无尽

1，营地的轮回不是十年一次。如果十年一次，则片末才是营地众人的第一次死亡，但众人显然意识到自己在轮回中，意识到怪物（我倾向于外星人）的存在，说明他们轮回过了。而且如果三月齐圆就是轮回周期，兄弟呆了两天就经历了从一月到三月的变化，则营地的轮回周期只是几天而已。轮回重置后人会“返老还童”，营地众人如果十年轮回一次，则不会如此年轻，证明他们的周期其实很短，导致他们“青春常驻”。

2，兄弟二人也在轮回中。证据大家说得很多了，比如母亲纪念处前幼时作的画是崭新的，哥哥在路上发现左右的景色是对称的，再看才看到营地的山，说明他们从家来到纪念处都属于一个轮回圈。片末兄弟驾车冲出营地时迎头撞上结界，结界上也反映出车子，说明轮回圈之间的结界会反映景物。弟弟与服装女夜观两个月亮，右边的月亮显然也是反映造成。还有车油始终是空的。

3，进入轮回的人来自不同时代，轮回周期也不同。帐篷男的着装最古（有说南北战争时期的），他的周期只有五秒。上吊男是三小时（据豆友说），营地众是几天，其中酿酒男、画画女都是单独入圈的，和其他人不是一波。兄弟俩应该超过十年。因为二人冲出结界后只是脱离了营地圈而回到了原来生活了十年的圈。兄弟二人在生活圈过了十年，从小变大，重返营地又出来后没有“返老还童”，证明他们的周期还没到。而且兄弟俩的权限应该也最高，他们可以出入所有的轮回圈，而有些人只能困在自己的圈里。最明显的是上吊男穿过结界又从农房里出来，他无法去戒毒男那里。领袖男不陪弟弟去车房，因为他没有去那里的权限。

4，寻夫女就是自焚男的妻子，因为她就有贴小纸条的习惯。画画女有个爱枪的前男友，或许是戒毒男？磁带是怪物寄给兄弟俩的，注意观察磁带是凭空落在他们家门口的。这再次证明兄弟俩生活的城市仍在轮回圈里。轮回众人无论是被怪物杀死还是为了避免痛苦而自杀，都有记忆。

5，兄弟俩的轮回周期未明。假设他们老死后重启，则是：重回车祸后母亲死亡的时刻，兄弟俩被救入营地，开始困入轮回。哥哥怀疑营地是邪教，带弟弟逃出，其实是进入了其后生活十年的大轮回。十年后重回营地，然后再返回大轮回。此后生活到死，大轮回重启。其间营地众、上吊男、自焚男、帐篷男等小轮回各依周期重启。大小轮回之间，好比月绕地30天和地绕日365天一样，组成复合系统。

反复看了好几遍后..................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................

发现每个人看到最后，都会问：那他们到底逃出循环没？

有人觉得出来了，有人觉得没有，然而根据《digitalspy》上含蓄的剧透：“one theory holds that the brothers are unknowingly trapped in a larger loop of their own（两兄弟不知不觉地进入了他们自己的一个大循环中了）” 。

看两兄弟刚出来时的远景。注意那座山的山口：

之后9秒又给了反光镜里的一个镜头：

不用画圈圈都能看清楚了8？！恐怖8？！令人绝望8？！

其实，他们献给妈妈的那张画已经说明结局。为什么这么多年过去了，当年孩童献给妈妈的那张画还是象新的一样？应为这个车祸的事发现场周边已经被圈定为一个循环圈了，在这个循环圈里，时间早已被设定静止了。

还有更令人绝望的：1小时31分37秒

看到那重叠往复的镜头没？

首相导演想说的意思大家都已明了，就是人类总是在不停地重复自己错误，没完没了，有时还是故意地不走出循环：

营地那群人在寻找的是永恒的平静，这群人其实来自全然不同的年代，叼着烟斗的貌似最古老，画画的女孩是在两兄弟之后才进去的，所以还不到10年，变魔术的仁兄觉得自己活了115年了....但他们全都是自觉自愿甘之如饴。尤其是数学家，因为解不开一道难题，所以祈祷天地永恒时间静止，可以让他左后通关....至今未果。

