TV - Movies
The Ending Of
Spiderhead
Explained
By KIM BELL
Chris Hemsworth’s mad scientist character, Steve Abnesti, and Miles Teller’s inmate patient, Jeff, are essential to the movie’s ending, which asks us to think about the value of regret, guilt, and shame. The final voiceover and the differing outcomes for the two main characters reveal the movie's straightforward thesis.
Hemsworth and Teller
Abnesti’s death because of his unwillingness to face his loneliness and feelings of abandonment and rejection suggests that embracing such emotions is fundamental to our survival. His end also illustrates his reliance on convenience-promoting, emotion-dulling, and dopamine-inducing apps and devices.
Lonely Mad Scientist
Even though Jeff and his love interest, Lizzy, ride off into the sunset, they're both filled to the brim with feelings of pain, regret, shame, remorse, and intermittent glimpses of hope. In a sense, the ending of "Spiderhead" investigates and asks questions about what it means to be human and alive.
Happy But Sorrowful
George Saunders' original story takes an unflinching look at the unsentimental reality behind our notion of personhood. The movie concerns itself with these same things, but goes a step further, acting as less of an adaptation and more of an interpretation of Saunders' ultimate point.
Saunders’ Message
Yes, the film says, we are all a series of chemically-driven responses, but controlling or dulling those responses artificially takes away our humanness. If we hope to survive, we have to be able to see and embrace life as it truly is — in all its frequently gut-wrenching glory.
Open Our Eyes