The Tragic Beauty In The Final Scene Of THE WHALE | Breakdown & Ending Explained

What did you think of the ending of The Whale? Comment your thoughts below!

I’m pretty late here but I finally watched this movie. I had an absentee father, and I understand Ellie’s anger throughout the movie. I wasn’t there physically with my father when he died but I spoke some of the last words he heard over the phone. I told him I forgave him. He was in a coma, so I don’t know if he heard me. However, as I sat at his funeral with my wife and daughter, 12 years after seeing him last, I was more angry at him than I had ever been. As I write this my two babies are asleep in the room next to me and I know that nothing could ever take me away from them.

Made the mistake of watching this at work while I’m recovering from a work accident. Almost cried in front of all my blue collar fellas

i disagree.

Hello from Texas 😊 I just watched this movie. 38 years ago, I weighed over 400 lbs. The scales couldn't tell me how much over 400 that I was. I gave birth to my son that year. So much of myself I seen in Charlie, on many levels.
I figured out early in the movie that the days were counting down to Charlie's death, yet him dying was really hard to watch. The relationships that were important to Charlie, he wanted them to know that he loved them, especially his daughter. I thank The Good Lord that I'm not carrying around all that excessive fat anymore. It was putting a horrible strain on my heart and my mind was just a rotten pudding. I was waiting to die. Thank you Brendan for your work here and for all the other actors that brought this film into fruition. 😊❤

Some good points are being discussed, but the narration of this vid is terrible (AI?) No expression, no natural pauses. Like reading a 5-page essay that is not broken up into paragraphs. Do better.

He fell on his daughter didn't he?

Idk i think both interpretations are possible.
There is such a thing as pre desth explosive energy.
He could have used his last strength to walj for his daughter before dying

Requiem for a Whale

Great movie, but those binge eating scenes gave me flashbacks to RFAD

I had to stop midway and only finish the next day

Sadie’s character, Ellie, missed her father more than anything. She was using the essays as an excuse to spend more time with him. To say she didn’t love Charlie with all her heart, is a misinterpretation of what happened. No one can be this angry at someone without caring for them deeply.

Yo that guy fell on the girl at the end

He wasn’t choking on food at the beginning. He was having angina from his heart disease

I found the ending hilarious tbh

The depression that consumed Alan too eventually consumed Charlie

Jesus is king of kings and lord of lords ❤🎉

I was keeping my cool through the whole film, but as soon as Ellie said: "Daddy, please"... My heart broke and I started bawling!!!

Sorry but i think she left and he was dreaming that. The whole movie showed her being a cruel horrible person. Why would she change then? The stage play is even sadder. He dies alone and it fades to black and never comes back. Thats it. The end. Ppl where stunned quiet and quietly left the theater.

Go online find the stage play if you think this was dark the og ending is down right soul crushing. He dies alone then the stage just goes black comes back and hes dead. They stay that way until people get uncomfortable and start leaving. No music. No cast bow out. Nothing

Love from a JeremyJahns and Vaush fan!

Only in America

It least in my theory or in my head which is kind of funny, that he was able to walk but when he got up to Ellie he squashed her

Very clever with your interpretation of the ending to spark comments and debate! Hats off to you there! However I feel in my opinion. While Elle read his favourite piece of writing, he summoned his last ounce of strength to prove the love for her that he could never get to show previously! And imo he collapsed and died after doing that feat , which would have undoubtedly ended in a father daughter embrace of sorts! That makes it extra high and so sad imo. One of the greats I've ever watched. Hats off to all involves. Absolute perfection!x

This is why I stand by the fact that Ozempic can be life saving for people with morbid obesity.

Oh, please, let's not talk how religion plays into ALL of these tragedies... Also, I liked Charly, I felt for him, but in the end he DID chose himself. He could live for his daughter that he 'loved' so much, he could STOP torturing his friend literally making her an unsuspected participant in his own prolonged assisted suicide, especially knowing what she already went through with her brother. He did not. He wanted the TRUTH from everyone, but couldn't handle his own truths. He CHOSE to wallow in his sorrow, and that's OK, we all have choses, but bringing so many people around him into it, SELFISH. "Nobody can save anyone", that's true, but at least try and don't destroy your loved one <3

Turn to Jesus …

Did he speak Huttese? 😂🤣😂🤣😂

I think he did use all his last remaining energy to get up and show her just how much he loved her, as he knew he was near the end.