而其他圈子里的一些则是心不甘情不愿的，比如帐篷里那十分十分十分古老（可能是南北战争时期的遗老）的愤怒的小鸟。

各圈循环时间的长短也各有不同，帐篷里的好像只有一分钟，帮助朋友解毒的迈克他们就有好几个礼拜，迈克那个爱贴纸条的老婆珍妮的循环应该很短，而兄弟两的时间.....应该是从首次离开营地10年以后开始算的。 神棍帮的时间很是含糊，首先他们自己以月亮的数量计算，看他们把兄弟俩从小孩子拉扯到成年这一点看，感觉他们的时间好像应该超过十年才对。

恐怖的事情是，这些人岁在地理位置上相距很近，但却永远碰不上，比如画画妹子曾和吸毒老有过一段。但自从进了圈后就在没见面了，而贴条嫂嫂的老公迈克更是咫尺天涯地和她生活在同一山谷里，却无法改变珍妮永远的悲伤寡妇的处境。行走男想要戒毒男的枪，但如果没有外人帮忙，自己就永远都拿不到。

其实两兄弟自己早就有了自己走不出的循环。阿龙告状心理医生说贾斯丁总是要做决定，每次总是错的，所以把人生弄到如此糟糕。那是不是这次决定要走出神棍帮的决定也依然错误巨大呢？艾伦·穆尔黑德自己给Digital Spy的剧透是：“ But ultimately, we just want to make sure that by the end of the film, you feel like their interpersonal conflict has gone through a change. Because their interpersonal conflict was its own loop, in a weird little way. They kept on making the same mistakes with each other, and Aaron kept on submitting to Justin's will, and Justin kept on closing it. ”。就是说，虽然老二最终冲自己唯一的家人说了本不愿说的实话，那什么”你的决定从来糟糕“”从没对过“....什么的，但他最终也还是遵循了老哥的错误决定。他天生就是这样懦弱的个性，必须有个强有力的老大依靠和指引，这也是那东西对他一直是利诱（好吃的啦，大家庭啦，女色啦，还有大麻）而对容易质疑权威的老大就常常加以恐吓（野兽，湖怪，地动山摇，神秘力量代发塔罗牌什么的）。无论如何，就算在大社会里，”那东西“的力量也依然存在，不然老二又怎会收到那个阻止他去加油的邮包？这些铺垫让我不禁担心，如果两兄弟最终冲进了自己的循环圈，且是被困在那条无止尽的公路上没完没了地开车那么惨？！是不是早早从了阿龙要留在营地的意愿还好一点呢？

很多人说这是部烧脑剧而非恐怖片，但我觉得这就是本片革新的境界——烧脑恐怖！你会想再回头去看一遍不会怕，越看你觉得越明白，而越明白没你才越觉得恐怖。最恐怖的还是你最后的问题，虽然有证据显示这两兄弟没走出循环，但也依然有迹象显示，如这些被困人好像都是第一次重见两兄弟，两兄弟可以行走于不同的循环就好像应该代表了他们现在还不在里面......等等。那么这两兄弟到底走出来没？

本片一开头就已致敬美国伟大的H.P. 洛夫克拉夫特了：

连斯蒂芬金都尊其为” 20世纪最伟大的古典恐怖故事作家 “。这次，贾斯丁本森和艾伦穆尔黑得就决定把这未知玩到比斯蒂芬金的《小丑》都要狠的地步：长什么样：未知；是什么：未知；连什么时候：最后还来个无限循环的不循环的循环，让观众——就说我吧，狠狠烧过好几次脑才惊栗地反应过来..............................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................................天哪！我也跟着循环了!

仅对结尾作两种推测：1、哥俩逃出循环。

哥哥：该加油了。弟弟：no,we are good。哥哥：油表空了。弟弟：一直都这样（指油表）

哥哥反问：一直都是空的?

