The Fountain: What Was That All About Then?
Darren Aronofsky’s The Fountain is many things. It’s beautiful to look at, and it’s a tragically sad love story – Hugh Jackman and Rachel Weisz being head over heels in love in the 16th, 21st and 26th centuries.
It also takes itself very seriously, and steps the wrong side of silly a few times too often.
What it’s not is coherent. It’s not entirely clear what’s going on at certain points, particularly the Space Odyssey-gone-mental finale. Did Jackman write the final chapter of the book? What’s real and what’s fictional? Exactly who is it in that bubble? What was with all the flowers? And the tree?
So click below to read a few Screenhead theories as to exactly what happened.
Be warned: SPOILERS AHEAD…
Hold onto your hats, this gets complicated…
1. The 16th century conquistador & queen love story and Tree of Life quest is entirely fictional, taken straight from 21st century terminally ill Rachel Weisz’s unfinished “The Fountain” manuscipt. probability: 95%
2. She only got as far as the bit where Jackman faces the guardian of the Tree Of Life. probability: 90%
3. The nonsensical scene where 16th century Jackman defeats the guard (sort of), drinks greedily from the Tree of Life and is absorbed by the earth is the chapter 21st Jackman wrote. probability: 80%
4. 21st century Jackman needs to read Syd Field’s The Foundations Of Screenwriting and get some idea how plot points work. probability: 100%
5. The scenes with shaven-headed 26th century Jackman floating through outer space, doing yoga in a bubble with the dying remains of the Tree of Life (no, seriously) are also written by 21st century Jackman. This means only the 21st century Jackman is real, the other two are purely fictional (within the world of the movie). probability: 30%
6. Shaven-headed 26th century Jackman is actually 21st century Jackman who has kept himself alive for 500 years after finding the real Tree of Life. His medical success with the monkey using a mysterious tree compound suggests he found the Tree of Life, and the cut from 21st century Jackman tattooing his ring finger to 26th century Jackman arm covered in tattoos explicitly reveals them as the same person. probability: 70%
7. The tree in the bubble is the Tree of Life which he plans to re-animate by floating the bubble into the exploding nebula. probability: 60%
8. The tree in the bubble is actually the tree he planted over 21st century Rachel Weisz’s grave, and he’s trying to reanimate her. probability: 30%
9. The tree in the bubble is actually the Tree of Life which he located and replanted over Weisz’s grave. probability10%
10. The Fountain is one wacky movie. probability: 110%
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I LOVE ALL THE QUESTIONS YOU ALL POSE!
THAT MAKES THE FOUNTAIN THAT MORE ENTERTAINING…ALL THE SYMBOLISM THROUGHT THE MOVIE….THIS IS TOP NOTCH ARONOFSKY…
IF YOU DIDNT LIKE HIS MOVIE THEN GET THE MOVIE “PI”….YOU’LL REALLY HATE THAT…
DID I LIKE IT?
SO FAR IVE SEEN IT MAYBE 30 TIMES AND I KEEP WATCHING IT….I WAS LUCKY ENOUGH TO GET A PROMO COPY OF IT…..
I loved the fountain, and i even loved Pi
i’m looking for screen caps, pics of hugh jackmans arm tattoos anyone? anyone?
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Daryl Daryl Daryl, if everybody followed ol’ Syd we’d have a constant stream of boring movies. Think of the last few movies that are structured in his traditional way… and most of them are just dull.
And if the Fountain didn’t take itself seriously it would have been a mess. Its subject matter is serious so it has to remain faithful.
So there
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So I’ve seen this movie who knows how how many times, and I even own two copies of it. Here’s my interpretation:
I think that Izzi’s story, “The Fountain”, was based on her stories told to her by the Mayan guide when she was in Guatemala. So therefore, the 1500 AD part of the story is “true”. Tommy is Tomas reincarnated, and Izzi is the Queen reincarnated. Thomas (2500 AD), is Tommy (2000 AD) in the fuutre after he has lived for 500 years by cheating death and eating th tree of life. When Izzi tells his to “finish it”, I’m “guessing” (and this may be a stretch here) that she knew what was going to happen (that’s why she said that she feels different inside and that she’s not afraid). So Tommy finisheds the story by actually taking the tree to Shibalba to have the tree reborn. He also realizes that the only way to be with Izzi again is to die, and the only way he can die is by going to Shibalba and transferring his lifeforce into the tree. This is why during the scene when he is talking to his imagined version of Izzi in Shibalaba (switches between Izzi and the Queen), He keeps smiling and crying with jubilation, saying that he’s gonna die.
