MovieChat Forums > The Hidden (1987) Discussion > A few questions about the ending. (SPOI...

A few questions about the ending. (SPOILER ALERT)

posted 15 years ago by Splitskull87
26 replies | jump to latest

At the end where Tom is laying in the hospital after being shot and it looks as if he's gonna die, Lloyd enters his room and transmits a yellow light from his mouth to Tom's.Lloyd then drops to the ground, supposedly dead.My question is did Lloyd transfer whatever alien presence he was to Tom's body & take him completely over? or did Lloyd give up his life so Tom could live on?

One reason I'm a bit confused is because after this happens and Tom wakes up he says hi to his daughter and extends his hand. His daughter looks hesitant to go over to him, it's as if she can sense that it's not her father, then she does.

Did his daughter know the truth but decide to accept Lloyd as her new dad?

Another reason I'm not sure as to what happened is that, earlier in the film Lloyd reveals that the evil alien not only killed his partner but his wife & daughter. So at the end could Lloyd have decided that since his family was dead he would take over Tom's body so that his family wouldn't have to endure the pain & loss which he has experienced and he could gain a new family?

[–] a_torres23 15 years ago

First, the alien presence that was inside Lloyd transferred himself into Beck's body, even though Beck was officially dead. The alien basically brought him back to life but it was not Tom Beck that woke up. It was the alien inside him.

Second, the issue with the daughter never got explained. The best that can be offered was at the dinner scene with Lloyd telling the Becks that their daughter was special. It's never fully explained as to what he meant by that but the Becks just took that comment as a show of affection they have for their daughter. She either saw something in Lloyd when she went to bed that no one else did or just simply the fact that Lloyd saw the daughter as a reminder of what he had. Which leads to the last question....

Finally, since Lloyd now destroyed the evil alien, he didn't want history to repeat itself with Tom's family, so in essence, he transferred the good alien in him into Beck so that the family wouldn't endure the pain of losing a loved one. Lloyd was pretty much dead from getting shot while trying to kill the alien inside the senator [thanks to the security] but because of the alien inside him, he was able to live long enough to help the Beck family. Lloyd had nowhere to go anymore since he killed the alien & no family of his own to return to so he basically gained a new family in the Becks.

[–] MyNameIsMARTHA 15 years ago

Still... remains the question

1. was it his "life energy", so he killed himself to save his partner

or

2. he overtook the body

goes both ways IMO

------
MY SLEEPER MOVIE REC FOR MAY:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ia1EYZK-72Y

[–] libraleyne 15 years ago

My opinion is that Lloyd/good alien gave Tom back his life. I think that Beck now has his own life and memories plus all that Lloyd knew, both as his human form and the good alien.

I also think the little girl knew that her father had been close to death and that he now was more than he seemed.

I liked the ending.

[–] barrelstop 15 years ago

I agree. Good little sleeper-film!

[–] dngn_rdr 14 years ago

Have to disagree... I've seen this movie several times and Beck is definitely dead. Lloyd becomes Beck (with the alien living inside with Beck's memories but the actual Beck gone) so the daughter doesn't lose the father but she senses that something's different.

[–] Emperorglenuff 14 years ago

Well the wife is going to be completely confused by the emotionless, drab replacement of a husband. Haha.

Maybe they'll put it down to post traumatic stress.

[–] professorriffs 14 years ago

Gotta say that it seems kinda obvious to me that Beck is dead, and it's Lloyd we're seeing when "Beck" comes back to life. There's just this "knowingness", if you will, silently expressed by him and the daughter.

Of course, this could all be pure BS, but it seems pretty obvious to me.

...I'm an insect who dreamt he was a man and loved it, but now that dream is over... - Brundlefly

[–] 14 years ago

[deleted]

[–] Max06 12 years ago

Yeah, that was my thought too. If the alien is now in Beck's body, his wife who knows Beck intimately will notice it's not him very quickly.

To me it was a bit creepy the way the alien was looking at Beck's daughter, and saying she was "special". They left that a little too ambiguous.