弟弟：如果真的空了，就意味着油箱里一点油都没有。注意：此时镜头转向油表，此时播放时长为1:46:38

弟弟抬杠且认死理，油表不亮就是坏了。反正有油。

下一秒，也就是1:46:39 油表指示灯亮了。

当场打脸

然后镜头回到哥俩身上，弟弟的话说了一半，骤然而至。因为被打脸了。油表灯亮了，证明哥哥说的是对的，要加油了。

弟弟之前习惯了和哥哥针锋相对，或者说叛逆心理作祟，喜欢和哥哥抬杠。从开头到最后都有片段陈述弟弟的这种心理状态。加上刚开了没多远，弟弟以为哥哥找借口不让他开了。所以他说we are good。个人认为可以理解为“咱俩现在这样就挺好，我坐主驾驶你坐副驾驶”。包括最后推车时弟弟为啥非要开车，因为来营地的时候他要开，哥哥没同意。还是逆反心理，小孩子一样。

而开车也是种隐喻，往哪走当然主驾驶说了算。人生亦如此。之前弟弟埋怨哥哥，说不想走了，因为在城市里生活太糟糕，都是因为你在主导我们人生的前进方向诸如此类的话，哥俩吵架都有说。不再赘述。

回到电影,哥哥说：you figure it out。字幕是：你全都明白了。个人认为不太准确。包括其他影评也有提到这点。百度翻译有个例句很好：

意思为你来解决咯。结合哥哥当时的坐姿和语气，再通俗一点讲就是，好好，你说了算。

这个可以理解为哥哥在这种小事上的退让，和对弟弟的包容。为啥这么说，诸位不妨回到推车那会，哥哥说了一大串话，有一句说“从现在开始我们扯平了，你是我弟弟，我很爱你。“反正弟弟已经认识到确实要加油了，何必非在言语上占个上风呢？

综上所述，哥俩逃出循环。happy ending。而且营地留下的人脸上略显欣慰的笑容也可佐证。

2、哥俩没有逃出循环。

有人问说循环从哪开始，到哪结束。在我看来非常简单。

播放时长1:45:32.

即为开始，也为结束。

此为开始，哥俩以为逃出循环。回到城市可以继续平常的生活，但是十年的惨淡人生中（为啥惨淡稍后再讲），弟弟愈发对哥哥不满，想要回到营地过衣食无忧的生活。并反复观看片头收到的那一卷录像带，谁劝都不好使（特别是他哥）。不来不行，这日子过不下去了，要啥啥没有（片头可知，没钱没有朋友何况女朋友）哥哥无奈之下迁就弟弟，俩人一起回到营地，再次经历电影里发生的一切，并死于最后的撞击中。这里有几个地方需要细说：

为啥惨淡？逃是逃出去了，可能哥俩心态有点变化，哥哥不像以前那么独断专行，弟弟也不逆反了也不抬杠了。兄友弟恭，共同创造和谐新生活一起致富奔小康多好啊。这个想法是好的。

但是，江山易改本性难移，再联系电影情节，弟弟从小就是这个样子长大，这都二三十岁了还是很逆反。真能改过来吗？我看不好说。

其次，弟弟回去后，继续做保洁。孤枕难眠时看到月亮会不会想起那个姑娘（服装设计师）？会不会想起她口中传来的那股子“花朵”味（姑且认为是大麻），会不会卷根大麻怀念一下并沉浸在毒品的短暂快感中无法自拔？还是不好说。自古人心难断，诸位以为呢？

有人说，弟弟想来营地的原因就是因为当下的生活太糟糕。努力奋斗过上好日子不就行了？

那我们退一步讲，哥俩买彩票或者通过自己努力奋斗，发财了。朋友也有了对象也有了。那么人生得意之际，花天酒地夜夜笙歌也好，高朋满座杯觥交错也好。曲终人散的时候会不会想起那个只拉过一下手的姑娘？会不会想回营地，哪怕见一面都好？我看更不好说。反正哥俩混的好不好都无所谓，都得回来。

营地里的人欣慰的笑，也是以为他俩逃出了循环。

所以，哥俩逃不出循环，做再多也是白搭。

我话讲完，谁赞成？谁反对？

导演两人拍摄于2012年的处女作《决案》和2017年的《无尽》虽说是两部影片，但在其故事情节和人物角色上却有不少重叠之处，而主题更有意想不到的延续，因此作为同一部野心勃勃的作品来看也未尝不可。比起较为粗糙简陋的处女作，《无尽》则明显地在制作成本上有所增加，令两位导演的狂野想象力得以展露。《无尽》的剧情和人物与《决案》有延续和交叠的部分，尤其在其中的一个场景，讲述男主角误入循环时空，竟出现在《决案》里Mike和Chris的那个小木屋里，奇妙地将两部影片的脉络打通，还无意中引出对抗幕后黑手的终极方式……

