What happened at the ending? **SPOILER**

Not really, is all I'm going to say.

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Your original response to the film is as valid, as the assumption of death. The Horse was a good metaphor for the approach of evil, but only the approach as we never hear it arrive.

I thought it was a wonderful ending, truly in sympathy with Don Quixote. It was worth death to face an enemy so magnificent and deadly. We all die, but some of us die brightly lit, facing our enemies, clothed in the beliefs that we hold dear.

I love this film. Many decades have passed since I first saw it, and it is stll a favorite. Brilliant on so many levels.

Just watched this wonderful film again. Woodward makes the deduction in the meat locker at the grocery store that the clue "20 grand" had to do with a riding school at 67th St (hence the clop-clop of horses' hooves coming from the tunnel). It is also at that pt. that Scott and Woodward seem to become as one in their "mission" and love for one another, Scott telling her that she is a genius and now a real detective. After 4+ viewings, it seems the director left the ending intentionally vague and inconclusive.
It is nonetheless a bittersweet, all-too-human (and great) film. I noticed that everyone in Scott and Woodward's procession that gathers force and bodies as it nears the kiosk, were all examples of uncelebrated common folk, the undifferentiated masses who do the thankless jobs in society, getting no recognition or fame, but who still yearn for "romance, excitement and danger". They all wanted to find purpose and adventure in their lives, especially Jack Gifford's Walter Mitty-ish librarian, who finally gets to be the Scarlet Pimpernel of his dreams as he fights that cop "to the death" in the dairy section with a plastic toy sword and feathered cap.
Scott and Woodward too yearned for something more out of life, and possibly became engulfed by their illusions at the end. I just couldn't get a definite feel at the end on whether they really did die. From what or whom?

Hi. They Might Be Giants is one of my all time favorite movies. My reaction to the ending was exactly like yours. I first thought she had decided out of love for him to join him in his insanity and see Moriarity just as Holmes did. Later, however, I too decided that they both died in the end. What helped me a lot was watching the movie The Fisher King with Robin Williams and Jeff Bridges. This is a fantastic movie with exactly the same plot. And in the end, the romantic and the realistic are lying side by side at night in Central Park with a wooden doll between them, ready to risk it all to demonstrate their faith in the romantic ideal. I think viewed from a kind of mythological point of view, They Might Be Giants says there is always a cost or sacrifice in choosing to believe that you can make the world a better place. That's just my opinion. I could be wrong. I just love that movie. Hope you are still checking this site. Sincerely, Frances

Sancho Panza saw windmills where Don Quioxte saw dragons. Simply because we do not see dragons does not mean they are not there. Perhaps, Sancho was the crazy one refusing to see the reality of his surroundings for what they were.

And this could very well be the case of Watson and Holmes. The audience does not hear the hoofclops until Watson does. As in the stories of Holmes & Watson, the latter was always the last to know. Why would this crimefighting duo be any different.

I rather enjoyed the ending of this film. the bright light the sound of a majestic unknown. Could it be that Moriarty is God? Holmes postulated that he was responsible for the seeming tragic accidents and he mocked all those that came to walk with Holmes and Watson in the dead of night. Perhaps New York is in a box of Moriarty's creation and Holmes has figured out how to confront him.

What ever the endingone thing remains certain. Holmes and Watson faced danger most foul together and defiantly, and yet recognized the power of their enemy.

Besides when the heck would they have died?

Wow what a movie! I just saw it last night but missed the beginning. I do have to watch it from the start. Magical! I thought they died at the end and it did fit with the insanity that ran the plot right through the movie.

I loved the old couple in the riding school in the old run down building, what imagery. I must admit that when we where kids we played like this all the time and were always dissappointed that the reality of daily life stole us out of our imaginary world.

Don Quixote I will have to look up and read!

Unless you accept Playfair's reality, there's no obvious reason to think that they die. I prefer to see it as the transcendent merging of Watson's rational and irrational sides; her story is one of growth, after all. If I were a religious person, I might see the film as the development of faith. If I were a cynic, I might see it as the destruction of a first-class mind and its descent into fantasy.

As with most things, what you take away from this film depends on what you bring to it.

The practical side is that anything that happened next would be a letdown: Moriarty killed them, Watson went mad, Playfair was crushed by reality, or nothing at all . . . It's much more satisfying to leave the characters suspended in a state of potential and the viewer guessing. James Goldman certainly had a knack for finding uplifting endings to sad stories.