I enjoyed this movie, but it's got a hell of a body count.

[–] dngn_rdr 10 years ago

He does have Beck's memories so may be able to pull it off.

[–] brucedgo 8 years ago

He does have Beck's memories so may be able to pull it off.

He had the previous guy's memories, too. I assume that the strange behavior was due to the alien and was not the personality of the original owner.

[–] Oblomov-2 10 years ago

I agree. I just saw the film and felt that it is very good and underrated.

During the family dinner early on, 'Gallagher' (the good alien) sensed that the Becks' daughter was very perceptive and so realised that there was something different about him. There may also have been something of his own deceased daughter that he saw in her.

At the end of the film, Gallagher saw that Back was not going to survive and Beck's wife and daughter were heartbroken. That plus his own need for a family helped him to make a decision. Although more advanced technologically, Gallagher's species did not have the ability to restore life of a human already dead; but if he acted soon enough, Gallagher had the ability to transfer his own life force into Beck's body, which is what he did. Beck's daughter sort of knew that it was not the same daddy but being too young to fully understand, accepted it, just like a child her age eventually would have done.

[–] colonel52 9 years ago

exactly, it could be he saved beck with his life energy,
or that he took over the body.
It was the reaction of his daughter that made me originally think
he took over.
But now many years later not sure.

http://tvtalk-your-show.forumotion.com/

[–] loulou1992 12 years ago

Unless the alien can read the host mind and memories, he's gonna slip up with the wife eventually, she will know summat is wrong. And the girl was special in a spiritual way, she knew at the end her dad was dead, and the alien being had taken over. Just like she knew what he was over her bed.

[–] pit-4 13 years ago

I believe it's an ambiguous ending, you can decide for yourself how to interpret it, which is a great trait of a good film.

[–] MrRazorz 13 years ago

Ever since first seeing the film (a VERY long time ago) I always took the ending to mean that Gallagher was a body-switcher like the evil alien he was hunting, and had taken over Beck's body just after he died. The "transferring his life force to bring Beck back to life" idea never occurred to me. I'll admit it's an interesting take on things... but I'm afraid it doesn't wash.

Remember that although the man we know as "Lloyd Gallagher" is an alien, he's walking around with the face of a man who the police eventually identify as Robert Stone (a friend of the real Gallagher who vanished after Gallagher died in a fire). This implies that the man we see in the film is an alien presence inhabiting Stone's body, and using Gallagher's name. I tend to assume that he inhabited the real Gallagher's body first, then had to switch after the body was burned - whereupon he transferred to Stone's body, but kept using Gallagher's ID to gain access to police and FBI resources to help in his hunt.

All of this suggests pretty strongly that Beck is now dead, and the alien has taken over his body to give both himself and Beck's family a new start.

[–] Ralph Monroe 13 years ago

Tom is dead and Lloyd has taken over his body. The writers almost hit you over the head with one major clue. In the movie, what does the evil alien say right before he's going to kill you? "Bye". What does Tom (really Lloyd) say to his wife and kid when he "wakes up" in the hospital room? "Hi."

So, to sum it up in legal terminology: Get lost, you bum.

[–] jeremy-915-532321 12 years ago

I disagree. If the two are the same species then taking over a body would require the same action. I was bracing myself at the end for the big slimy slug thing to appear again, but we get a very "life force" type effect instead.

I think the end was deliberately ambiguous, especially with the little girl, but she smiles in the end and I concluded that Lloyd has sacrificed himself.

[–] Ralph Monroe 12 years ago

I disagree. If the two are the same species then taking over a body would require the same action. I was bracing myself at the end for the big slimy slug thing to appear again, but we get a very "life force" type effect instead.

Excellent theory- but completely wrong! I believe the two are the same species. Remember the evil creature's conversation with Lloyd about how humans were weak and how he and Lloyd could take over the planet? Look at it this way: the slug thing is the actual creature itself, which is able to enter a host, control it, but with the option to leave whenever it wants. The life force, if you will, is just that- the creature's soul or non-physical consciousness. It enables the creature to re-animate a dead or dying host. But the host's mind, soul or consciousness ceases to exist- at least on this mortal coil. The creature is now that person until he dies. No option to transfer. If Lloyd has the ability to bring another entity back to life, why wouldn't he have done it with his dead wife or one of his dead kids? He wouldn't, of course, because it would just be him in his wife's or kid's body.