无独有偶地，两部影片都是由一盘神秘录像带而引出故事，而且不约而同地在传统的电影类型里逐渐融入惊悚恐怖的氛围，处女作是伙伴电影，而《无尽》则是近年冒起的邪教类型片。故事讲述两兄弟回到十年前逃出的邪教组织，却发现这个邪教的真实信仰与之前不同，还意外发现一个更加阴险的秘密。这部无论在制作水准还是主题概念上都远超过处女作《决案》的粗陋和直白，出现一些玄妙的特效场面。而后半段惊现时空循环的科幻情节又透露出核心主题，日常生活的平庸本质本身就是一种“循环”，一旦陷入这种生活模式便难以脱身。这个主题似乎与前一部作品《爱在初春惊变时》存在着有趣的交集，只不过前者是关于生死的宏大命题，这部回到更为现实的生活方式，更容易获得共鸣。

这部依然存在跟《决案》类似的元电影结构，甚至不惜在最后高潮部分让幕后大神“现身”，不过，这部的重点似乎不仅仅是这个幕后操纵角色的怪物。剧本用惊艳的科幻情节将生活的本质分析得相当透彻，周而复始的行动和目标，不管时间长短，终将回到原点，这种环形时空的世界观远远比简陋的处女作要复杂和诱人得多。

没时间读完的朋友，简单总结就是导演说了，结尾是happy ending，不是loop，兄弟俩逃出生天。

http://collider.com/the-endless-explained-interview/

‘The Endless’ Filmmakers on Their Trippy Mythology & Deciphering That Ending

This week, Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead‘s The Endless rolls out on Blu-ray and digital, which means that folks nationwide are going to be unravelling the headtrip horrors of the film’s unnerving, mysterious Lovecraftian mythology and looking for some answers.Earlier this month, I published the first part of my conversationwith the filmmaking duo, which spanned from the duo’s early ideas for expanding the universe they built in their first film, Resolution, to the experience of taking the finished versionThe Endless around the world. And now that the movie has hit more theaters, it seems like a good time to serve up the spoilery portion of the interview, which dives into what to make of the film’s mysterious mythology and ending.

If you need a refresher, The Endless follows Benson and Moorhead as Justin and Aaron (yes, they’re using their real names, but no, they’re no playing themselves), a pair of bickering brothers always at odds who return to the UFO death cult they escaped as kids in search of answers. Except when they get there, they don’t find a UFO death cult at all, but a happy and healthy, if admittedly weird and unsettling, commune of people living life on their own terms. They also find something more sinister lurking in the hillsides of the remote camp — an unseen, oppressive presence that communicates through voyeuristic photographs and video clips, trapping people in time-loop prisons where it manipulates and torments them into various horrific fates for its own amusement. A frontiersman trapped in a loop of mere seconds, a man who has to kill himself every few minutes to prevent a worse fate, and the local cult, who have it relatively easy by comparison — living out a decently long three-moon loop that ends with their “ascension,” aka being shredded into bloody bits. Yikes. At least they don’t have to worry about aging.

Image via Well Go USA

And of course, there’s the return of Mike (Peter Ciella) and Chris (Vinny Curran) from Resolution,who are trapped in the bitter week-long loop of forced sobriety and failing friendship detailed in the 2002 film. The unseen evil in The Endless is the same chilling cosmic threat we met in Resolution, and the films share more crossovers thanyou’d probably imagine on a first watch, so you’re looking for more answers on The Endless, a rewatch of Resolution is the perfect place to start. Or first watch if you caught The Endless first, which works just as well.

However, if you’re looking for an easy play-by-play explanation of what goes down in the film, you’re not going to get it from Benson and Moorhead, who insist everything you need to solve the puzzles of their unconventional cinematic universe can be found right there on screen. However, the duo was more than happy to dive into the ideation behind the film’s mythology and the mindset behind ending it the way they did, so check out the interview below for a discussion of the different ways their “monster” is revealed through the characters and settings in the film, the ideas that helped inspire the unseen menace, and why the ending is more about character payoff than answering specific questions.

