MovieChat Forums > The Broken (2008) Discussion > Plot explanation, in my opinion (SPOILER...

Plot explanation, in my opinion (SPOILER)

posted 15 years ago by ellekay86
13 replies | jump to latest

People having so much trouble understanding this movie makes no sense to me.
This movie is extremely straightforward.
Gina's doppelganger, after killing the real Gina, gets into the car crash.
Due to the brain trauma, her memory is screwed up & she doesn't recall who she is or what's transpired. She is under the mistaken impression that she is the real Gina & witnessing an invasion (which she is in fact witnessing, but hasn't yet realized that she's part of that invasion & already killed off her original).
At the very beginning of this movie, the real Gina is looking at an x-ray of a patient, when she points out that the heart is on the wrong side of the body - which is a "rare condition". She's in fact looking at an x-ray of one of the invaders (they're our mirror image).
When the doppelganger Gina gets tests done regarding her "delusions", they suggest Capgras delusion (or Capgras syndrome), a disorder in which a person holds a delusional belief that a friend, spouse or other close family member, has been replaced by an identical-looking impostor. The doctor goes on to say that it is very rare, "100 confirmed cases since 1923, 80 in the last 10 years".
Now. If there was only 20 confirmed cases until the past 10 years, when the rate of the cases of these "delusions" skyrocketed, wouldn't that suggest the invasion is increasing quite rapidly & people are catching on more & more?
Anyway, once she makes it back to her apartment finally & realizes she indeed won the fight, she came from the mirror & replaced the original, she can relax, she's realized she's safe & no one's after her, & she's part of the so-to-speak revolution. She cried out of relief, not remorse. She never once shows remorse, so I don't know where people are getting that from either.
As for people who don't understand where these evil doubles are coming from (THE MIRROR) & why they're doing it (did you pay attention to those brief shots from "inside" the mirror? Since it's such a dark, creepy, horrid place in there anyway, why wouldn't they want to come through, take over & live our lives? & if they're mirroring yet opposite images of us, of course they're going to be evil because this movie is based on normal, well-meaning individuals so our mirror double will obviously be the reverse: malicious. I'm sure in the mirror world, evil people have nice doppelgangers. & who knows, maybe the movie is playing with the concept that our inner evils we repress will one day manifest themselves like they did literally in this film. But I digress). Just try to think about it for yourselves, look at all the stylistic devices used; foreshadowing, symbols, etc. & it becomes pretty clear the general statement Ellis is trying to make, then he's left it open to interpretation from that point on & it's our job as the viewer to speculate & use our brains to form our own conclusions, & that's where we fall short. I'm not saying I know word for word what Ellis meant to say, because no one does. Spelling anything out blatantly is in poor taste & form & it undermines the audience, which he's considered, but most audiences obviously need to be patronized these days.
People who hate this movie hate it because they don't get it & they aren't trying to get it because they're used to the media spoonfeeding them mindless, simple concepts. The minute a bit of intellect is required, so many people cop out. This isn't a horror movie in the sense of a mindless idiot running around cutting people into chunks for no reason, it's a horror movie in a psychological way. People with low IQs need not watch this film because (as the message board confirms) it will fly straight over their heads & take a dump in their hair as it goes.

[–] audanalp 15 years ago

I just saw the movie and seriously ellekay86 your post is great and accurate, and I tottaly agree with everything you said.

The "twist" was quite predictable much too early, but I enjoyed it anyway, because I looked forward to see it and I turned out to be right ;)
There was plenty obvious forshadows - my favorite was one with the two absolutely identical dogs fighting or rather one killing the other :)

And when I watched the movie the word "invasion" was in my mind too.

Pretty nice movie, and it's really a question of IQ to not understand that simple plot.

Cheers.

[–] stefan425 15 years ago

I loved this film and I think you were spot on with your description. I did not forsee the conclusion. When I watched the film again I saw the (Gina) doppleganger step out of the mirror at the beginning. This is of course a very brief frame so you can easily miss it. Therefore the ending was a welcome suprise. I had my own ideas of where this film was heading. I also concluded that this was an invasion or 'body snatcher' type film.

[–] eydiebarr 15 years ago

Well said!!

Just sit back and enjoy the show!

[–] sara_k_14 15 years ago

Would you say that the dopplegangers only come into our world when someone in our world breaks a mirror or is in the presence of a mirror when it breaks? That might explain why the 'invasion' seems to be somewhat slow and why all of the people at the party suddenly fell prey to the 'invasion.' Anyway, that was what I thought while I was watching the movie.

