MovieChat Forums > Nymphomaniac: Vol. II (2014) Discussion > somebody please explain the ending!

somebody please explain the ending!


There was the gun shot, the sound of a zipper, the sound of someone running out of the room, then a creaking sound on the bed... It doesn't make any sense at all.

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There's no creaking sound on the bed. Joe shoots Seligman, Joe gets dressed, Joe runs away. Those are the sounds.

The meaning is a bit deeper and open to interpretation.

Seligman comes in to initiate sex, thinking this will be how he ends his repressed virginity.

Of course he's totally oblivious to the preceding comment from Joe that she's committed to stopping her sex addiction, and that Seligman is her only and perhaps first true friend. As such, trying to have sex with her disrespects her stated will to stop her sex addiction, and possibly misunderstands one key element of her declared friendship: that her feeling of friendship is linked to the way he's listened to her instead of having sex with her.

His dismissive comment makes the betrayal more poignant, although she's already racked the gun, so we can presume she was intending to shoot him regardless of the comment. The shooting also calls back to her previous comment that she was glad not to have killed P's debtor, as Seligman's approach has triggered her to succumb to the killing instinct.

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I agree with your analysis. There WAS one more sound, however -- the sound of the "cat door". That's significant in that it had been discussed in the movie, and when Joe exited the building, the draft made the cat door squeak open and closed.

Love isn't what you say or how you feel, it's what you do. (The Last Kiss)

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My words exactly.

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But that he would even try to initiate sex is ludicrous as he is a professed asexual and has been his whole life. He even said he doesn't masturbate, and regardless of how awkward you may be around women, you can always rub one out. That he doesn't even do that suggests he is a true asexual and not just bad with women. Therefore, his trying to rape Joe makes no fuqing sense.

"Gold buys a mans silence for a time. A bolt to the heart buys it forever"

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It wasn't rape!! He touched her bum while masturbating himself. SHE was the one, for different reasons, who panicked, shooting him.

This title needs spoiler warning!

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But that he would even try to initiate sex is ludicrous as he is a professed asexual and has been his whole life


He claimed to be asexual. She claimed to be a nymphomaniac. There's no way of knowing if either is telling the truth, since their interactions seem to be dictated almost entirely out of the miscellanea of Seligman's room.

Seligman could simply be adopting a position of asexuality to protect himself from his inability to talk to or attract women. Since he seems to have poor social skills to the point of some kind of developmental disorder he may have convinced himself that he has no attraction to women simply because no woman has ever taken an interest in him.

He's also someone with an almost autistic obsession to learn about things. With everything Joe says, Seligman relates it to a factoid or piece of information that he's learned during the course of his life. The only aspect of Joe's story that he can't relate to is the sex.

So it's possible that he sees Joe as someone willing or capable to educate him in the sexual experience; a personal affront against Joe that his own poorly developed interpersonal skills cannot register.

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The ending was stupid. That's barely rape. The guy did try to have sex with her. Yes, that's stupid. But he doesn't seem to be the kind of guy who would force himself or would use violence if she just said no. She also could have just pointed the gun and leave. Seems like she wanted to kill someone for quite some time, and he's the unlucky guy. It's unprovoked murder from a guy who took her off the street after getting mugged and cared for her. The moral lesson of the film is do not help strangers, do not bring them home and do not try to know them.

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You're an idiot!

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did you construct that all by yourself? The film is stupid and so are you.

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Thank you!! If that's all you took away from the film you might as well watched it just to see sex scenes.

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No, I didn't watch it for the sex scenes. The main character is a hideous looking hag. Jesus, no. I get the opposite of erection when I see that face. I watched it till the end coz I thought there was going to be a good ending. There wasn't. There was a stupid ending that insulted the audience who endured watching the crap till the end.

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