I know you guys have said you have this whole mythology totally down from top to tail. Was that something that you had already achieved at the time ofResolutionor did that come later?

JUSTIN BENSON: It’s definitely expanded.

AARON MOORHEAD: The rules didn’t change.

BENSON: But like withResolutionthere were … In both of these movies, there have been massive documents of things that people never see. And it’s really cool because we’re pretty sure people feel these things in the movie. The things that are into that. But like in the case ofResolution, for example. The unseen antagonist ofResolution, which is the same unseen antagonist inThe Endless, obviously. Except inResolution, the point of view of the whole film is from the unseen antagonist. There was like a massive document that went into everything about that “monster” that went to our sound designer to help them design the sound of the whole film. So that existed duringResolutionand there are things in that document that ended up more conspicuous inThe Endlessthan expanded upon. That’s just like one example of one thing.

When it comes to how nailed down the mythology is… Whenthe camera pulls back on that canyon and you see all those bubbles, the time prisons, would you be able to look at that shot and say exactly what’s happening in each one of them?

Image via Well Go USA

MOORHEAD: I can tell you how long those loops are, when they reset, and all of that. That exact area, we know it pretty well. And that’s desert, so there’s a whole bunch of poor animals. It’s probably something like that, but I wouldn’t say that we have an entire map of the world and who’s in it. But it wouldn’t be hard to theorize. We definitely have enough. So it would be pretty easy to take a good gander. And then, the little sequence that — the music trimmings for the montage that follows Justin and Aaron walking past the big totem and it’s in the sort of monolith carved monster looking thing.

BENSON: The rusty dragon sculpture.

MOORHEAD: And the rusty dragon sculpture. So those would all be individual loops that have developed their own sub-cultures and have their own interpretation of what this unseen antagonist is. Depending on how they saw it, the state of mind they’re in, and their own personalities, and all of that. And that these things they’ve created are artistic representations of how they see the antagonist. Whether they’re going specifically through the loop you see in the distance, because they do walk off, that we don’t know. And luckily, we only shot in 4K so you can’t really punch in. [Laughs]

BENSON: And what’s funny is … it’s weird how important that sequence was to us because in the movie we basically, the oldest loop that you ever see is what, 1800 something? Some kind of frontiersman like in a tent, but we have a non-existent Easter Island type subculture that developed its own kind of mythology around it. Clearly. And of course, Native Americans with the totem pole. But even the monolith to us — which is kind of the big image of the film anyways — to us. it’s supposed to scare the hell out of you when you realize that’s what that is. When you realize that, that’s the antagonist of the film as seen by people that are so ancient they’re gone in America.

In a similar vein, along with those monoliths I loved the ways we see this presence interpreted through the eyes of the characters in the film, like Lizzie’s art and Hal’s equation. What was your process of creating all these different understandings of this one being?

MOORHEAD: I mean, that’s something that did start with Resolution but it’s so small. It’s so small. It’s like literally there’s a journal running during the credits sequence of Resolution. It’s a bunch of monster sketches, and that would have been what the French researchers in Resolution were seeing it as. So that goes way back. I don’t even remember anymore what the inspiration for that was. Besides the fact that, unless you can get Giger, the guy who did Alien, unless you have a designer on that level to build a monster … We’re just trying to figure out ways that we can present it visually when we need to at least hint at something and not just show nothing, always. And in this case, we get to show it through sketches, and through sculptures, and things like that.

Image via Well Go USA

In the case of Spring, we showed a monster because the premise alluded to nature as being our designer. And since we don’t have our own Giger, we come up with these, hopefully interesting, clever ways to show an otherworldly being or “monster” and it won’t be really uneventful.

I mean if you wanted to pour a glass of wine, on a dark night and think about it. There’s this idea of every civilization has developed an idea of a deity and a God. And their interpretation of it has trickled down into our religions today. Or died out. But in the same way, their visualizations of it have looked so wildly different. And a lot of the time there’s the idea that … There’s two ideas. One is, what if it’s the same thing? What if they’re all the same thing? Of course, unified religion theory, which is kind of an idea that we play with. But we’re merging it with the idea of, what if wasn’t God? What if it was just a monster? Or what if people with porphyria were seen as vampires? You know, that kind of an idea where it’s like, “Oh, there’s nothing metaphysical about it.” Obviously, our movie’s metaphysical. But what if it was a natural phenomenon that people just tried to interpret as a god. And that’s a lot of what we’re talking about with this; they saw it as God and it’s actually just this thing.

