn't be something you're scared of, even if there is a few bumps in the road, life isn't worth living in fear, especially with how finite something like life really is. That message is something that resonates so strongly with who I am. It's easy to say that this film is devastating, and it most certainly is, but once you get to the end, it presents an ending that is incredibly comforting and beautiful. That's why this is my favorite movie I've ever watched, and I don't think there's gonna be a movie like this that I'm going to watch for a very long time. Thank you for everything, Don. ❤❤❤
Powerful stuff, you want Bill to live because you want him to have a happy ending. But then you realize that death was the happy ending. Living forever is the true hell, it would basically trivialize life to the point where its not worth living. The point of life is that it ends.
The point of life is not that it ends. Is the point of a song to finish? Is the point of a book to be closed? Was the point of this film to have the main character die? Death is no happy ending for anyone; endings are not happy, they're just endings. Bill wasn't happy after he died, he was the last few days before it happened. Death is but a fundamental reality we are forced to accept, such as our capacity to suffer and our limited human mind. It is those things that would also hinder our ability to enjoy the gift of eternal life, though it still looks beautiful in its own special way as it is presented by this film.
What this film speaks to me, and especially in this scene, is the relevance of the human experience in the face of tremendous suffering. The whole damn film has been unsettling, dark, and mundane up until this point. Bill’s lineage, his hereditary illness, his sometimes introspective but sometimes naive ways of thinking, his inability to keep significant relationships with his loved ones, and his overwhelming physical declines as a cherry on top. All of these are a sample of the depth of pain common for us all, but at the height of which is when the trick is revealed in an otherwise bleak end. Narratively, Hertzfeldt saves Bill’s life by making him eternal, and we witness the wonders performed. The art, the romance, the knowledge solved, and the travels walked. Ironically, these seem to be the same truths that save us. That we must both face the storms of reality, and save our reality by the beauty we employ - by choice. And so the intensity of the damaging moments we’ve seen are alleviated by the hope of love and beauty.
the first time i watched its such a beautiful day i didn't really understand it, but i knew it was a masterpiece and my favorite movie... so i watched it again, and i understood it so much better and its a work of art that will be in my heart till the day i die... but even when i die bill wont
Feels Like the Backstory of death. Not able to die, everything lost meaning. The only living beeing disconectet from Life itself. No memory of the past No Idea about the Future No Now to be experienced.
years and years and years on, this will, to me, still be the best film I have ever seen in my (so far) young life. I have admired many great works of filmographic art, scenes crafted by the greatest contemporary directors, performances by the greatest actors of this modern era. Yet this will still prevail as my ultimate film about life, about everything we are as humans, both physically and metaphysically. This scene caps off everything the film has previously set forth, and presents, as others have stated, the inevitability of death, even if we were to be immortal. Bill is everyone, and everyone is bill. Thank you, Don, for the film I will do my best to watch in my ending days, and hopefully this will prevail in some form or fashion, until all the lights go out.
I watched this rabdomly on Netflix in 2012 and I have been obsessed ever since. This movie is life changing, perspective shifting. And sharing the experience with others around me was so important. Some people would be uncomfortable, others obsessed like me, wherras others would cry. And after this masterpiece the blueray has World of Tomorrow pt1 and it really locks it in for me.
without context it may seem a bit silly but I think it might actually make it better to see this before the film because seeing this kinda heartwarming moment will be shattered once you actually watch the film and find out how depressing and horrific this ending is.
Perhaps it’s better that our lives are finite. Things come and go, we are born and we die. Nothing lasts forever, and that’s ok. It’s life’s finite nature that gives it meaning, we wouldn’t enjoy the days that we are provided it there was an infinite number of them. Without death we don’t live, we merely exist, taking up space in a crowded world forever. But we die, so we need to value the time we have, we need to tell people how we feel before it’s too late, we need to let others know we care, because they might be gone tomorrow. I would choose a meaningful, short existence than a empty void of an eternal one.
I’m excited other people are actually commenting on this. Even a year ago u could not find anything about this movie online anywhere which was a shame :)
The beautiful protayal of how much of a true curse the idea of immortality would be. The loss of it all to the point of forgetting ones self. It's so... Beautiful and tragic.
