bounty-man
What a film!!! People that found this confusing, fear not! I have the answers to your confusions! (Warning spoilers)The film isn't listed in order, it is a jumbled collection of time, reality, and fantasy, much like what have dementia is like. A lot of symbolism is used in the film to create meaning, so keep your eyes open.My Nan is 84 and suffers with stage 9 dementia, it breaks my heart to see how far she has declined . The thing that makes me happy though is the fact i can ask her about her past and she can remember something! The person that is trapped behind the disease comes out again!The same can be said for the film, you don't really know who he is when you ask him in the present tense, he is Nemo , a confused 118 year old in the year 2092. However, when the psychologist tries to explore his past you get some information, that is more like a puzzle than the answer, but it gives you the resources to build some of the truth behind who Nemo really is.My Nan talks about past events and they can be jumbled at times, but i see each story as a clue to the whole truth and i have rearranged her stories to make the puzzle fit into the whole picture of what happened! Firstly Nemo tries to place himself , who am i? , "how old am i?" , "who did i know in my life? , "who where my parents?", "what events can i remember that were significant?".Nemo sees himself as a Dad at first, who is wearing an 80's styled jacket, but he eventually realizes that he was born in 1975 and was much to young to be a Dad during this time period. The story changes and he sees himself as a 9 year old boy, which is the foundation of most of his memories into the person that he is.The 9 year old Nemo remembers pleasant things about his mom and loves his dad, but you can tell he doesn't really know his Dad, because he only focuses on what his dad does and not who he is - ie "my Dad is a weatherman".He remembers three girls from his childhood that liked him, Anna, Blonde girl, and Gene, they wave to him and say "hi Nemo as he walks passed". He focuses on Anna first, your first symbolic event that points to the truth. You later see him looking at Anna as the boys leave the pool and the girls come in, none of the other girls get as much time as Anna does in Nemos memories when he was young.Nemo says that he can see the future before it has happened, and i believe this is because he is sensitive to events, but also evidence that 2092 is actually real and not just " the imagination of a 9 year old boy"(stated at the end of the film) . Nemo has to have disbelief about waking up in a strange future with little knowledge about who he is, so he attributes his confusion to pure imagination and fantasy, as a coping mechanism.The dad leaves the break off his car accidentally and the car rolls down the hill hitting a mother pushing her baby across the street. You don't see whether she was killed, but it is assumed she was, the baby can still be heard crying when the car hits the mother.The dad is potrayed as a good man, but someone who doesn't have very much stability over his life, the accident and predicting the wrong weather point to this. The lack of stability probably effected Nemos mom and left her to feel powerless, she then started an affair with Anna's dad. Nemo spots his mom in the forest kissing Annas dad on the way home from school, he is seen as being upset and stares at Anna who is sitting on the dock throwing pebbles, symbolic of the butterfly effect, how one small ripple(event) ,creates bigger ripples later on! Nemo's parents get a divorce and Nemo has to choose at the train station platform who he wants to live with, his mom or his dad. The scene is the most important in the entire film and it is described by Nemo as an earth shattering event in his life.The quote that characterizes the entire film is said "Making a choice leaves only one possibility, but making none leaves every possibility!"Nemo can't remember what choice he made, so his mind creates scenarios and consequences for every possible choice. He views two possibilities of what happened if he stayed in England with his dad and two possibilities if he went to America with his mom.The situation with his dad didn't happen and there are many little clues to this. Firstly, Nemo can see the future and he saw that the mother pushing the baby was killed by his dads car, he is adamant about the fact and repeats it several times throughout his past memories. Yet when he stays with his dad in England ,during the possible scenario, his dad is paralyzed and in a wheelchair. The version of Nemos life would have proved his visions incorrect, as in this reality his dad saw the car rolling in time and instead of seeing a mother be killed for his mistake, he jumped in the path of his own car to save her, thus becoming disabled.The version of Nemos life with his dad didn't happened because it contradicts a strong theme throughout the film "i can