BENSON: And as you saying that, I just remembered where it comes from. It comes from … This is a deep cut. There’s a guy named John Keel, who’s the guy who wrote The Mothman Prophecies. The book is very different from the movie. It’s not a fictional narrative. It’s sort of a journalist’s account of what happened in an area over a period of time. He wrote a whole collection of other books. The one that I’ve read is Our Haunted Planet and what it’s basically about is this concept of ultra-terrestrials.

I’m not saying it is an ultra-terrestrial in this movie, but the idea is that throughout human history whenever human beings saw something and interpreted it as being like, “Oh, I saw something. That was an angel from the bible.” Or, “That was a demon.” Or, “That was an extraterrestrial being.” “That was the Men in Black.” “That was the Mothman.” Whatever. That it’s actually always the same thing. In his case, he was arguing that it was this thing called an ultraterrestrial. That just basically, something that had been here among us, always manipulating the situation and everyone just seeing it differently depending on their culture. So it’s vaguely where the idea comes from. If you could imagine, there are so many species that we haven’t yet cataloged in the Amazon. Things like that. Imagine if there’s like an enormous blind spot that we just completely missed; one really big thing. Again, that’s not what’s in The Endless but it’s that idea.

I do have one very specific question. Are we meant to interpret at the end where we see the image of two cars coming into a collision, that it has anything to do with the car crash that put them there in the first place?

MOORHEAD: No.That’s an interesting one where we realized that was an unintentional thing. About 10% percent of people, they’ll kind of have that question of like, “Do they?”

When I watch Resolution andThe Endless back to back, something I had not picked up the first time was, they seem almost opposite ending moments. Resolution ends on a feeling of helplessness and being trapped and The Endless is all about breaking free. Was that intentionally designed for those two endings to be on opposite ends of the emotional spectrum?

MOORHEAD: Oh, that’s funny. I’m going to give you a yes and no. I think afterSpring, we got addicted to optimistic endings. I think we realized that we are just optimistic people and saying like, “You’re fucked no matter what” is just not our feeling about the way that life is, or at least the message that we want to put out into the world. And also, frankly, it more comes down to the construct of The Endless where, if you’re talking in really broad terms about the movie. If you’re talking about the fact that it says, “Break out of your cycle or be doomed to repeat history forever.” It seems like we should be showing what it looks like to break out of your cycle. And like, “Does that help you?” I don’t think it’s a moral as much as it’s an exploration of it. Because there are people that do enjoy it inside their cycle. I mean, the cult at the end. And you don’t even feel bad for them. A little bit, but it’s more melancholy. It’s like, “Oh. They kind of enjoy it there.” But I think that it would have been untruthful for ourselves if we’d ended it as dark as Resolution had ended.

BENSON: Yeah. It just seemed like we know, yes there is a very literal answer to the movie. And the answers in the film…It may take a few viewings, but everything’s very literal and all the evidence, if you want to call it that, is there. In terms of, where’s the movie ending in the sense of the supernatural, and otherworldly, and the sci-fi aspects, and all that.

But the thing that’s definite, that’s there, that was the most important to us, was just that you’d see that there was a transformation in the interpersonal relationship between these two brothers. And that you’d see that transformation in just a really understated gesture. And that the emotional satisfaction should come from that. I think anything else beyond that, we do things stylistically to kind of like poke the mystery part of people’s brains a little bit. One example is that it’s a hard cut going out. Things like that where just like you sit there and you go, “Oh, wait. There’s another piece of the puzzle to figure out.” To think about longer. It’s things like that. But there’s definitely one answer to the sci-fi part of it.