So, to sum it up in legal terminology: Get lost, you bum.

[–] jeremy-915-532321 12 years ago

I believe the two are the same species. Remember the evil creature's conversation with Lloyd about how humans were weak and how he and Lloyd could take over the planet?

Agree.

Look at it this way: the slug thing is the actual creature itself, which is able to enter a host, control it, but with the option to leave whenever it wants

Agree.

The life force, if you will, is just that- the creature's soul or non-physical consciousness. It enables the creature to re-animate a dead or dying host

Agree.

But the host's mind, soul or consciousness ceases to exist- at least on this mortal coil. The creature is now that person until he dies. No option to transfer

Disagree. According to your theory, Lloyd had two choices:
1) Transfer himself (slug) to Tom as usual, and take over his life.
2) Transfer his life force to Tom, and take over his life, with no option to ever transfer again.

Why would he ever choose 2? The choices are the same except he is deliberately stranding himself. It makes no sense.

Whereas my theory is that his choices are:
1) Transfer himself (slug) to Tom as usual, and take over his life.
2) Sacrifice himself to allow Tom to live.

His final sacrifice makes much more sense to me.

[–] mel2000 (259) 3 years ago

I was under the impression that the slug was used when transferring to a living body to have the option of forcing the mouth open and keeping it open (as with the dog). The light ray was used to transfer to a dead body that would be compliant during the transfer.

[–] tobisama 10 years ago

I have not seen the second film, but I just read part of the plot in wikipedia, and the plot explains the difference in the good aliens and bad aliens:

"It is explained that on the alien's homeworld, evolution took two parallel paths: half of their race became violent criminals who live only for pleasure (the squid-like alien form briefly glimpsed in the first film), and the other half evolved beyond their base desires and even physical bodies, becoming creatures of pure energy. "

Maybe the second film is not so good, but that's a very clear explanation.

[–] rabiddog67 10 years ago

The Commentary track makes it clear that Tom dies and Lloyd reanimates him. The director says the daughter realizes that her father is now different, but takes his hand anyway.

[–] avortac 10 years ago

"The Commentary track makes it clear that Tom dies and Lloyd reanimates him."

Reanimates? Could you have chosen a more vague term?

According to Wiktionary, 'reanimate' means:

"To animate anew; to restore to animation or life; to infuse new life, vigor, spirit, or courage into; to revive; to reinvigorate; as, to reanimate a drowned person; to reanimate disheartened troops; to reanimate languid spirits."

So.. do you mean he 'brought him back to life' as Back, or 'reincarnated' into his body as the E.T., and Beck is in the Astral World?

Why would the father be different, if he's simply "reanimated"? (Which could be said to also mean simply 'animating anew', meaning that the body is animated, but does not contain the same soul as it did previously, so is this what you mean?)

What exactly do you mean by 'reanimates'?

[–] transmentalist 9 years ago

Well the commentary is actually a bit sketchy at first; he doesn't spell it out until pushed from "off screen."

But it's pretty clear by the end of his explanation that it's Lloyd we see, not Tom, looking at the daughter (and she knows it).

But it's also expressed that the "light/life" transfer is a sacrifice play - so maybe Lloyd was a slug too, because transferring himself as a light/life-force is permanent. He's stuck as Tom, but considers it worthwhile to provide Tom's family with a father

Regardless, Tom's dead and Lloyd has taken over.

[–] JonSmall (29) 2 years ago

My take was that Tom died and Lloyd inhabited his body. To explain his lack of knowledge about Tom's life he could fake amnesia or trauma due to the fact that he was "dead" briefly.

Of course, he also could have transferred his life force to revive Tom, maybe that's why it was a yellow glow rather than a giant slug that entered into Tom.