Coherence Ending Explained & Film Analysis

Clones and parallel realities: we understand the plot of the film Coherence.

The content and meaning of The Connection (originally titled Coherence) can really blow the mind of even fans of the genre. The plot was based on the theory of the Austrian physicist Erwin Schrödinger.

It is noteworthy that the film was shot in just five evenings, and it does not use special effects, which is generally curious for the science fiction genre. Initially, the content seems boring, but then Coherence just drags you in and does not let you take your eyes off the screen even for a second. However, the narrative is quite confusing, so in order to understand the plot, it makes sense to analyze the essence of the film in detail in order to understand the director’s idea. Let’s start with a brief description.

Summary

The film “The Connection” begins with a group of old friends gathering in the house for a friendly dinner. There are eight of them, they have known each other for a long time, and each has secrets. Comet Miller flies over the Earth, which is as close as possible to our planet. This becomes a topic for discussion, but suddenly the house goes out of light and mobile communications are turned off. Hugh and Amir notice a house nearby with a light on. They decide to go there to use the phone. Brother Hugh is a physicist, and the man promised to contact a relative if he noticed something strange related to the comet.

Shortly after the men leave, someone from the street violently hits the door of the house, causing panic among the rest. When Hugh and Amir return, they are confused in their memories and bring with them a briefcase containing a table tennis racket, as well as photographs of everyone present. At the same time, numbers are affixed to the back of the photographs. The strangest thing is that in one photo there is Amir, in a sweater bought just today, while the man was not photographed, although the picture was clearly taken in this house. Emily learns that the numbers are written in her hand.

Hugh decides to return to the strange house again and writes a note. Suddenly, someone from those present notices a silhouette on the street approaching the house, and then our heroes find on the door the exact same note that Hugh just wrote.

The company decides to sort out the situation and go all together to a strange house. They take the blue glow sticks and leave. Only Beth and Lee remain in the house. Near the twin house, the departed see a group of people who are like two peas in a pod, but they have red glow sticks hanging on their chests.

Our heroes in a panic come back and share what they saw with the rest. They reminisce about the book that Hugh was given by his brother. The company hopes to find answers to questions of interest there, and when reading, they recall the notorious “Schrödinger’s cat”. The essence of the theory is that the cat, located in a closed room next to a flask filled with hydrocyanic acid, is both alive and dead. Until the room is opened, both realities exist with a 50% chance. When the room opens, there will be only one reality. The guys come to the conclusion that a passing comet provoked the division of reality according to Schrödinger’s theory. The second house and people with red glow sticks are their counterparts.

Emily Baldoni as Em, Maury Sterling as Kevin. Frame from the film.

In order not to get confused, they decide to mark their house with a unique sign that cannot be reproduced. For this, photographs and dice are taken. Thus, everyone and the company receives a random digital designation. A random item is also placed in the box.

Having calculated the probabilities of a random drop of numbers, our heroes have several million options. Emily finds a notebook with numbers written on it, then asks everyone for their unique number. So it turns out that only Beth and Lee were in this house initially, because they did not go anywhere.

The rest are not from these houses, and got here from other branches of reality. Emily theorized that, while running away from the twin house, they ended up in a quantum roulette that scattered them into different realities. To return back, you need to have time to find your home before the comet disappears.

Emily goes outside and looks into the windows of houses. She sees herself and her friends, but in different time periods of that ill-fated evening. In most cases, everyone swears and does not trust each other. Suddenly, the girl finds a house where peace and grace reign. Its inhabitants are completely happy, and do not even suspect that reality has multiplied.

She breaks the glass of the car to lure everyone out. When the guys are checking out other cars, Emily strangles her doppelgänger and hides the body in the trunk. She returns to the house already with everyone, but suddenly notices that her copy has managed to get out of the trunk. Emily overtakes her in the bathroom and hits her hard on the head with a faience toilet cistern lid. She hides the body in the bathroom, but when she goes out to her friends, she loses consciousness. Emily wakes up only in the morning. There is no one in the bathroom, everyone is satisfied and happy. Emily goes outside, where her boyfriend Kevin hands her the lost ring. Suddenly, the guy says in surprise: “Are you calling me?”, Picks up the phone, listens and looks at Emily inquiringly.

Titles, final.

Nicholas Brendon as Mike, Lorin Scafaria as Lee. Frame from the film.

Ending explanation

The meaning of the ending of the film “The Connection” comes down to the fact that Emily was not in her reality. According to the concept of the plot, after the passage of the comet, all parallel branches should collapse into one. As the comet collapses in the sky, Emily passes out. However, she made a mistake by leaving her doppelgänger alive. Now in this world there are two Emily at once. How the heroine will extricate herself from the situation is unclear. Here we can only assume that she will definitely not be happy with Kevin.

The double will tell the guy what happened, so Emily will most likely end up in the police or a psychiatric hospital. However, this is a loose interpretation.

In fact, the explanation for the ending of the film The Connection could be as follows. Emily wanted to change her life, and seizing the moment found a reality where her copy was happy. However, the plan failed. She could not take someone else’s place, and in fact remained a stranger in this world. At the same time, she has no chance to return back. In general, the end of the film is very well explained by the proverb “Having, we do not appreciate, but having lost, we cry.”

The meaning of the film

Initially, Coherence seems to be just a pile of shots. In this chaos, you can navigate only by various luminous sticks. The main characters are blue, their counterparts are red. Then other colors appear, denoting visitors from other branches of reality. However, even this color indication soon ceases to work, because the doubles penetrate into other people’s houses, trying to disguise themselves as their inhabitants in order to sort out the situation.

However, if you do not get hung up on classification and trying to figure out who is who, the hidden meaning of the film “The Connection” becomes apparent. We have several realities that are similar only in appearance. They have a common beginning – a certain source code, which includes the house and eight participants in the events. However, this is where the generality ends. Each of the stories will have its own ending, because events develop according to an individual scenario. In general, the heroes come to the same decisions: they make a box to identify their house, put a random item inside, write notes. However, they are still different. Even the behavior is different.

Frame from the film.

Moreover, towards the end of the film “The Connection” all the characters are mixed up, so it is difficult to determine who was in the “zero house”. Each of them considers himself the only one, and the rest are doubles from parallel realities.

This raises the question, why do all the heroes actually move between houses as clones? This motivation is very well seen in the example of Emily. She is sure that she is the original, and wants to change her life by choosing a branch of reality that is favorable for herself. So why couldn’t others do it?

The paradox of the situation lies in the fact that for none of the participants the world will be the same, because after the comet’s combustion it is not clear who ended up in what reality. Also, do not forget that this “Schrödinger’s box” remained unopened. Indeed, in one reality, two identical people cannot exist. So the doppelgänger story continues…