If you are like
me, after watching the movie 400 Days, you immediately went on line to google
the ending. You probably screamed at the screen and or just scratched your
head. After watching the movie for an hour and a half, I decided to go back and
watch it in pieces, breaking down the movie so I could rest easy about it.
Yes, I’m not
kidding, the movie will drive you nuts because you think there just aren’t
enough clues. But there are. It's well written and well acted.
If you haven’t
seen 400 Days … STOP. Watch it and come back. This entire review/explanation is full of spoilers. You
have been warned. SPOILERS AHEAD.
400 days deals
with a psychological experiment to test the effects of astronauts in space for
long periods of time. It's a solid movie that will keep you entertained and guessing.
Hint one –
Psychological experiment. That alone tells you it all. But they want you to
believe, is it? Is it all an experiment or did the apocalypse really happen
while they were tucked 100 feet underground in a simulated ship?
The film gave
plenty of clues to explain the ending of the film.
SPOILERS
In the beginning,
it is painfully obvious that the Doctor is a part of it. “Remember our deal,”
the director says. Although, she explains later that he was reminding her to
stay estranged from her boyfriend the captain.
Doctor chick,
Emily, gives injections to the men. Not herself, she takes pills. In every
experiment there has to be a constant. She is the constant. The pills help her
keep clarity, while the injections cause hallucinations in the men. Hence why
she keeps testing them.
Her supposed
death, was a fake, if you recall she took extra pills, got dizzy and went to
sleep. A set up.
Hallucinogenics
cause a projection of fear or something in your subconscious, hence why Botany
boy, Bug, kept seeing his dead son.— He wasn’t going crazy, seeing a ghost, he
was hallucinating. When he figures it
out, the experiment snatches him away. Actually …. Emily helps with that. That’s
why she disappeared briefly. Being part of the experiment, she had to step back
so Theo could discover the blood bath. She had to get Bug out of the way.
Now for some
things you may have missed or not thought of. When they have the explosions,
the ship rocks. Dane Cook's character (My favorite and most well rounded) asks, “Are we moving?”
I believe they
were moved to the stage. Where everything
was set up. The crew said the town wasn’t there before the experiment. So in
the apocalypse the town appears with power?
Moon dust? Okay,
serious, if the moon fell apart, there’d be a lot more damage than rocks falling from the sky. How about tsunami’s?
The computer read outs could have been duped by the experiment.
As a writer, we
place the truth in a character. A glossary guy. But sometimes you may miss that the character
is giving away the truth. We think he’s nuts or unbelievable. Dane Cook is that
character.
He continually
states it’s all part of the experiment, reminding the viewer that none of it is
real. He does so passionately. Like shouting. "Dudes, listen to me. It 's not real." But we don’t pay attention, we’re too busy hoping it is not.
He states that
all the towns’ people were familiar and were the reporters. He is correct. The
reporters are credited in the movie credits as reporter 1, 2, 3 etc. But none
of the townspeople get a credit. Because they would confirm they were also reporters.
The big one, and the reason Cook disappears is he
figured it out and recognized the town hottie as Miss February. She indeed was
one in the same. The mag with her picture was done on purpose to see if he
would remember, he did, he called them on it, he was taken out.
The final death
scene, well, to be honest, maybe they were real, maybe not. One thing is for
sure, it was nothing but an experiment, The surveillance camera view at the end
along with the hatch opening and the sunlight coming in were, in my opinion,
final confirmation.
I’m not saying I’m
right, and you can double check what I put here, but I’m pretty darn sure the filmmakers
left enough hints to let us turn off the movie with the certainty that it was
all a big experiment. I liked the movie, I liked it more once I figured it out
completely … at least to my satisfaction.
