Charlie Kaufman, director of mind-boggling cult-classics like Being John Malkovich and Synecdoche, New York has made yet another film that will undoubtedly make you scratch your head and question everything you thought you’d known. I’m Thinking of Ending Things, Netflix’s latest film based off a novel of the same name, is a story full of highbrow references and confusing twists and turns.
The film opens with narration by female lead Lucy, played by actress Jessie Buckley, who is contemplating ending her relationship with boyfriend Jake, played by actor Jesse Plemons. Lucy and Jake take a (very long) car ride to Jake’s parents’ farmhouse for dinner— which is where things start to get a little weird. Over dinner, Jake’s parents begin rapidly aging and de-aging with no apparent pattern. They transform from a polite (albeit quirky) middle-aged couple to new parents cleaning up after a child to people quite literally on their deathbeds. Rightfully disturbed by these events, Lucy insists that Jake take her home. The couple departs from the farmhouse and embarks on another (very, very long) car ride, stopping for ice cream at a local shop along the way. Jake makes a pit stop at his old high school to throw out their trash, and here things get even weirder. There’s an interpretive dance scene, an elderly janitor who strips naked in his car while hallucinating a diseased pig, and a speech from A Beautiful Mind immediately followed by a performance of a song from the musical Oklahoma! …What?
Lucy explains it best in the opening scene of the film. Recounting a conversation with Jake, she says, “sometimes the thought is closer to the truth, to reality, than an action. You can say anything, you can do anything, but you can’t fake a thought.” I’m Thinking of Ending Things explores the absolute truthfulness of thought. The reason why Jake calls Lucy by multiple different names, and why the poem that she recites in the beginning of the film that she supposedly wrote is found in a book in his room is because Lucy and Jake are the same person. Lucy is an extension of Jake’s psyche, a physical representation of his fantasies (think Fight Club except with Nicholas Sparks as the director).
Lucy is whatever Jake wants her to be because she is not real, and this is why she is somehow an accomplished scientist, a waitress, a poet and a painter all at once. It could be that Jake is basing Lucy off of a woman he met briefly, or that she is a completely original fantasy. I don’t believe that Jake is suffering from hallucinations (although his mental health is surely unstable), but rather this film is a creative attempt at visualizing his fantasies. There is not one moment when it becomes abundantly clear to the viewer that Lucy is a representation of Jake’s fantasy, but rather there are multiple small hints at this, such as her artwork being in Jake’s parents’ basement with Jake’s name on it and how Jake seems to know all of Lucy’s thoughts.
Jake is a man riddled with insecurities. He’s worried he isn’t smart or exciting enough for another person to ever want or love him. These thoughts are a parasite so invasive that they infect even his fantasies, which is made clear by the repeated mantra of Lucy wanting to end their relationship even though she is a figment of Jake’s imagination. This explains why his parents keep shifting ages; Jake isn’t sure of the best time to introduce his imaginary girlfriend to his family, so he tries out different scenarios in his mind. This also explains that shockingly good Pauline Kael impression Lucy slips into during the second car scene; Jake is so insecure in his own opinions that even in his fantasies he is undermined by someone else’s intelligence and insight.
This brings me to the topic of the influence media has on Jake. When looking around Jake’s childhood bedroom during the visit to his parents’ home, Lucy finds it to be overflowing with books and DVDs, many of which are alluded to in other scenes of the film. Jake’s fantasy is influenced by the entertainment he enjoys to the point of recreation. He’s unsatisfied with his own life and self, so he uses media as a means of escapism, which is why he includes the acceptance speech in A Beautiful Mind that he repeats verbatim and a song from Oklahoma! in his fantasy at the very end of the film; they are comforting to him.
But wait, what even was that end scene, anyway? And why does this kind-of creepy janitor keep popping up every few scenes? The ending is by far the most thematically dense part of the film, but it also explains what’s really going on here— namely, that the janitor is the real-life Jake. Just as there is no one moment of epiphany when the viewer realizes Lucy and Jake are the same person, as much is true for Jake and the janitor. Instead, the viewer must slowly come to this conclusion by piecing together small hints, like when Lucy finds a uniform identical to that of the janitor’s in Jake’s parents’ basement.
So, in a way, the Jake that is Lucy’s boyfriend also is not real, but rather another idealized character in real-life Jake’s (the janitor’s) fantasy. The interpretive dance sequence that is performed in the high school is yet another representation of Jake’s psyche: he desperately wants to fall in love and marry the girl of his dreams, but his insecurities literally kill him during the dance and metaphorically kill his chances at happiness in real life.
This theme is continued by the appearance of the diseased pig. Early in the film, boyfriend-Jake tells Lucy a story from his childhood of a maggot-infested pig that his father was forced to kill. Janitor-Jake sees an animated version of this pig at the end of the film and follows it back into the high school. On the way, janitor-Jake and the pig have a conversation where Jake realizes that the pig and himself are one. Then boyfriend-Jake, now in makeup that makes him appear much older, performs in front of a large crowd composed of Jake’s parents, a similarly made-up Lucy, and others from Jake’s real life. This is Jake’s swan song, his final goodbye.
Does Jake… die? I would say yes, although this is surely debatable. It seems to me that Jake either suffers from some sudden death or commits suicide while in his car. A suicidal Jake gives the title I’m Thinking of Ending Things a whole new meaning, too. After stripping off his clothes, janitor-Jake follows the maggot-infested pig back into the high school– this can be viewed as a sort of ushering into the afterlife. Another interpretation is that this scene represents janitor-Jake ridding himself of his maladaptive fantasy self, although I am included to believe the former.
To recap, Jake is Lucy is the janitor is the diseased pig. Really, this could have just been called “The Jake Show”. For fans of Kaufman, though, this is nothing new; many of his previous works have centered around exploring the psyche of a troubled individual.
I was thoroughly entertained by the film, but I couldn’t help but feel a twinge of irritation at the blatant lack of diversity. There are no people of color in lead roles, and women are repeatedly used solely as plot devices to further Jake’s character arc. Jake does very little himself to be inclusive of viewpoints outside of his own as a presumably cishet white man, although I assume this is kind of the point. Jake is not supposed to be considerate or even likable. His character garners pity rather than sympathy, and that is why I have come to love I’m Thinking of Ending Things so dearly.
While it undoubtedly lacks diversity, it is a well-executed and creative take on the inescapable honesty of one’s thoughts. I’m Thinking of Ending Things is the heartbreaking story of a man, possibly struggling with mental illness and suicidal ideation, who feels he has wasted his life on fantasy. It does not ask the viewer to feel sorry for him, but instead asks us only to understand– and that itself is commendable.