I just watched this, and all of the subsequent reviews and explanations seem way off. Consider:
Every review/explanation makes the case that Bubble Tom is simply a continuation of Tomas, part of the “last chapter” he was writing for Izzy.
This makes no sense to me, because the penultimate chapter ended with flaming sword boy swinging. Tom then wrote the final chapter which ended in Tomas sprouting flowers and dying, or at least becoming the flowers and no longer human.
From what I could gather, Bubble Tom was present Tom after he had figured out immortality, and science had advanced to the point where he could buy/build the bubble. He then bubbled up the tree that he planted on Izzy’s grave and shipped her off to the nebula, in some kind of new-age delusion that she would be reborn from the tree.
Thoughts? I know it wasn’t a very good movie, but I just find the idea of bubble Tom being part of the Tomas story wrong.
Couldja maybe support that? What’s bubble Tom got to do with anything if he’s fictional, and why would Tom write a fictional character that tries to save a tree, only to have it die right before theoretical redemption?
Izzy wrote the past storyline, it’s the book she gives Tommy to read and finish. Tommy finishes the book with the Tom storyline because there’s no such thing as immortality. The tree dies/Tom joins the nebula part is Tommy learning to accept mortality.
I never thought the tree died. Bubble Tom sacrifices himself to save the tree, just like Conquistador Tom died becoming part of the tree, and just like Izzy became part of the tree. It was Tom accepting that death is necessary for life.
Edit: It’s been a few months since I saw it last, but doesn’t the legend of the nebula where life began state that time is cyclical? That’s why the guardian of the Tree of Life recognizes Bubble Tom as The First Man, also The Last Man (sorry for the caps), because by giving his life for the tree he starts the cycle anew.
The tree died right before he got to the nebula, which seemed like a double fuck-you from what I saw, since Izzy had originally died right before he figured out the cure. That’s why it doesn’t make sense. Izzy didn’t finish the Tomas storyline, she stopped at the guard scene with the flaming sword.Tom finished the book from there, with the tree scene where Tomas sprouts. Why then would he tack on ANOTHER final chapter about a bubble guy and a tree? The bubble guy couldn’t be future Tomas, because the tree sap killed Tomas, ergo he couldn’t have any logical connection to the story that was being written. He could only be future real Tom trying to shoehorn his dead wife’s tree into her mythology.
Bubble Tom is in Present Tom’s head. It’s a metaphorical bit; the immensity of both his grief and drive to Do Something About It. He imagines himself defeating mortality–too late for Izzy–and his mind (view it as his dreams, or feverish imaginations, or subconscious, whatever) projects that. His grief is immense–space. Grief at losing a loved one is profoundly isolating–a bubble in the void. Hope–the nebula–is very far away, and the length of days ahead impossible to bear. But bear it he will, with Izzy’s memory–the tree. He won’t “finish it,” he’s going to power through. He’s going to be strong and stand alone, master his pain–the flying tai chi zen master routine.
But life goes on. The immensity of any grief dwindles slowly but surely–the tree is dying. It’s really hard to let go of grief–no, no! as the tree withers more the closer Bubble Tom gets to Xibalba.
And then there’s a moment where you let go of grief, stop fighting it, accept it, and you start noticing just how very beautiful the world is again. Outside the bubble is no longer void but hues. Bubble Tom contemplates this–more flying zen master routine–and culminates in literally and figuratively throwing himself out of the bubble of the tree. Supernova, gnosis, acceptance, and he figures out how to finish it–the manuscript, and what Izzy was trying to help him with before she passed. Death isn’t a distant thing to grimly march at to grapple and fight–the start of Bubble Tom’s flight–but part of things, that road to awe. (Which doesn’t mean it’s not awful, there’s a reason the archaic meaning’s what it is.) It’s not something other; Tomas, Present, and Bubble Tom are all Xibalba.
I pretty much agree with Drastic, although I’m too tired to provide much of my own analysis. Still, here’s how I see the layers of the story:
Present: The literal events of the movie.
Past: A fiction within the context of the present that provides insight into the literal events through the characters’ perspectives.
Future: A fiction outside the context of either past or present, in which the director provides insight into the literal events, mostly through metaphor.
Other people have covered this, but the events of the bubble are not supposed to be taken literally. I haven’t seen the movie since it came out, and I have no particular desire to watch it again, so I can’t really cough up specifics, but Drastic’s post pretty much sums it up.
Of course, the real subtext of the movie is how Hugh Jackman is secretly gay, but doesn’t want to come out of the closet to alienate his Wolverine audience. So instead he makes movies where he stabs trees with a phallic dagger and drinks the thick, milky fluid that comes out.
I recall the writer commenting to the effect that they didn’t have a particular explanation for it, or that it was open to interpretation. Or was that the director?
I’m always concerned that when someone says that then there is no meaning to be derived, it’s just something cool that they felt fitted the tone of the movie, nothing more.