Also, the whole story is a flashback from the future Thomas’s point of view. That’s why the begining is so messed up. The opening scene is his dreaming the story she wrote. Then he says, “ok, take me, show me…” which is when you are taken back to the 2000 AD story line.
Now the reason he goes back in time when Shibalba dies is because it is a scientific theory that when stars die, they explode backwards in time (hence, black holes). This is how Thomas takes the tree back in time, and also why at the very end scene, in 2000 AD, when Tommy is placing the acorn on top of Izzi’s grave, you see the star exploding in the sky.
This is my interpretation of the movie. If anyone has any questions or comments, please feel free to email me at smithers 929@yahoo.com.
And please let me know if you think I am totally wrong
I find these posts all very interesting because it proves that symbolism is easily understood in many ways.
Because we live in such a linear society, it may be hard for some to understand non-linear movies.
Since you folks have the “The Fountain” DVDs is there any information in the featurettes that explains the movie more?
In real life the husband is a medical scientist who is looking for a cure to save his wife from a canerious brain tumor. In the book the guy finds the tree of life and after the husband reads the book it triggers something in his mind about a tree bark he found not to long ago that might have certain components in it to save his wife from the cancerous brain tumor. The tree bark works but he is too late to save his wife from the disease. HOWEVER – in the book he never takes back the tree of life to the queen because after he eats it he then becomes a part of the tree and of life – his purpose was to discover it. In real life though he never saves his wife from the disease. it doesn’t matter for he still discovered it, which was HIS REAL PURPOSE!
Now the person in the sky with the bare tree – is a representation of him while he is on earth.This is what i believe in. While we are here on earth your spirit self is waiting for you to accomplish your purpose so you can transcend into the next life cycle or stage.
If he can let go of his wife in this life cycle and realize what his purpose is, he can transcend and fulfill his last life cycle. He did. That’s why the tree grew and he became one with himself and broke free from his final stage. He became at peace.
The point of the film is that everyone has a purpose and though every life cycle you go through the same things, doing the same things, meeting the same people you have to complete it entirely without giving in or giving up on your responsibilities. That’s why in the film she kept saying; “finish it’ – finish reading the book so you can write the ending and finish the story. And he did. that’s why she keep saying “let go” stop holding on to things you can not change. That’s why while he was on earth his self-being or spirit in the cycle was stuck trying to save the tree, trying to fix the past as appose to excepting the past and fulling his purpose. That’s why when the tree died he was scared because that would have meant he failed. The tree represented his efforts in protecting something that was inevitably going to die.
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This is a comment to Ammith sence I don’t have a yahoo account and never intend to get one
. It is a great theory to make sense of there being three Tommies, the one in the story, the past, and the supposed one in the bubble, but I believe the whole bald headed jackman was his enlightened self or is his collective consciousness. (note when he need to save that monkey really quickly and he looks up to the sky(him just thinking) and the frames that switch back and forth , and then he knows, his collective told him)The whole thought of that there has to be a chronological chain of events is normal though. But in this movie there are lots of references to circles(especially the ring) The circle represents beginning and end, where one thing ends another or the same begins, in other words eternity. (It was Albert Einstein that once said that time is an illusion) This movie plays on the fact that we are no one to try to measure time,or even perceive it correctly. There is no time(as the measurement past present and future), just eternity. (yeah and I know I probably sound nuts too).
Rachel Weisz is the tree of life held in a moment in space (bubble). She is dying but is reborn when her love joins her by drinking from the sap in the story (the fountain). By completing the story he saves the tree and is granted the seed of the tree of life which he plants over her grave completing the cycle and ongoing life of the tree. Thus the tree is reborn.
My thoughts.