I liked it until the last 30 seconds. Everything was all tied up, everything solved, everyone saved. Then she puts him in the machine and says, “you have to go through the day one more time”, but this time if he dies it’s permanent. So I’m expecting some big exciting sequence where he has to do everything perfectly and save everyone, and he almost screws up, etc, etc… but then it just ends. Why say he had to do the day one more time if they weren’t going to show it? Why not just fade to a scene with a title card “tomorrow”?
I liked the ending. It was a nice twist to the usual “last day” in these scenarios. The time when it counts for real. Like in Edge of Tomorrow, that last day was so tense! Everything kept going wrong! It was a terrible last day and it made it extra exciting. In this particular Boss Level made the last day off screen, something I’d never seen before. You could interpret that as “he’s got this, no problem, he’s so good at it by now”, or you could say “ooooooh shit, one mistake and he’s dead, I wonder if he’ll make it?”. Either way I like it..
No, I think it’s pretty clear that he has to start the original day over again, but this time no backsies. The final shot is the same one of him waking up from the guy trying to kill him over and over.
I interpreted the ending as meaning he had to go through the whole situation again, but he could not screw up because this is the last day. I think they faded out because there was no value in showing he could do it one last time.
Naomi Watts says she doesn’t know what will happen but going into the machine core is needed to save humanity. She theorizes that it will stop and Frank will likely be fine. He steps into the core, close up on his eyes, machine oscillation reflected in eyes, credits.
This was changed for the Hulu ending you guys are talking about. Going to watch that now to compare.
Honestly it’s pretty clear to me, simply because they didn’t make us watch him do it a second time*, he succeeded. If anything was going to be different they would have shown it. So, he must have absolutely nailed it.
*meaning watchin him do what worked finally - jump to the helicopter, fly to the building, take the mini-gun, mow down everyone, take out the guards, take out the bad guys, save the girl.
The only thing I would have added to the ending might be an end credit scene of a boat out at sea, the impression he and the girl and the boy did end up renting a boat that weekend after all.
I’ll re-recommend an excellent, Oscar-winning short film available on Netflix, Two Distant Strangers - only 30 minutes long, and uses a time loop to powerfully make its point. (Originally mentioned in the Time loop movies thread.)
