The end? WTF?


I did not understand how she was going to have his baby if she could not have a baby

the last post is host and roast toast

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indeed, perhaps cuz men of their time can't reproduce??

and what was so important about him being on that plane in 1963? it was a neat plot twist but it was ultimately irrelevant right? shouldn't the physics guy have been the one on the plane? how did he survive the crash? how could he have not made the connection sooner?

i really did like the movie, pretty clever but the end escalated out of control

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I just watched the movie again a few days ago, and the way they were talking about it, I had the impression that they were both on the 1963 plane. But maybe I'm wrong.

As far as the relevance of that, I think the main reason why he was on the plane in 1963 was that Louise was there too. When he realized that was her, he connected the dots some more about what was going on. 25 years had passed for him, but for her, she was just on that flight the previous day.

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Smith being on the flight in '63 was just an irrelevant twist added for the movie; he was not on this flight in the novel.


You can't palm off a second-rater on me. You gotta remember I was in the pink!

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That was a little confusing, but I think she may be a rare person in her time who is able to reproduce (after all, how did everyone there be born?). Also, out of the people from her time shown in the movie, she was one of the most healthy looking.

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Well for one thing they weren't born there. They were taking people from different times to keep repopulating because they couldn't have kids. And I didn't get the thing where he tells her she's going to have a baby. She said she couldn't have them which I interpreted as meaning that she was sterile. It was a confusing thing to put at the end.

“Honey, there’s a spider in your bathroom the size of a Buick!”--Alvy (Annie Hall/1977)

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I agree that it was confusing to say at the end that she was pregnant.

As far as taking people from other times to live there, that may help with having children, but I don't think it's the only factor. The reason they were taking people from other times in the first place is that they can't have children. I think the main reason most people in the future can't have children in this movie is that the planet is so polluted that something in the environment causes people to become sterile over time. So even if they bring healthy people from the past into their time, they would eventually become sterile.

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In the short story, a lot of the babies were born brain dead. These babies were kept alive and used as "wimps" -- the substitutes for the passengers getting off the planes. So it's not like no one can get pregnant; it's just that there are very few viable births, and then the environment starts killing them.

Also, Louise had a baby that was used as a wimp.

In the movie, Louise getting pregnant was added in later, just like Bill Smith being on the 1963 plane -- regardless of the problems they caused to the story. I think they wanted a kind of Adam and Eve kind of feel to them going off to a possible renewed Earth.

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Not to ruin any ones day or any thing, but if I remember the novelization correctly, she has his baby, but it doesn't live long, and she doesn't survive long without the treatments she was getting either. It's kind of a bittersweet ending.

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So what if she couldn't? I'm sure there were gay and other sterile people, who wouldn't or couldn't reproduce, abducted.

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It kind of reminds me of Freejack except that Freejack didn't need so many irrelevant plot twists at the end. Here's my question, if Smith is on the '63 plane then how come he wasn't rescued by Louise and brought into the future then? She knew he was going to survive the crash? Even after she tampered with history and had to stun him, could she still be sure he would survive? Kind of risky. Especially since she already knew by that point he would grow up to become involved with her again. If he didn't survive '63 after her interference it would cause quite the time storm.

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[deleted]

Its made clearer in the book. Basically the future humans didn't make the gate, they found it and used it in their plan. If i remember correctly (read the book a long time ago) This was planned by god who after man failed the first time decided to give man another start. Sherman the robot was actually Jesus in another form (that's how he knew Luise was pregnant -he made it so), and Luise was given a miracle. In the book she can take her skin covering off between missions, but it becomes permanent/irremovable after she goes to the unknown future through the gate. I've often wondered if the author of the book not only made smith and Luise into Adam and eve but maybe made the other saved people into the "people in the land of nod" described in the bible (the people of unknown origin in the land of Nod that Cane joins after slaying his brother Abel in the bible). That is in itself a paradox since Adam and eve were supposedly the first man and woman. No one knows where the nod people came from.

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The people of Nod would've been Cain's relatives since Adam & Eve were the only people first on Earth.

Here's a more detailed explanation about the people of Nod:

Question: "Of whom was Cain afraid after he killed Abel?"

Answer: In Genesis 4:13-14, shortly after he killed his brother Abel, “Cain said to the LORD, ‘My punishment is more than I can bear. Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me.’” Whom exactly was Cain afraid of? The only people the book of Genesis had mentioned to this point are Adam and Eve (Cain’s parents) and Abel (who was now dead). Who would possibly be a threat to Cain?

It is important to recognize that Cain and Abel were both full-grown adults at the time that Cain killed Abel. Both Cain and Abel were farmers, who tended to their own lands and flocks (Genesis 4:2-4). The Bible does not tell us how old Cain and Abel were, but they very likely could have been in their 30’s or 40’s. The Bible does not specifically mention Adam and Eve having any children between Abel and Seth (Genesis 4:25). However, it is highly unlikely that the two most perfect human beings in the history of the world, Adam and Eve, would not have any children over several decades. Adam and Eve had many children after Seth (Genesis 5:4), so why would they not also have had other children between Abel and Seth? The Bible does not say that Seth was Adam and Eve’s first child, or even first son, after Abel was killed. Rather, it states that Seth was born as a “replacement” for Abel. Genesis chapter 5 traces the genealogy of Seth. Prior to his death, Abel was likely the “chosen” son that would eventually produce the Messiah (Genesis 3:15). It is in this sense that Seth “replaced” Abel.

So, whom was Cain afraid of? Cain was afraid of his own brothers, sisters, nephews, and nieces, who were already born and would be capable of seeking revenge. The fact that Cain had a wife (Genesis 4:17) is a further evidence that Adam and Eve had other children after Cain and Abel, but before Seth.

Recommended Resources: Bible Answers for Almost all Your Questions by Elmer Towns and Logos Bible Software.


source: http://www.gotquestions.org/Cain-afraid.html

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The only thing I was upset about the ending was that they didn't have a final scene showing what it looked like where they went too. I would assume men of her time are sterile or something so he got her pregnant in the past.

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There's an alternate ending on the blu-ray that shows a time portal tunnel, them landing in water (?) and then holding each other while naked during the voiceover, then it pans overhead. It probably should have been the actual ending of the film instead of the static shot of the sun.

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