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Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
Watched this movie for the first time ever last night and its honestly one of the best movies ive ever seen. But im confused about one thing - at the start of the movie we see Joel and Clementine noticing eachother in a café, and then they introduce themselves to eachother on the train, but in Joel’s memories he remembers meeting Clementine at a party on the beach? Maybe I’m missing something but I’m genuinely so confused 😭
Also, the ending? We see the end scene of them running on the beach in Montauk and the scene repeats itself until it fades to white, ive looked some stuff up but I really hate the idea that they kept erasing each other, and also i’d assume that the company shut down after Mary sent out all the files? Is there a concrete, set-in-stone ending that we know of?
The beach party is them meeting for the first time.
The train scene is when they meet again, after having erased each other.
And no, what you see is what you get, but you’re open to interpreting the ending however you’d like. I personally have never read it as “they will literally keep erasing each other”, more as non-literal visual language for how they restart knowing the risks of it ending the same again and again.
I also interpreted the end shots as not necessarily literal, more of an expression of the movie’s themes.
Regardless of what happened before or what happens later, the emotional core of their relationship is these ephemeral moments of joy, that don’t have to be forever to carry value. Whether they go on to erase each other again or not, the point isn’t that they need to be happy forever, just that they see how beautiful those fleeting moments are as they happen.
Ahh I see! Tysm
That's why on the train Joel says he's never heard this song My Darling Clementine. When he had Clementine erased from his mind, they also erased that song. I thought that was so clever.
And on the train he said he doesn’t know Huckleberry Hound but then you see he loved his Huckleberry Hound doll when he was a kid.
Never picked up on this. So they accidentally erased huckleberry hound from his head when they erased Clementine? Like collateral damage?
To answer your first question, the beginning of the movie is the first time they meet after they erased each other. They first meet on the beach party
The original ending was Clementine as an old woman erasing Joel once again, showing that they have erased each other multiple times
I've never heard of there being an original or different ending to what we got. That's fascinating, where did you see that?
https://collider.com/eternal-sunshine-of-the-spotless-mind-original-ending/
Here's an article explaining it
Back around the time the movie came out, the screenplay was published (I bought it at a Shakespeare & Co. in New York), and it had the original ending robeacero1 is talking about
There was also a subplot that Joel was actually cheating on someone when he started seeing clementine, but they removed it (and unfortunately the actress from the cut - she was played by Ellen Pompeo) because you sympathized less with Joel. I think the scenes were on the deleted scenes on a dvd or blue ray.
I think the ending's pretty ambiguous and up to interpretation. As sad as the idea of them continually erasing each other is, I think it's also kind of beautiful that they keep choosing each other, over and over again and trying to make it work.
Kind of beautiful? It's absolutely tragic. By erasing their memories over and over they just doom themselves to repeat the pattern. They end up having to repeatedly erase the prime years of their lives because they're so incompatible.
I get what you mean, but there is some beauty in it in the way that they always, always find eachother again 🥲 star-crossed lovers
One must imagine Sisyphus happy?
emphasis on the kind of. definitely tragic, but it's beautiful how they keep having that love for each other, perpetually.
True, I just find it hard to believe that after all that Lacuna wouldn’t have got shut down, even if the original ending was them continually erasing eachother
It's possible some other company with similar technology is out there, right? Seems like Lacuna would have competitors.
It specifically was Lacuna in that draft, because it would be Mary explaining this to them and Howard would still be the doctor. Mary was preparing to release a tell all book about them
True yeah. I haven't seen it in a while and I guess didn't really think about it too much, for me the emotional sense is worth more than logical sense, y'know? Plus I mean Lacuna is probably a somewhat shady business, I think they probably came up with some kind of way to keep operating
I’m really happy that they scrapped the initial sci-fi/future idea and made it this way, so that the ending was way more ambiguous. I think it makes it way more impactful.
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LMAOO I really don’t know how I didn’t manage to cop it
The 'they keep erasing each other over the years' ending was from an early draft, but in that version Mary would also still be working for Howard, so you don't have to take it as canon if you don't want to
Personally I think they have a better chance now. The relationship fell apart because of a communication problem - Joel wouldn't allow himself to be vulnerable with Clementine, and he wouldn't communicate what his issues were, and they'd come out in mean spirited things such as "you fuck people to get them to like you". Clementine in turn was impulsive and had very little accountability
The key thing I noticed (I rewatched it literally two days ago) was in the scene where Clementine overhears Joel's tape. When he gets to the abovementioned sex comment, the first time he said that to her, she blew up completely, stormed out of his apartment and then erased him. This time however, she calmly says "I don't do that" and remains calm as she says she thinks she should leave and take some time. To me, this shows that both have learned something from the whole incident
And in trying to fight against the procedure, Joel literally lets Clementine see some of his traumatic memories, and share his embarrassing moments with her - things she complained about him not doing. Obviously he won't remember doing that once the procedure is over, but it shows he has that in him.