MOORHEAD: Actually going back to your questions, I just remembered when you said, “People who have viewed the movie multiple times.” There’s something that’s an interesting thing we’ve realizes. Our movies kind of exist in what people have called a Lynchian sort of universe where just things are a little off and all of that. I hadn’t seen almost any Lynch when that comparison started, but what’s interesting is, all of the answers to the movie are, I promise you, they’re in the movie. They are there. It’s not a dream logic situation. We’re not being deliberately obtuse. We just want to tell a mystery that’s got a lot of depth to it. And we just don’t want to lay it all out on the table but they’re in there. If you think about it long enough and hard enough. And you know, you might have to take a couple of, not leaps of logic but leaps of faith that like, “Okay. That is what they meant.” Something like that. But our movies are meant to be, I guess literal. That might be the word for it. They are meant to be telling a full story.

无尽，Endless。要怎么解释呢，是魔幻的Loop圈，还是残酷的现实人生。

关于神秘的cult组织

电影的背景是做着清洁工工作的兄弟二人，收到了一盒神秘的录像带——原来是是10年前他们曾经逃离的cult camp寄来的录像，向观众揭开了10年之前兄弟俩的“秘密”人生。

这种神秘组织的结构，乍看会让人联想到90年代中期日本的奥姆真理教。一群人，跑到穷乡僻壤的地方，脱离原来的“原生家庭”，建立起新的人生秩序。远离资本主义社会的分工制度，依靠简单的劳作技巧，在小团体中过着”朴素安稳“的生活。就如同电影里的一句话”It smells good“。

电影里的这个”世外桃源营地“，是电影主人公——哥哥Justin和弟弟Aaron（题外话，名字使用了演员的真名）10年前逃离的地方。10年前当哥哥带着年幼的弟弟离开营地时，还造成媒体的一时轰动，让这个营地瞬间”臭名昭著“，迅速被世人贴上了邪教的标签。10年过去了，兄弟两人的人生却并不尽如人意，事业上做着毫无意义可言的清洁工作，感情生活也常常因为曾经的”黑历史“而频频受挫。

此时收到的录像带，让弟弟Aaron提出要再回一次营地的念头。在Aaron的记忆力，camp充满了美好的回忆；而这些”美好“在哥哥Justin眼里都是被distorted过的，那是他10年前奋进全力挣脱的牢笼。然而为了能让弟弟重振生活动力，Justin答应了”故地重游“的提议。

Cult组织的核心leader又是谁呢？是营地所有人都在追求的Higher Power。就是这个Unknown的Higher Power，让这里的人如同手足一般的生活，哦不，是比兄弟手足更加祥和的生活状态。这里仿佛不存在“私欲”，不存在“占有”，所有人都在寻找或是等待Higher Power的指令，仿佛那里有着最高的智慧，指向幸福的生活。

对了，在神秘的cult圈，某些概念会有他们自己的定义。自杀不是suicide,而是ascention，很妙吧。此处省去1000字……

关于loop圈

就当观众开始以为导演要讨论邪教的时候，故事峰回路转，天空出现了两个月亮。

”这不是村上春树的1Q84吗？”心理无数的疑问划过。1Q84谈的也是邪教，也出现过跨越时空的“界域”，最关键的是，1Q84的世界就有两个月亮。

当我以为导演偷懒偷故事的时候，两个月亮变成了三个月亮。更神奇的是，还出现了类似于Tim Burton佩小姐的奇幻城堡里的Loop 圈。更为复杂的，这里的Loop的界限有些是人为创造的，而有的如同上文的cult组织，任由一个Higher Power来决定第三个月亮到来的时间，也就是Loop的界域。

电影从此走向超现实魔幻题材，一扫开始的文艺腔，取而代之的是上吊的惨白面孔，爆裂的血浆，和不停返回起点的时钟。当观众也开始在电影中迷路时，导演稍稍给了我们一点暗示。那些自主性选择自杀的人们，他们有着更贴近人类的气息。他们会暴怒，会嘲讽，会感叹，会无奈，这是与之前的营地组织成员最大的不同。那些逃不出loop圈的人，他们的生活虽然不可避免地重复，但是他们却坚持要用自己的双手为这个轮回的时空划出界限。

相反地，营地组织的成员则是等待第三个月亮月圆之时，大家围成了一圈，等待higher power的“解救”。

关于兄弟恩怨

当然了，此时的弟弟Aaron还是执着地要回到营地生活。在他看来回到现实生活也是每天的死循环，也是毫无意义的生活。当你感叹，哎呦，弟弟怎么活得那么悲观啊，恭喜你，你已经摸到了导演想要表达的核心了。

