Question re: the last scene in Shawshank (1 Viewer)

[Otis]

It would be really silly if they end the movie with a long Red monologue about all this hope and uncertainty about every finding his friend, and then about 3 seconds later showing him actually finding his friend.

Silly indeed.

I guess I think it was a really well done and thoughtful movie, and I have more faith in them than you're suggesting. It could well be that the closing daydream sequence is a compromise between the directory and what the studio/audience wanted. If he's going all out, why not go full bore and have Andy and Red sit down on the beach for a game of chess and some witty banter? Let's have them catch up about their zany travels. Then the audience will be so happy!!

Again, I'd be really curious to see what the director would say about all this. Maybe he addressed it elsewhere. I can't be the only person to interpret the ending this way (there are others in the poll at least). This must have come up at some point in more detail than what is posted above.

 

[Raider Nation]

I can't be the only person to interpret the ending this way (there are others in the poll at least).

Do you have 14 aliases by any chance?

 

[bigbottom]

It would be really silly if they end the movie with a long Red monologue about all this hope and uncertainty about every finding his friend, and then about 3 seconds later showing him actually finding his friend.

Silly indeed.

I guess I think it was a really well done and thoughtful movie, and I have more faith in them than you're suggesting. It could well be that the closing daydream sequence is a compromise between the directory and what the studio/audience wanted. If he's going all out, why not go full bore and have Andy and Red sit down on the beach for a game of chess and some witty banter? Let's have them catch up about their zany travels. Then the audience will be so happy!!

Again, I'd be really curious to see what the director would say about all this. Maybe he addressed it elsewhere. I can't be the only person to interpret the ending this way (there are others in the poll at least). This must have come up at some point in more detail than what is posted above.

I imagine it hasn't come up because there's never really been much a debate on the point, fifteen votes notwithstanding. In any event, he's said enough on the subject that would make no sense if he intended it to be a figment of Red's imagination.

Truth is, my first draft of the script didn't have this scene; it ended on the bus exactly as King's story does. However, the fine folks at Castle Rock (primarily Liz Glotzer, our patron saint) suggested that the audience would want to see
 Andy and Red reunite at the end after all the struggle and misery we've put these
 characters through.

Not “the audience would want to see Red daydream about how it would be if they reunited.”

Liz Glotzer was right about it providing emotional catharsis. But even more than that, in a purely cinematic sense, I think it gives the movie 
a tremendous sense of closure.

Closure? Why would Red imagining something that doesn’t actually happen in the film provide closure? You said it best on page 1: “the point is we don't know if Red ever finds him.”

Bottom line is, I think it's a magical and uplifting place for our characters to arrive at the end of their long saga...

Precisely. The characters (Red and Andy both) arrived there on the beach, with all its colors and limitless horizons. Andy and Red's long saga ends on the beach, not in Red's mind on the bus.

 

[Otis]

None of the above is conclusive.

It also doesn't make sense to me that they have a guy sitting on a bus daydreaming about how he hopes to cross the border, see the blue Pacific, and find his friend, right as he crosses the border, they show the Pacific, and they show him seeing his friend.

"Man, I hope I can get on the Internet tonight and #### around in the FFA."

 

[Otis]

That's it I'm writing this guy a letter. Let's get to the bottom of this.

 

[bigbottom]

None of the above is conclusive.

It's not conclusive only in the sense that he doesn't state "It's not a dream sequence!"

It also doesn't make sense to me that they have a guy sitting on a bus daydreaming about how he hopes to cross the border, see the blue Pacific, and find his friend, right as he crosses the border, they show the Pacific, and they show him seeing his friend.

Now you know why we're complaining about it being a clunky ending. It's not how King concluded the story. It's not how Darabont proposed to end the film. But when the producers said, hey the audience isn't going to be happy not knowing whether Red made it to Andy, Darabont caved. American audiences like closure and happy endings.

 

[Otis]

None of the above is conclusive.

It's not conclusive only in the sense that he doesn't state "It's not a dream sequence!"

It also doesn't make sense to me that they have a guy sitting on a bus daydreaming about how he hopes to cross the border, see the blue Pacific, and find his friend, right as he crosses the border, they show the Pacific, and they show him seeing his friend.