I'm an optimist. I like to think that with everything out in the open, they'll work things out
I love this 😭 thank you for giving your two cents, I didn’t even cop that she reacted differently!
I’m 100% gonna rewatch it at some point within the next few days, will make so much more things make sense/point so much more out
Check out the other Kaufman movies, guy is a galaxy sized talent. The also get weirder and weirder as he became the director. Infinite recursion in Synecdoche. Would have been fun to analyze for a paper or something.
Watch Adaptation immediately
Well, unless they haven't seen Being John Malkovich, in which case watch that first, and then watch Adaptation.
To your first question, the movie isn't chronological.
To the second, movies don't work that way. There is no stone to set anything in. There's just the movie.
I mean, some movies don't work but way, but many movies do have solid endings that aren't really open to interpretation.
You have good taste OP. I think this is one of the greatest meditations on the nature of love and relationships ever made. It’s truly a beautiful film.
one of those movies that you literally CAN'T grasp after a single viewing.
wait a while. rewatch. maybe even a third or a fourth time. now that you have some idea of what's going on, you'll pick up a TON more details next time around.
This is definitely the type of movie that you re-watch multiple times. It always hits different after the third or fourth time…
Yes I pick up something new every time I watch it. Like The Prestige.
The ending is indeed the brutal version.
It's open to interpretation but it heavily implies,like any toxic relationship,that it will become recurrent and that they can't stay away from one another.
They already remet once in the movie,the ambiguity is more an soft-blow to the viewer.
This being said it's not an bad ending,you know the saying,One must imagine Sysyphus happy
It's definitely bittersweet, but I saw it as excellent metaphor. That people might be afraid to even begin a relationship because they may get hurt. And being in a relationship isn't all smooth sailing. It's rough sometimes. You will get into arguments. And you have to work at it to keep it going.
But in the end, it's all worth it anyway. Even if you know ahead of time it'll be rough at times, and good chance it'll end in heartbreak it's still worth it. The two characters get to know better than most that it could be rough and end in heartbreak, but they come to the conclusion to give it a try anyway. Because it's worth it.
I always hoped the ending meant that their relationship would be better the second time because they knew how it could go wrong. Their true love brought them back together and they wouldn’t want to lose each other again.
I agree, that’s the optimistic path. Maybe they take that knowledge into counseling and try harder and develop different skills instead of just reacting. But I also like the unspoken question the film inspires….if you knew the outcome of a relationship, would you take that journey again? Is a relationship a “failure” just because it ends?
I’ve never felt comfortable saying a single movie is my single favorite movie because these things shift from day to day depending on my feelings or my mood or what I had for breakfast. But yeah, Eternal Sunshine has been solidly in my top five list for 20 years now.
Same. It's a perfect movie for me.
Absolutely the same for me too.
I saw something online once that said to pay attention to her hair color. That the different years or seasons r represented by her hair
One of my favorite movies. You should check out Synecdoche, New York next.
I always interpreted Synecdoche, New York to be the sort of movie that Charlie Kaufman wanted to make that he was describing to McKee in his class in Adaptation:
Only with Synecdoche, New York, instead of adding in a bunch of crazy things like car chases, shootouts, and fictional twin brothers, he just found an interesting way to tell such a story.
Loved this post because literally yes - glad you enjoyed and glad forum cleared up your confusion. I like the perspective of them finding each over and over again because while the thought of coming to the point of wanting to erase each other over and over is tragic, the idea of getting to spend life falling in love over and over is nice.
Just stopped by to agree, it's my #1
I’m glad you like it. This movie is really special.
The bird in the wagon scene is one of the most beautiful things I’ve ever watched on film. It’s just incredible, sad, innocent, and heartfelt even through a sort of curiously bad act.
It's a film to watch twice. The first meeting we see is their meeting after the memory wipe, that's why he didn't know the song "my darling clementine".
This is my favourite film. I've just rewatched it a couple of weeks ago. I love the ending. The acceptance it may not work but they want to be together. It makes my heart sing!
Also, I won't let my girlfriend watch this because it's so good I know she won't appreciate it.
LMAO You should watch it with her! Depriving someone of a movie this good is evil 😂
The behind the scenes CGI of this movie is very interesting
Haven’t watched, but looking forward to it.