It’s like a reboot of the Plot Holes 3x3, but, in keeping with its originator, vaguer to the point of nothingness. Luckily, there was only about 90% overlap with its precursor.
Tom: (Theme: Stuff open to interpretation.)
The Fountain - Which timelines are “real”?
Cache - ??
Zodiac - Who’s the killer?
Dingus: (Theme: stuff he doesn’t want to know)
Children of Men - What’s the cause of the infertility plague?
Blindness - What’s the cause of the blindness plague?
Lost in Translation - pss pss pss.
Kellywand: (Theme: None.)
Superman - Why’s he have a secret identity?
The Exorcist - Why’s having a head that spins all the way around a curse?
Vagabond - What drove this young woman to live on the road?
It’s interesting because rather than being a film about how a young woman is driven to live on the road it’s focuses on what that life is like for her, and it celebrates the strength of character it takes to live it and through that process removes the romanticism.
Beau Travail - What exactly happens to the main character?
The film focuses almost entirely on his spiritual state and it’s ending is so crazy and satisfying (I cannot believe how moving that ending is) but it barely tells us anything about how he is punished nor does it explicitly tell us if he’s made a decision about his life. It very simply tells us he’s found a bit of freedom.
Kid with a Bike - Why does the woman take in the boy?
We never get a straight answer or reading of her reasons and somehow that only makes her an even more fascinating character.
I call foul on at least two of these. (I’ll give you Cache.)
The Fountain: The movie only makes sense if the modern(ish) day timeline is the real one. The conquistador stuff is a representation of the book Rachel Weisz is writing, and the space bubble stuff is a fiction that Hugh Jackman is imagining.
Zodiac: While we’ll probably never know for reals, the movie makes it pretty clear that (in the opinion of the movie, anyway) Arthur Leigh Allen was Zodiac.
Now, if this were a listing of the Worst Unanswered Questions, I would expect to see the baby-gender cliffhanger from the ending of Patriot Games firmly entrenched at the top. Who the frack cares?
But since we’re talking about the Best Unanswered Questions, I’d like to at least give an honorable mention to George A. Romero for not bothering to speculate too much on the origins of the zombie plague. No neat and tidy explanations necessary to understand the menace of the horde. I suppose that’s an example of one of the Best Unasked Questions, though.
Oh, and the identity of the shooter in The Day of the Jackal.
P.S. Thanks for reminding me of the pregnancy reveal topic with the mention of Patriot Games. Watching Children of Men again this week only further cements that list as my all time low in 3x3-ing. Ugh.
I watched a detailed breakdown of The Thing on YouTube that pretty much explains that Childs was a thing. I can’t find it now but the guy used scenes from the movie and it was pretty convincing.
That Memento question was addressed in the movie, in that we never find out who the actual John G was.
What I don’t really get was why 2001 took a turn for the metaphysical at the end. I get that Kubrick was trying to make a grand statement about mankind’s place in the cosmos, but he made it in such an “ungrand” kind of way. And it was such a shift in tone and meaning from the previous 19 hours. But the baby was kind of cute. I guess.
What does the little girl say to Marcello Mastrioanni at the end of La Dolce Vita?
Why does Marty’s Dad hire the guy who tried to rape his wife to do some light housework?
Technically, isn’t it ALWAYS after midnight? So when the fuck are you supposed to feed a gremlin, exactly?
So, was that actually Eraserhead’s baby, or what?
What happened to the girl at Picnic At Hanging Rock?
But the number one unanswered movie question of all-time: Does Alec Guiness intend to blow up the bridge at the end of The Bridge On The River Kwai, or does his body fall on it by accident?
