Does LTROI Have A Happy Ending?

[drakkar]

I confine myself to imaging them. As long as I shut up no one will know.

[a_contemplative_life]

Thought I'd bump this great thread for comment by our new members. This is actually one of the first threads ever opened here.

[J.J.]

Wow. So this thread is kinda a classic, right?

I say it's a happy ending indeed. After leaving Blackeberg Eli turns Oskar into a vampire too. They will have to withstand a rough life sometimes, but have each other now. They will no longer be alone, so... yeah, I think that's a happy ending, more or less... ^__^U

[intrige]

Why haven't I been here before? Just.. Inpossible! And unacseptable!
Well. the ending right..

No matter how I look at this, LTROI the ending is quite a dilemma.. We want Oskar and Eli to stay together, yet we want Oskar to grow up and live his life. And we don't want him to be some sort of caretaker, and what existense would a vampire have? Also. we don't want poor Eli to be alone, what complexes would an adult Oskar and an child Eli have if they were still together, and what if they weren't? There are so many down sides, yet we still even after thinkling about this, we want them to stay together. We want (well most of us want) Oskar to get turned, and them living happily.. Forever..

I think it's a happy ending, now they are free, alone, and together..

[KennyW]

Gosh, so this thread started all the way back from 2009...I wonder how many of the "Infected" back then are still infected, and if not, do they still have relapses and visit this forum? June 2009 - I must have been enjoying watching Roger Federer finally winning the French Open as well as his 15th Grandslam at Wimbledon...flat hunting to get my foot on the property ladder - those were good times.

Anyway, totally digressing - definitely a happy and beautiful ending, a bit bizarre considering we just see 3 kids get murdered and Oscar probably going to turn and an uncertain future but the prospect of true happiness...I think that's leaves a "feel good feeling"to the viewer and I don't think anyone could deny Eli and Oscar that chance (at least, not on this forum!).

Having said that, I'm glad a number of people interpreted the ending as Oscar being groomed to be the next Hakan, and therefore an atypical "Horror" film. In the first online review I read about this film, it was this perceived ambiguity which caught my attention and the rest as they say, is history...

[gattoparde59]

I have been meaning to do a completely separate post on the ending. If you compare Oskar at the ending to where Oskar was at the beginning of the film, then I would have to see this as a happy ending. During the course of the film something happens to Oskar and he is now on his way to something better compared to what he had at the beginning. The clues are there in the visuals we get at the beginning and the end. Think of the moving train. The windows in the opening and closing scenes. The shot of the snow which frames the film, and how we get beyond that forbidding snow at the very end. Darkness versus bright sunshine. Oskar's first line in the film is "squeal like a pig." His last line is given in morse code.

Yup. Happy ending.

[Marlow]

Unless ...

This has been mentioned elsewhere, but everything past Oskar losing his breath underwater could be the final mental constructions of a drowning boy's release of endorphins. An extremely temporary happiness.

[jetboy]

A happy ending yes but not one filled with ease or easy decisions.

[a_contemplative_life]

I have been meaning to do a completely separate post on the ending. If you compare Oskar at the ending to where Oskar was at the beginning of the film, then I would have to see this as a happy ending. During the course of the film something happens to Oskar and he is now on his way to something better compared to what he had at the beginning. The clues are there in the visuals we get at the beginning and the end. Think of the moving train. The windows in the opening and closing scenes. The shot of the snow which frames the film, and how we get beyond that forbidding snow at the very end. Darkness versus bright sunshine. Oskar's first line in the film is "squeal like a pig." His last line is given in morse code.

Yup. Happy ending.

Nicely stated. He does seem very happy at the end.

[sauvin]

I have been meaning to do a completely separate post on the ending. If you compare Oskar at the ending to where Oskar was at the beginning of the film, then I would have to see this as a happy ending. During the course of the film something happens to Oskar and he is now on his way to something better compared to what he had at the beginning. The clues are there in the visuals we get at the beginning and the end. Think of the moving train. The windows in the opening and closing scenes. The shot of the snow which frames the film, and how we get beyond that forbidding snow at the very end. Darkness versus bright sunshine. Oskar's first line in the film is "squeal like a pig." His last line is given in morse code.

Yup. Happy ending.

Nicely stated. He does seem very happy at the end.

Yay fleeting respite!