Adaption-based movies, series, and podcasts have been an emerging genre of the cinematic universe that has garnered the attention of a lot of people. The movies are loved by people mainly because what is better than seeing the movies that you once read in novels? They enable a person to turn their imagination into reality and have a general perspective of the same.
One such adaptation is the movie The Whale, which is based on the play of the same name by Samuel D. Hunter. Hunter is a playwright who is based in New York City. The play The Whale has been recognized and appreciated by critics and even has been awarded the Drama Desk Award and Lucille Lortel Award in 2013.
He is also known for his other plays, such as A Bright New Boise, which was also celebrated among the readers. The Drama Adaptation was directed by Darren Aronofsky and produced by Jeremy Dawson, Ari Handel, and Aronofsky himself. The movie stars Brendan Fraser, Sadie Sink, Hong Chau, Ty Simpkins, and Samantha Morton. The movie first premiered at the 79th Venice Film Festival on September 4th, 2022, and was later released in the United States on December 9th, 2022, by A24. It also received a six-minute long standing ovation at the film festival.
Fraser, the lead actor, also was nominated for Best Actor at the 80th Golden Globe Awards for his portrayal of Charlie. Aronofsky revealed that the film was in a decade in the making due to the issue of casting the appropriate actor for the role of Charlie. Fraser was recognized and cast by Aronofsky when he saw his trailer for Journey to the End of the Night.
The movie received mixed reviews, with most being positive and appreciative. To know what happened at the end of the movie, tag along and be aware of spoilers ahead!
What happened in The Whale-Ending Explained
The plot follows the story of an English professor named Charlie, who is portrayed by Fraser. Charlie is struggling with excessive obesity with a roundabout weight of 600 pounds, and in order to maintain a low profile and hide his appearance, he keeps a low profile by teaching online. We also get to see how Charlie feels insecure as he never turns on the camera at the online meeting so that no one gets to know about his appearance.
Liz, portrayed by Chau, the nurse and caretaker of Charlie, is the only friend that he has with whom we see himself talking about his feelings. She constantly urges him to go to a hospital to get checked for his condition, but he refuses. He is also visited by a missionary from New Life Chruch who constantly tries to evangelize him. Charlie keeps himself hidden and isolated from the world to the extent that even his pizza delivery person has built a routine to keep the pizza on the porch, take the money from the mailbox and leave without interacting with him.
Charlie also had a wife, Mary, from whom he had separated, and the divorced couple also shared a daughter Ellie whom he hadn’t seen in eight years. He tries to reconnect with his daughter on several occasions and even bribes her to give her all the money in his account. In exchange for helping Ellie out in rewriting her school essay, she agrees to come and spend some time with her father.
Thomas, the missionary from the church, is a reason for annoyance at Liz as he constantly keeps nagging Charlie to get him saved, and Liz strongly believes that Charlie doesn’t need to be saved. She further reveals that when Charlie lost his brother Alan due to starvation due to his religious guilt that Charlie could not recover from it. To cope with the loss of his loved one, he started binge eating, which only resulted in the current state that he is in. Regardless, Thomas stays adamant that Charlie can be saved and needs to be saved.
As the movie progresses, Charlie’s health worsens, and he chokes on a sandwich. Liz tries to bring comfort to him being moving him around in a wheelchair, but he is still on the brink of dying. Ellie one day sneaks in sleeping pills in Charlie’s sandwich and interacts with Thomas, recording some of the scandalous secrets that he reveals.
Liz now brings in Mary, who finds out about the secret father-daughter meetings, and the scene takes a chaotic turn when Charlie reveals that he has $120,000 in his bank account and he lied about not having enough money for health care. Liz angrily storms out, and Mary and Charlie are left alone as they fight and argue.
Liz, who is emotionally attached to Charlie, comes back to comfort him despite being angry, and Ellie barges in to confront Charlie about her essay. He tells her that he had replaced her essay with her critical essay on Moby Dick that she wrote in eighth grade as it was honest and truthful. He attempts to reconcile with her one last time and asks her to read out the essay.
As she tearfully does so, he attempts to stand up and walk toward her, and as she is done reading, he passes away from congestive heart failure. The ending is dreamy as the audience gets to see a glimpse of Charlie as he ascends into heaven, where he is enjoying a great time with his family on a beach. This scene is like a dream that Charlie wished were true and hence, were a part of his heaven.
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