Her final realization that her father was 'the white whale', who she thought was emotionless, who she hated and wanted to destroy. This scene was incredibly powerful

This movie is so insanely sad

The only real victim in this story is protagonist´s wife. The genuine regret she felt for not being around, for cutting ties between him and his daughter. The love she still feels for him, no matter what, whale or not...

This movie is great because it's relatable. Parents who push religion. Parents that leave there family for another person. Parents who eat or drink too much. Kids feeling alone or abandoned and acting out.

What do yall think the bird in the window represented?

I think he does stand up at the end.
The saving of his daughter from cynicism and negativity would have been the most important thing in the world to him. More important than his own life.
He would have stood up as an act of love or sacrifice i feel.
This was his version of "a mother lifts a car off of their trapped kid".
He WOULD have found the strength.

The Whale is the most important film since Schindler's List.

If you don’t think he stood, then you missed the whole point of the film. Even while consumed by the most deadly of sins (gluttony), he was able to break through and be saved. He voiced that he didn’t want to be saved (and continued with his detrimental way of life), but ended with saving himself. His seeing the virtue in his daughter gave him strength in his dying moment

it stopped rainig on friday.

Grotesque film teaching people that disgusting is okay. Contributes to the continuing depravity of the human species.

Interesting. I love this film and have watched it several times but I never considered that the final scene of him walking could be a delusion.

I just feel like Liz could have done more if she really wanted to help him, she could have called emergency medical services. Just like when a 5150 is called in on someone suffering from anorexia, he could have been saved. Instead she was an enabler in this situation, if you’re really concerned for him bring him food with some type of nutritional value. I just think that’s her being a nurse, she should’ve known that calling someone in would’ve been the best thing for him.

The most beautiful film I've even seen. I was so emotionally spent at the end of this film, I realized I had never seen a better film. I'm still trying to unpack it one month later.

you kind of missed the main story. he was worried about his daughter so she wouldn't end up in down spiral like him. he wanted for her to rediscover hope that she had when she wrote it and hope that she gave him. art is a powerful outlet for sensitive ppl it can be a life saver. maybe it was all about getting ppl to embrace artistic outlet. what do you think the last word is?

Not only did he lose his partner, but he lost he lost daughter. That was actually a huge part of his grief too. Great film.

This was a Film with a capital F

this movie was great, Liz was enabling, blow up on him for the life choices and he says sorry but she grabs him a big bucket of chicken right after.

Charlie asked Ellie to stay with him for these few days, he had the finance to treat himself. It seems that Ellie would prefer Charlie to live over getting a 100K.

Without judgment or prejudice, didn't Charlie abandon his daughter twice?

I don’t think there’s any chance Charlie was dead before he stood. I think it would be disrespectful to death and to Charlie to portray a man in his final minutes essentially just give up, when we know that not to be the case throughout the entirety of the film.

Charlie may not have been a good father, but he never truly “gives up” on the most important aspects of his life. His daughter, his lover, the family of his lover, hell he even tried to maintain a relationship with the ex wife.

The trope of “his subconscious was just acting out what his conscious wanted, but he was dead the whole time” is a weak interpretation. Especially when you realize what adrenaline can do to your body. Charlie, under the intense and acute intoxication of adrenaline, certainly could’ve gained the strength to stand, and the chemical overloaded his body to a point of utter destruction.

Additionally, and this is very morbid, but you can watch how people die on the internet. You would not believe the amounts of trauma that some people endure before slipping off. It would not surprise me in the least to see such a morbid event occur in real life.

The entire movie, I thought this essay was possibly written by his boyfriend as he was his student prior to them falling in love. The fact it was written by his daughter was the most poetic plot twist. Brendan Fraser deserved the Oscar for this. He’s always been a phenomenal actor (and human being for that matter).

IMO this is Aronofsky's worst film. Fraser's makeup is the only element worth praising. His character was one dimensional and unrealistically optimistic given his own life experience/trajectory. Aronofsky made a much better film with The Wrestler, depicting a self-destructive, regretful father trying to make amends with his estranged daughter. The Whale FEELS like a stage play when it shouldn't. Why bother adapting something like this? Fraser's size is the only spectacle on screen. I have no problem with the film's depiction of the struggles that come with being overweight. I just... I feel like Aronofsky is turning out films that no longer resonate with me (i.e., Noah, Mother, and The Whale).

First film in a long time to make me cry..It's a devastatingly beautiful emotional roller coaster. Superb acting from all too, especially Fraser.