从文艺片走到惊悚片，再到科幻片，导演终于要拍醒观众，慢慢把把故事主旨抛出了。

当他们第三次走回营地，第三只月亮已经满月了。营地里人去楼空，兄弟二人走入了那个一直被封锁的屋子，里面不是怪兽也不是被囚禁的成员，而是满眼的录像带，记录了营地一切的录像带。他们看到了营地成员走向毁灭的最后一刻。整个营地都被那个Higher Power撕毁，兄弟二人出于求生本能火速驱车逃离。

然后导演在这里设置了一个小trick。车子发动不起来了，哥哥一如往常要坚持做点火发车的那个人，弟弟却说让自己来试试，此时此刻，哥哥Justin在危急时刻和弟弟调换了位置（哇，导演这个转变真的有点突如其来啊）。最终弟弟对哥哥”深情告白“后（可能感动了上苍了吧，或者感动了编剧），车子发动了……然后结局么，就是成功回到了现实人生。

此时我才突然恍然大悟，弟弟为什么会对人生那么悲观（虽然悲观主义者很有可能是天生的）。弟弟Aaron人生的所有决定都是Justin’s choice，而不是Aaron‘s choice。对于弟弟而言，他人生的一切都是哥哥帮他决定的，从10年前的逃离营地，到后来的清洁工工作，Aaron 的人生不可承受之轻便来自于这种人生的被动性。当你的人生都是别人帮你选择的时候，你当然会把责任都推到对方头上，代偿便是你永远无法体会人生真正的动力。

当方向盘不在自己手上，你当然很难有动力去相信沙漠会变成绿洲，你只会怪那个开车的人是白痴，毁了自己的旅程。哥哥呀，Loop圈和三个月亮都是幌子，我要的是My Choice啊。

每个人都活在自己的轮回里，不管你是否意识到……

看到70分钟左右的时候，我暂停了，猜测剧情往下会怎么走。后面的克苏鲁神话对我来说有些不过瘾，我更愿意看到哥哥带着弟弟走出“邪教”团体，但是在弟弟的反抗下意识到，即使离开了集体生活，自己奋力逃出了一个围城，自我感觉获得的无限可能也只是另一种轮回，可是哥哥会让年轻的弟弟明白自己为什么离开集体生活的选择，因为自由给了你无限可能的同时，也要求你自己去做努力，去寻找并实现自我价值。哥哥愿意在这种自由状态下接受现实中投靠无门、难有立锥之地的困境中轮回，也不愿意交换不知道有何用的权利来换取有保障的生活，这是为人者的尊严，是我们精神独立，人格完全的操守。

愿我们有一个机会做出这样的选择。

每个人都有自己的轮回，或短或长。在自己的轮回里挑选自己应对轮回的姿态，尽量有尊严的活着。如果有机会跳出这个轮回，跳出去看一下，或许在这个过程中才会发现什么才是对自己最重要的事。建议一直困在公司格子间的同仁能够出离一下，审视自己生活的轮回，愿你感受到得不只有悲哀。

//collider.com/the-endless-explained-interview/

一个很长的对于兄弟俩导演的采访。

导演说了很多，其中有两个事情给出了明确答复：

1. 结局是“乐观的”。

2. 最后兄弟俩驾车冲出loop的时候和镜面相撞，这件事和他们年幼时候遭遇的车祸不是一个事情。

那么影片最后的关于汽车没油了的对话，便可以理解为，车子确实快要没油了，只是因为汽车会给你一个冗余量而已（让你尽早加油）。而哥哥那句“You figured it out”只是为了表现哥哥再也不强求弟弟了。（这么多年来哥哥对弟弟都是非常强势的，影片中多次体现。）

所以其实结局是两重欢喜。第一重，他们逃离了循环；第二重，兄弟俩不再是命令和屈服的关系。尤其是第二点，导演也有在采访中暗示。

大家都想多了。但目前已有的影评中，确实有很多看似有道理的分析，但都被导演简单粗暴的定性答复否决了。这样看来这部电影其实逻辑性并不明确，你也可以说有bug。