The Fountain (Spoilers ahead)

[sirana]

I just saw The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky and my head is literally bubbling over with thoughts about the movie.
Actually I saw it yesterday the first time and now I have rewatched it with Aronovsky's audio commentary (funny part: Warner Brothers didn't want an audio commentary on the dvd, so he made one as a mp3 that you can download. It's a pain in the ass to sinc the dvd and the mp3, but it's worth it) Regarding the central themes of the movie, it has brought forth more questions than answers though, so I will share my interpretation of the movie.

Everybody who has seen the film, I'd really want to hear your interpretation, everybody who has't, go rent it and then join the discussion ;-)

So my interpretation:

The story of the Conquistador is the plot of the book that Izzy is working on, straight up to the fight of Thomas with the Mayan priest.
The story in the now is real, as is the story in the future (the bubble/spaceship). The tree in the future is the tree which Tommy planted on Izzi's from a seed which he found in South America (the same tree of which he used a sample on the monkey). So his eating of the bark of the tree makes him immortal (long enough to reach the star). When he reaches the star as the star explodes he has come to terms with his own death and the death of Izzi and he is allowed to reshape the way in which he handles Izzi's dying (he runs after her instead of going to operate on the monkey, so he accepts her death instead of trying to fight it).

The last part of the story of the Conquistador leaves me unclear. I'd say that it is his writing the last chaptor of Izzi's book, but there are two things that don't fit for me. First, why does FutureTom appear (as a floating figure) in the story and second, how does the ring that the Conquistador lets fall down appear in FutureTom's hand?

Questions over questions, and I'd be really interested to hear your answers.

[Darwinist]

I just saw The Fountain by Darren Aronofsky and my head is literally bubbling over with thoughts about the movie.
Actually I saw it yesterday the first time and now I have rewatched it with Aronovsky's audio commentary (funny part: Warner Brothers didn't want an audio commentary on the dvd, so he made one as a mp3 that you can download. It's a pain in the ass to sinc the dvd and the mp3, but it's worth it) Regarding the central themes of the movie, it has brought forth more questions than answers though, so I will share my interpretation of the movie.

Everybody who has seen the film, I'd really want to hear your interpretation, everybody who has't, go rent it and then join the discussion ;-)

So my interpretation:

The story of the Conquistador is the plot of the book that Izzy is working on, straight up to the fight of Thomas with the Mayan priest.
The story in the now is real, as is the story in the future (the bubble/spaceship). The tree in the future is the tree which Tommy planted on Izzi's from a seed which he found in South America (the same tree of which he used a sample on the monkey). So his eating of the bark of the tree makes him immortal (long enough to reach the star). When he reaches the star as the star explodes he has come to terms with his own death and the death of Izzi and he is allowed to reshape the way in which he handles Izzi's dying (he runs after her instead of going to operate on the monkey, so he accepts her death instead of trying to fight it).

The last part of the story of the Conquistador leaves me unclear. I'd say that it is his writing the last chaptor of Izzi's book, but there are two things that don't fit for me. First, why does FutureTom appear (as a floating figure) in the story and second, how does the ring that the Conquistador lets fall down appear in FutureTom's hand?

Questions over questions, and I'd be really interested to hear your answers.

Thanks for the tip on the mp3 commentary.  I'm going to check that out. 

Quite an interesting movie.  I went with my wife and was we were walking out I said "that was cool" and she said "that sucked" pretty much simultaneously.  Of the people I know that saw the movie, the majority didn't like it.  We also talked a lot about different interpretations - most thought that the "now" part was the only real part. 

I'm with you on the interpretation - that the "now" part and the spaceship were real and the conquistador part was from the book; and, I guess I'm also little confused on the two issues you brought up.  Perhaps Tom wrote a representation of his immortal self into the Mayan priest story.  I have no idea on the ring.  I might have to watch it again.  It is certainly a movie hard to get your mind around. 

[DDog]

I loved The Fountain to bits and cried all through the ending. I showed it to my girlfriend and I think she was "meh" about it--it could also have had something to do with the fact that I watched it all at once late at night and she watched it in segments while sometimes working on other things.

One thing I just thought of, going along with Sirana's idea of Tom's acceptance of Izzy's death, is that when SpaceTom appears to the torch-wielding Mayan, ConquistaTom has just been stabbed in the gut and is about to get a face full of fire, and therefore has failed his Queen--which is probably how DoctorTom feels about Izzy's illness.

However, instead, the appearance of his enlightened alter-ego saves his life and he can go on to the Tree--but only the Mayan sees SpaceTom and ConquistaTom is entirely in the dark; a parallel with DoctorTom's refusal to pursue the original compound which could have saved Izzy's life.

ConquistaTom goes on, having radically misunderstood the purpose and effect of the Tree, only to be brought low by its real power--DoctorTom never quite made it to a full understanding of Izzy or the healing compound while she was alive, and it destroyed him.

His ring was lost once as DoctorTom and once again by ConquistaTom, and only regained by SpaceTom when he completes the journey with TreeIzzy with the final selfless act of subsuming both of them in the nebula together; whereas ConquistaTom set out alone to accomplish his goal, selfishly and ignorantly took the Tree's gift for himself, and failed; and DoctorTom set out alone to accomplish his goal, selfishly and ignorantly rejected the Tree's gift and Izzy's love, and failed.