Now you know why we're complaining about it being a clunky ending. It's not how King concluded the story. It's not how Darabont proposed to end the film. But when the producers said, hey the audience isn't going to be happy not knowing whether Red made it to Andy, Darabont caved. American audiences like closure and happy endings.

Can we at least pretend this was Darabont's view of the ending, and he did this as a compromise. So he doesn't have the guys drinking beers on the beach and catching up no the old gang; but he doesn't end it on the bus either. He puts in something that is sufficiently open to interpretation such that he can cross his fingers behind his back and say "here studio, I gave you EXACTLY what you wanted!"

?

 

[Raider Nation]

 

[Rohn Jambo]

It took a while for Red to learn to hope so the instant gratification did not fit. I do not think the happy ending is a dream sequence though. The director shot the man hug from high in the air. That did not appear dream like to me. He probably just wanted to made it look less sappy.

 

[flapgreen]

The director doesn't address it because it was never a thought, no different than Andy having a love affair with the man who banged his wife so he decided to kill both if them.

 

[bigbottom]

None of the above is conclusive.

It's not conclusive only in the sense that he doesn't state "It's not a dream sequence!"

It also doesn't make sense to me that they have a guy sitting on a bus daydreaming about how he hopes to cross the border, see the blue Pacific, and find his friend, right as he crosses the border, they show the Pacific, and they show him seeing his friend.

Now you know why we're complaining about it being a clunky ending. It's not how King concluded the story. It's not how Darabont proposed to end the film. But when the producers said, hey the audience isn't going to be happy not knowing whether Red made it to Andy, Darabont caved. American audiences like closure and happy endings.

Can we at least pretend this was Darabont's view of the ending, and he did this as a compromise. So he doesn't have the guys drinking beers on the beach and catching up no the old gang; but he doesn't end it on the bus either. He puts in something that is sufficiently open to interpretation such that he can cross his fingers behind his back and say "here studio, I gave you EXACTLY what you wanted!"

?

Okay, I'll do my best.

 

[Josie Maran]

This still makes me so sad.

The studio that produced Seven wanted to shoot an alternate ending where Somerset stops Mills from killing John Doe, but Fincher and all three actors all refused to film it. I really wish Freeman and Robbins had had the balls to do that with Shawshank. And f### Frank Darabont for allowing it to happen anyway.

Weaker than Otis's fishing attempts the last page or so.

 

[Charlie Steiner]

This discussion about the ending makes me think of another Stephen King-based story turned into a movie, Stand By Me, particularly the scene where they're sitting around the fire and Gordie's telling the story about Davey "Lard-###" Hogan getting his revenge. The story ends on everyone barfing on each other, and then Corey Feldman's character says "And then what happened?" I guess King has had to deal with this kind of nitpicking a lot; nevertheless, he's still considered a great storyteller. I guess it just goes with the territory...

 

[Skipdog77]

Good article in Vanity Fair regarding Shawshank. Could you imagine Tom Cruise as Andy? Or Brad Pitt as Tommy?

http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/2014/09/shawshank-redemption-anniversary-story

Interesting to see how different it could have gone based on a few decisions.

 

[Joe Summer]

Red murdered his wife and also killed two innocent people, including a baby.

 

[Insein]

Red murdered his wife and also killed two innocent people, including a baby.

He had a wife? He was like 18 when he was arrested I thought.

 

[Joe Summer]

Red murdered his wife and also killed two innocent people, including a baby.

He had a wife? He was like 18 when he was arrested I thought.

The movie downplays his backstory to make him seem more sympathetic. "Only guilty man in Shawshank."

 

[Zow]

What's the book ending?

 

[Otis]

This still makes me so sad.

The studio that produced Seven wanted to shoot an alternate ending where Somerset stops Mills from killing John Doe, but Fincher and all three actors all refused to film it. I really wish Freeman and Robbins had had the balls to do that with Shawshank. And f### Frank Darabont for allowing it to happen anyway.

Weaker than Otis's fishing attempts the last page or so.

