It just doesn't make sense
I'm not judging the movie as a whole, I will let you form you own opinion, but whether or not you bump someone and say "sorry" or swear at them, doesn't change when they will die, or win the lottery or not.
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MovieChat Forums > Lola rennt (1999) Discussion > It just doesn't make sense
Have you never heard of the Butterfly Effect? Just take a look at the link the poster above gave. And how would you know that's not the case, are you a scientist? And is not so much about bumping into someone or swearing at them, it's about how some little detail affects the world. It's the idea that if that little detail changes the outcome could change completely.
Really, you must be the only person who has never thought about that. You never thought something like 'if only I had put on a different shirt that day I wouldn't have failed my history test?
I never said all of that did i. I do believe our actions have a huge effect, but, for example, Lola's interactions with the woman in the stroller each time, and then the 3 different chain of reactions for the stroller lady are very asymmetrical.
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Actually, I think the snapshots of the people she touched the first time around were not flashes from the future, but from the past. The woman already had the snatched baby in the stroller, and on the second run Lola knew that the guy on the bike had stolen it, which was what she saw in the first flash, and which had to have happened before he could meet her on the bike.
shareSorry, but they were all flashes from the future, it's pretty clear. It's shown that in the future she would steal some other woman's baby because her own children were taken away. And Lola knew the bike was stolen because that's always the case when some stranger on the streets offers you a cheap bike. In the first flash you seem him getting attacked by some people (maybe he stole their bike) and meeting his future wife in the hospital.
shareAll right, maybe the flashes were from the future. At the time I just thought it made most sense that the first ones were from the past. (But the flash of him stealing the bike was the first flash she had of him, the attack was the second or third one.)
shareLola doesn't get the flashes, the flashes are just what is shown to us. And none of the flashes shows him stealing the bike. Like I said, the first one shows him getting attacked and meeting his future wife in the hospital. The second shows him becoming a hobo, stalking a woman in the park and dying of a drug overdose. The third time there's no flash back because right after we see him running into the hobo who stole the money and selling the bike to him.
shareAll right, looks like I stand corrected.
shareBefore each flash it says "And then" which indicates the future.
shareThe majority of the movie showed how tiny actions had drasticly varying reactions within the space of 20 minutes. The photo snaps show how radically different these people's lives would turn out over a much longer period of time. We don't see how these differences alter the future in the short-term (aside from the guy on the bike getting beaten up and meeting the nurse) but we see the long-term effects. They were just trying to further illustrate how subject our lives are to fate and circumstance.
shareHey, that's the main point of the movie! Being just one second late/early somewhere an change your life drastically. Maybe watch the movie again. Lola's conversation with her father is a good example. Depending on WHEN Lola interrupts her father the result is very different. In one story, the secretary is able to tell the father that she is pregnant. In one story Lola realizes that they are having an affair etc. And believe it or not, bumping into someone changes the thought process of that person and WILL have an effect on the lottery numbers that person pics. Many people choose lottery numbers "at random" you know.
shareyou bump into someone you take up their time. they might miss something or discover another thing. or you will make an impression on them that influences some decision in their life. that's what it is and that's how it changes things.
i've had this happen to me. i have two very good friends i would have probably never met had i been at a particular place 2-5 seconds earlier or later.
Yeah, exactly. Something of the sort happened to me too. I missed the train by a few seconds once and while waiting for the next one I found a small kitten and brought it home. I put it up for adoption and now it's living a good life, he's loved and he's safe. Had I not missed the train the stray dogs would have killed it or it would have had a different owner, who knows?
Tell you what I got on my side - the confidence of youth.