I felt as if the ending shows that there will always be a Bill in our life, or life in general, not physically, but mentally. Someone you met once before could’ve been a Bill. Someone you know personally can be a Bill. Being a Bill is a natural part of life.
this scene makes me want to live, for real. i dont find it sad: bill knows he's inmortal and yet he still decides to experience life in the fullest, the good and the bad. why does he keep getting in relationships and having children if he knows they will die? why keep doing it again and again? because the happy and joyful experiences makes it all worth it. he could protect himself from pain but he still decides to experience everything, to learn, to live. to experience every single thing a human could experience, even if its postive or negative. he could think it's all meaningless, why collect memories if he will forget them? he has loved so much people that it's impossible for him to even remember the faces of all the important connections he has made through his immortal life. yet he still keeps loving, he loves even if he knows it will not matter in the end. if that's not love for humanity and life itself, idk what that is i may not be inmortal, i might not be able to learn every language and read every book, like bill did. but i will learn all the languages i can and read all the books i can. i will try to collect the biggest number of experiences i can, either good or bad. i will love, even if it hurts in the future. even if everyone becomes meaningless to me in the end. i will love and live as long as i can, untill the lights go out for me.
I preferred to take a literal approach to the film's metalanguage. For me, he acquired immortality and went on happily ever after until the concept of "time" ceased to make sense to humanity, and so it will be. Every day is a last day.
This is what the misfortune of being Ned series finale should’ve been where Ned never died and bad things he’d just ignored them and the ending would be the same thing like the ending of its such a beautiful day
To live forever without advancing oneself you end up completing yourself, doing all that you are capable of, until you are merely a collection of what you have done and can do, and nothing more, a new death, a death by living.
So this is what if Kars wasn't blasted away into space early as soon as he achieved ultimate form. He may become god or supreme like being on earth, only to still ended up drifted away in space as another insignificant being as all life in universe eventually dies.
Am I the only person that wouldn’t admire immortality? You can live every single life under existence. You can be a sumo wrestler then a famous surgeon. You have nothing but time. You will always have time. The stress of life and deadlines have vanished. You will always be. No matter what life you live. So live them all. And even when life stops, continue to live. I think that’s the best end
I just think it’s a hell of a gamble, because if you ever somehow get trapped in an impossible-to-escape location, you can’t just die of starvation, thirst, or suffocation to escape.
This is one of my favorite endings to any film ever.WARNING SPOILERS:When bill lays down in the grass and dies, that is the true ending.But what I love about the ending is gives an alternate ending scenario, what if Bill didn’t die? What if he was immortal? The film’s ending highlights the downsides of living an infinite lifespan. Yes, you can learn all the knowledge and make all sorts of memories all the people you meet along way, but eventually, all those people will die, and all that knowledge and memories you’ve gained will amount of nothing because you have no one to pass it on or to share your experiences with. And eventually everyone will die…. Except you. You’ll be stuck on this planet until the universe ends,when that finally happens you’re life’s journey will finally be complete.Immortality, is just a long grueling extension of your life until all cease to exist,mortality is like a book, each and every day is a new page until ether a plot twist happens,( death by disease, nature,confrontation,etc) or you’ve finally reached the last page of your story ( the moment you are about to die.) Nothing lasts forever, but it’s better to live a full life, and have life continue on,rather than having to wait till the end of time for sweet release of death. DAMN IT, I FORGOT TO TAKE MY ANTI DEPRESSANTS AGAIN!!!!
i have my own theory that the narrator was also Bill this whole time as he was telling his story from his own point of view and feelings and this is the way he would most likely to end, this is the last thing he was seeing as he was going away. And the reason why is it told in third person might be because of a ccontrol illusion as if he was seeing an epic movie based on his "ordinary and boring" life and the narrator has a voice that seemes to be neurotic and it is very matcable with the bill character and we only see the story from his own point of view and feelings as i said. ANYWAY, STILL MY (2ND) FAVOURITE MOVIE OF ALL TIME!!!!!!!!!!
It is a human flaw, our brains just cannot process how to live alone. That is why living on till eternity, no matter how enlightening and knowledgable that endless journey will be, it will be painful regardless.
Dear Dillon, I’m sorry I didn’t do everything I set out to, but there’s still time, I promise. I love you, even if you don’t love yourself. It’s going to be okay. Love, You know who