CONFUSED

 

[Insein]

What's the book ending?

Red and Andy goto a disco and get discovered by Jack Horner to start the next part of their lives.

 

[fantasycurse42]

Question: In the movie Major League... Does Wild Thing really nail Mrs. Roger Dorn, or was it all a dream?

 

[packersfan]

What's the book ending?

Red and Andy goto a disco and get discovered by Jack Horner to start the next part of their lives.

Like this better than Red sitting on a bus.

 

[flapgreen]

What's the book ending?

Red and Andy goto a disco and get discovered by Jack Horner to start the next part of their lives.

Like this better than Red sitting on a bus.

I like this idea too.

 

[bigbottom]

What's the book ending?

Spoiler

And here I am in the Brewster Hotel, technically a fugitive from justice again--parole violation is my crime. No one's going to throw up any roadblocks to catch a criminal wanted on that charge, I guess--wondering what I should do now.

I have this manuscript. I have a small piece of luggage about the size of a doctor's bag that holds everything I own. I have nineteen fifties, four tens, a five, three ones, and assorted change. I broke one of the fifties to buy this tablet of paper and a deck of smokes.

Wondering what I should do.

But there's really no question. It always comes down to just two choices. Get busy living or get busy dying.

First I'm going to put this manuscript back in my bag. then I'm going to buckle it up, grab my coat, go downstairs, and check out of this fleabag. Then I'm going to walk uptown to a bar and put that five-dollar bill down in front of the bartender and ask him to bring me two straight shots of Jack Daniel's--one for me and one for Andy Dufresne. Other than a beer or two, they'll be the first drinks I've taken as a free man since 1938. Then I am going to tip the bartender a dollar and thank him kindly. I will leave the bar and walk up Spring Street to the Greyhound terminal there and buy a bus ticket to El Paso by way of New York City. When I get to El Paso, I'm going to buy a ticket to McNary. And when I get to McNary, I guess I'll have a chance to find out if an old crook like me can find a way to float across the border and into Mexico.

Sure I remember the name. Zihuatanejo. A name like that is just too pretty to forget.

I find that I am excited, so excited I can hardly hold the pencil in my trembling hand. I think it is the excitement that only a free man can feel, a free man starting a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.

I hope Andy is down there.

I hope I can make it across the border.

I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.

I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.

I hope.

 

[bigbottom]

What's the book ending?

Spoiler

And here I am in the Brewster Hotel, technically a fugitive from justice again--parole violation is my crime. No one's going to throw up any roadblocks to catch a criminal wanted on that charge, I guess--wondering what I should do now.

I have this manuscript. I have a small piece of luggage about the size of a doctor's bag that holds everything I own. I have nineteen fifties, four tens, a five, three ones, and assorted change. I broke one of the fifties to buy this tablet of paper and a deck of smokes.

Wondering what I should do.

But there's really no question. It always comes down to just two choices. Get busy living or get busy dying.

First I'm going to put this manuscript back in my bag. then I'm going to buckle it up, grab my coat, go downstairs, and check out of this fleabag. Then I'm going to walk uptown to a bar and put that five-dollar bill down in front of the bartender and ask him to bring me two straight shots of Jack Daniel's--one for me and one for Andy Dufresne. Other than a beer or two, they'll be the first drinks I've taken as a free man since 1938. Then I am going to tip the bartender a dollar and thank him kindly. I will leave the bar and walk up Spring Street to the Greyhound terminal there and buy a bus ticket to El Paso by way of New York City. When I get to El Paso, I'm going to buy a ticket to McNary. And when I get to McNary, I guess I'll have a chance to find out if an old crook like me can find a way to float across the border and into Mexico.

Sure I remember the name. Zihuatanejo. A name like that is just too pretty to forget.

I find that I am excited, so excited I can hardly hold the pencil in my trembling hand. I think it is the excitement that only a free man can feel, a free man starting a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.

I hope Andy is down there.

I hope I can make it across the border.

I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.

I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.

I hope.

Spoiler

Coda

Andy was down there!

Totally made it across the border!

Not only shook his hand, but hugged him as well!

Damn, that ocean is mighty blue!