[–] smiley_newsgirl 15 years ago

The only thing I don't necessarily agree with is the crying part. There seems to have been an epiphany-type thing for her, which is why she so suddenly stopped crying. I think she was still in the confused-brain-trauma state while crying, then it all kind of "clicked" back into place and she stopped crying instantly and moved on with her new life.

[–] CookieDragon 15 years ago

ellekay86, thanks for your explanation of the film. I was having trouble understanding what was going on. The only thing I didn't actually get was who was the real Gina and why she was upset when she realised what actually happened (cos I hadn't figured it out myself yet).

Having said that, I do have one problem with your post. You must be someone with low self-esteem and probably has anger issues if you think that the people who didn't get this film right away must have a very low IQ, combined with the fact you felt the need to actually tell people that. I'll have you know that I have a high IQ and I still didn't get it right away. Maybe other people have different ways of understanding something compared to you, ever thought of that?
I'm sorry, but I hate it when people put down other people for not understanding something. This film isn't like any ordinary, straight-forward film. It does require a lot of attention. In some films, all you have to do is look away for a second and miss something vital to the plot (like Gina's doppleganger's feet, when she came out of the mirror).
Just think twice next time, yeah?

Mitch: "Curly, I'm sorry we buried you, but you looked so dead!"

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] clawclips 15 years ago

ellekay86, you had a pretty good post there until the last few sentences where you turned into a braggy 10 year old making fun of all the other inferior, stupid, ewwww kids.

[–] LooyCyphr 15 years ago

I partly agree with the second half. BUT I gotta say I see it as something like a general response to nowadays kids with the mentality of "Not understanding means that something's wrong with the product".

There was this research on social mentality. In the past, people not understanding something like, say, a keyboard, went to the shop and said "Sorry, I don't get how to use it". Today it's "Man, that *beep* is useless!"

I myself am often depressingly shocked to see that this is the reality. Whatever you do which isn't completly understood, they tag with "failure". So I understand the anger 'cause that's what it is, yer right. People diss others when opinions aren't shared. Maybe because they're so convinced the product is a failure, so if you tell them otherwise, to shield their ignorance, you become the failure. And on the battle goes. It's just dumb.

"D-E-S-T-R-O-Y : E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G"

[–] camel-wides 15 years ago

quote
"People who hate this movie hate it because they don't get it & they aren't trying to get it because they're used to the media spoonfeeding them mindless, simple concepts. The minute a bit of intellect is required, so many people cop out. This isn't a horror movie in the sense of a mindless idiot running around cutting people into chunks for no reason, it's a horror movie in a psychological way. People with low IQs need not watch this film because (as the message board confirms) it will fly straight over their heads & take a dump in their hair as it goes. "

sorry, no, i got it, completely. had no trouble getting it even... mostly because it was unoriginal, uninspired, and weak. within 10 minutes of the start of the movie i was already refering to it as "mirror pod people" to my wife. I didn't like it, because it simply was not that good a movie.

the movie spoonfeeds the points it wants to feed you, and by spoonfeed i mean it takes a spoon and slaps you in the face repeatedly. yet starves the audience for anything along the lines of character motivation, and outright lies to the audience with the continuous shot of gine looking in the mirror pre-crash, changing to her tilting her head and seeing blood in her recollections after realising she is a dupe.

this would have made an ok twilight zone episode, and certainly doesn't qualify to me as horror. maybe suspense, but not horror. there was no one worth feeling scared for.

there is nothing that can save this movie. it is garbage. it's not the actors faults, purely on the writers i would say, unless somewhere there is a lot more footage, and the director, or producers tossed it.

[–] Crista480 15 years ago

"the movie spoonfeeds the points it wants to feed you, and by spoonfeed i mean it takes a spoon and slaps you in the face repeatedly." I was so caught up in the very inflamed opinions and then you made me laugh so hard with this sentence. That being said, I've noticed that many people on these boards say about others who didn't like a movie that they aren't smart enough to understand it. I don't get why people choose this kind of rationalization and why they can't just be content with the idea that other people may simply passionately hate that movie and think it's utter cr*p just as much as they themselves passionately love the movie and think it's an absolute masterpiece and a work of genius. I guess some people post detailed explanations of poor plots just to pat themselves on the back for being incredibly intelligent and showing others that they understood what very few could(which is, in fact, not true). In my experience, these are usually not the most intelligent of people, otherwise they would not need the self-patting of the back ritual.

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]

[–] 15 years ago

[deleted]