see the future". He didn't end up with Blonde girl ,or Gene and he wasn't hit off his bike as a teenager. The scifi story that he wrote and is played when he is in hospital seems to be a forgotten account of his adult life between the ages of 34 and 117.Nemo may have been to Mars and witnessed a tragedy that had a profound effect on him and it can be seen again in his version of life with Gene, he is watching a news story about an oil tanker exploding on a bridge, which directly links to the scifi story. I believe the version of Nemos life with his dad never happened, but i do believe they are symbolic of the loss Nemo felt for his dad and some traumatic events he had witnessed during his life as an adult.People can point to the scene with the shoe factory and the manager of the shoe factory considering to buy the inferior shoelaces, that would snap, thus causing Nemo to trip and miss his mothers train, leading him to a life spent in England with his Dad. Yet, watch the scene again, you can see how unimpressed the shoemaker looks with the sheepish looking shoelace sales man, i think this proves he didn't buy inferior materials.The stories do have purposes and even the ones that didn't happen, but i will get to that after i tell you the true story of Nemos life.Nemo made it to the train and spent his life with his mom in America.He began living with his moms new husband and his daughter Anna, who he fondly remembered from his childhood. They fall passionately in love, to the dismay of their parents, but the story takes another fork and the audience must decide whether the parents divorced and Anna and Nemo were separated or they stayed together, thus ensuring the young lovers stayed together as well.The version of life where Nemo and Anna didn't get separated saw them living a happy life together, but Nemo runs his car off the road after a bird slams into his window, causing him to crash into a river and drown. The moment we can prove that the present day Nemo ,2092, exisist as an old man in the future, the version where Nemo dies isn't possible , because he is actually 117 years old in the future! Thus the only possibility left and the truth of what happened is the version where Nemo and Annas dad split up. The two young lovers are separated for years , but refuse to love anyone else.The two lovers become older and bump into each other again, but Anna becomes overwhelmed by finally meeting the only person she has wanted for years, she needs time to think for a few days. However, she hands Nemo her number before she leaves, but a random rain drop falls on it and smudges the number.Nemo is devastated because he has lost her number, but waits at the bench near the lighthouse and sleeps there for days. The most important clue of the film, Nemo draws a circle on the ground , symbolizing completion (this version of the story will lead to a full circle-the truth) He evens wakes and imagines Anna in the circle, overjoyed to see him, the part of his life that would have completed him.Throughout the film you can see each version of Nemo recognizing one another and trying figure out which is which, symbolizing the present day Nemos confusion over who he really is.Nemo never moved form the bench for a long time and eventually became stricken by grief from the loss of Anna from his life. He became a homeless person who lived on the streets and disengaged from society completely, because Anna was his only reason for living or having a life.He may have gone to mars from the age of 34-117 and witnessed a tragedy in space or he may have seen it reported on tv, while he was living on the streets and had some repressed trauma come back to him, as i said before about the scifi story and Nemos dad.He may have wandered the streets for decades before being picked up by the authorities after years of being disconnected from society. He had not registered his identity or got any modern procedures done , thus his identity was unknown and he became Mr Nobody. He may have had to see several psychologists when they found him, hence the flashbacks and the reason why he had a psychologists still talking to him at his old age.The alternative lives surrounding the other girls that Nemo imagines is negative, he sees Gene as someone boring and Blonde girl being the source of immense pain and dulling of his life.The loss of Anna was no fault of either of them, but a random act of fate, though it caused him a lot of grief. Yet, in the end Nemo was left with a bitter sweet feeling, to have had true love in his life and bitterness for losing that love of his life.Nemo is on his death bed and he realizes this fact that he and Anna shared true love and said " this has been a wonderful day" , he remembered who he truly was and in his dying breath he said " Anna".(i wanted to write about the choices but id don't have room) The films main message is that one choice can have massive effects, the butterfly effect.