 

[Zow]

What's the book ending?

Spoiler

And here I am in the Brewster Hotel, technically a fugitive from justice again--parole violation is my crime. No one's going to throw up any roadblocks to catch a criminal wanted on that charge, I guess--wondering what I should do now.

I have this manuscript. I have a small piece of luggage about the size of a doctor's bag that holds everything I own. I have nineteen fifties, four tens, a five, three ones, and assorted change. I broke one of the fifties to buy this tablet of paper and a deck of smokes.

Wondering what I should do.

But there's really no question. It always comes down to just two choices. Get busy living or get busy dying.

First I'm going to put this manuscript back in my bag. then I'm going to buckle it up, grab my coat, go downstairs, and check out of this fleabag. Then I'm going to walk uptown to a bar and put that five-dollar bill down in front of the bartender and ask him to bring me two straight shots of Jack Daniel's--one for me and one for Andy Dufresne. Other than a beer or two, they'll be the first drinks I've taken as a free man since 1938. Then I am going to tip the bartender a dollar and thank him kindly. I will leave the bar and walk up Spring Street to the Greyhound terminal there and buy a bus ticket to El Paso by way of New York City. When I get to El Paso, I'm going to buy a ticket to McNary. And when I get to McNary, I guess I'll have a chance to find out if an old crook like me can find a way to float across the border and into Mexico.

Sure I remember the name. Zihuatanejo. A name like that is just too pretty to forget.

I find that I am excited, so excited I can hardly hold the pencil in my trembling hand. I think it is the excitement that only a free man can feel, a free man starting a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.

I hope Andy is down there.

I hope I can make it across the border.

I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.

I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.

I hope.

Thanks

 

[kentric]

What's the book ending?

Spoiler

And here I am in the Brewster Hotel, technically a fugitive from justice again--parole violation is my crime. No one's going to throw up any roadblocks to catch a criminal wanted on that charge, I guess--wondering what I should do now.

I have this manuscript. I have a small piece of luggage about the size of a doctor's bag that holds everything I own. I have nineteen fifties, four tens, a five, three ones, and assorted change. I broke one of the fifties to buy this tablet of paper and a deck of smokes.

Wondering what I should do.

But there's really no question. It always comes down to just two choices. Get busy living or get busy dying.

First I'm going to put this manuscript back in my bag. then I'm going to buckle it up, grab my coat, go downstairs, and check out of this fleabag. Then I'm going to walk uptown to a bar and put that five-dollar bill down in front of the bartender and ask him to bring me two straight shots of Jack Daniel's--one for me and one for Andy Dufresne. Other than a beer or two, they'll be the first drinks I've taken as a free man since 1938. Then I am going to tip the bartender a dollar and thank him kindly. I will leave the bar and walk up Spring Street to the Greyhound terminal there and buy a bus ticket to El Paso by way of New York City. When I get to El Paso, I'm going to buy a ticket to McNary. And when I get to McNary, I guess I'll have a chance to find out if an old crook like me can find a way to float across the border and into Mexico.

Sure I remember the name. Zihuatanejo. A name like that is just too pretty to forget.

I find that I am excited, so excited I can hardly hold the pencil in my trembling hand. I think it is the excitement that only a free man can feel, a free man starting a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.

I hope Andy is down there.

I hope I can make it across the border.

I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.

I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.

I hope.

See. Conclusive proof that Otis is right.

 

[Das Boot]

How do you interpret the very end scene of Shawshank, as they transition from Red on the bus, to Red walking along a beach and he and Andy meeting on the beach? Are they actually showing Red and Andy meeting and confirming that it happens, or is that just Red sort of imagining what it's going to be like?

This is the 20th anniversary of Shawshank.

I saw this quote in the article, but I guess technically it still doesn't answer your question:

http://www.cnn.com/2014/11/21/showbiz/movies/shawshank-redemption-20th-anniversary/index.html?hpt=hp_c4

"The movie ended in my original script with Red on the bus going off to this uncertain and hopeful future, which is how the novella ends," Darabont said. "But the folks at (production company) Castle Rock thought after putting the audience through two-plus hours of hell, we might owe them a union at the end."

That ending is just one of the reasons "Shawshank" is still beloved all these years later. "About everywhere you go, people say, 'The Shawshank Redemption -- greatest movie I ever saw,' " Freeman told Vanity Fair this year.

 

[Josie Maran]

What's the book ending?

Spoiler

And here I am in the Brewster Hotel, technically a fugitive from justice again--parole violation is my crime. No one's going to throw up any roadblocks to catch a criminal wanted on that charge, I guess--wondering what I should do now.

I have this manuscript. I have a small piece of luggage about the size of a doctor's bag that holds everything I own. I have nineteen fifties, four tens, a five, three ones, and assorted change. I broke one of the fifties to buy this tablet of paper and a deck of smokes.

Wondering what I should do.

But there's really no question. It always comes down to just two choices. Get busy living or get busy dying.

First I'm going to put this manuscript back in my bag. then I'm going to buckle it up, grab my coat, go downstairs, and check out of this fleabag. Then I'm going to walk uptown to a bar and put that five-dollar bill down in front of the bartender and ask him to bring me two straight shots of Jack Daniel's--one for me and one for Andy Dufresne. Other than a beer or two, they'll be the first drinks I've taken as a free man since 1938. Then I am going to tip the bartender a dollar and thank him kindly. I will leave the bar and walk up Spring Street to the Greyhound terminal there and buy a bus ticket to El Paso by way of New York City. When I get to El Paso, I'm going to buy a ticket to McNary. And when I get to McNary, I guess I'll have a chance to find out if an old crook like me can find a way to float across the border and into Mexico.

Sure I remember the name. Zihuatanejo. A name like that is just too pretty to forget.

I find that I am excited, so excited I can hardly hold the pencil in my trembling hand. I think it is the excitement that only a free man can feel, a free man starting a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.

I hope Andy is down there.

I hope I can make it across the border.

I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.

I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.

I hope.

So f###ing great.

 

[The Big Guy]

What if the ending wasn't just about Red finding Andy, but also giving us confirmation that Andy was living his dream as expressed earlier in the film? All we really knew up to that point was that he sent a postcard from Texas back to the prison. Showing Andy on the beach, living his fantasy life that he had in his head(even down to his fixing up an old beater of a boat), giving him the hope to survive is as much "movie closure" to the viewer as Red making it to join him.

 

[bostonfred]

What's the book ending?

Spoiler

And here I am in the Brewster Hotel, technically a fugitive from justice again--parole violation is my crime. No one's going to throw up any roadblocks to catch a criminal wanted on that charge, I guess--wondering what I should do now.

I have this manuscript. I have a small piece of luggage about the size of a doctor's bag that holds everything I own. I have nineteen fifties, four tens, a five, three ones, and assorted change. I broke one of the fifties to buy this tablet of paper and a deck of smokes.

Wondering what I should do.

But there's really no question. It always comes down to just two choices. Get busy living or get busy dying.

First I'm going to put this manuscript back in my bag. then I'm going to buckle it up, grab my coat, go downstairs, and check out of this fleabag. Then I'm going to walk uptown to a bar and put that five-dollar bill down in front of the bartender and ask him to bring me two straight shots of Jack Daniel's--one for me and one for Andy Dufresne. Other than a beer or two, they'll be the first drinks I've taken as a free man since 1938. Then I am going to tip the bartender a dollar and thank him kindly. I will leave the bar and walk up Spring Street to the Greyhound terminal there and buy a bus ticket to El Paso by way of New York City. When I get to El Paso, I'm going to buy a ticket to McNary. And when I get to McNary, I guess I'll have a chance to find out if an old crook like me can find a way to float across the border and into Mexico.

Sure I remember the name. Zihuatanejo. A name like that is just too pretty to forget.

I find that I am excited, so excited I can hardly hold the pencil in my trembling hand. I think it is the excitement that only a free man can feel, a free man starting a long journey whose conclusion is uncertain.

I hope Andy is down there.

I hope I can make it across the border.

I hope to see my friend and shake his hand.

I hope the Pacific is as blue as it has been in my dreams.

I hope.

So f###ing great.but what happens?