What Really Happened to Jack in Marrowbone? The Plot Of The Film Marrowbone, Meaning, Essence, Explanation Of The Ending, Similar Films
Country: Spain, USA
Genre: Horror, Thriller, Drama, Detective, Adventure
Year of production: 2017
Director: Sergio H. Sanchez
Cast: George MacKay, Anya Taylor-Joy, Charlie Heaton
tagline: “We’re not alone here”
The talented director Sergio J. Sanchez once admitted that he really likes the paintings of Guillermo del Toro. His film is quite simple, it has no hidden meaning and philosophical ideas. However, at the same time, this is a kind of “hello” to the master: the meaning of the film Marrowbone is that reality is much worse than the most bizarre fiction.
Plot of the film
Brief description of the content of the film Marrowbone. A woman, along with four children, is trying to hide from the past. The family moves into her parents’ old house, which is away from a small town. The mother of the family is sure: as soon as they cross the threshold of their father’s house, they will be able to start a new life.
One day, the children go for a walk and meet a girl named Ellie and gladly accept her into their company. It would seem that life is getting better, but suddenly the mother falls ill. This overshadows the carefree childhood of Jack, Billy, Jane and Sam.
Frame from the film.
Before her death, the mother asks her eldest son Jack to bury her in the garden. She also asks to keep her death a secret until he is 21 years old. Otherwise, younger children may be taken to an orphanage. When a woman dies, the children make an oath to each other that nothing can separate them.
One day, Jane, sitting in a room, heard the sound of a shot, and then saw a bullet mark in the window. Looking out, she saw the person from whom they had been trying to hide all this time – her father.
Terrified, she called Jack for help. The terrible figure frightened Jane so much that her psyche simply “turned off”, and what happened next, the girl did not remember.
Six months later, little Sam heard a strange rustle in the attic. Thinking that there was a ghost, the boy complained to his older brother. Ellie tried to calm him down by writing it off as a child’s imagination.
After some time, Jack went shopping in the city and visited Ellie, who works in the library. A spark flared up between the young people. A moment of flirting was spoiled by the appearance of a lawyer, Tom Porter, who also showed sympathy for the girl.
Jack, fearing questions about his mother, chose to hide. However, he did not succeed: the lawyer told him that the mother of the family needed to sign papers for the house and pay for his services. Ignoring the youth’s protests, he said that he would visit his family tomorrow.
George MacKay as Jack, Anya Taylor-Joy as Ellie. Frame from the film.
At the family council, it was decided to take the “inviolable” money from the box, which contained all the family’s valuables, and pay off the lawyer. Also, the guys decided to forge the mother’s signature. The plan was simple: keep the lawyer out of the house and sign the document in Jane’s hand. In case of the lawyer’s stubbornness, poisoned lemonade was prepared … In a word, the family was ready for anything to preserve the secret, home and their unity.
The next day, Jack met the lawyer, handed him the fee and, colorfully describing his mother’s illness, convinced him to hand over the document for signature. When the head of the family left for the documents, the lawyer nevertheless entered the house and went to the bedroom door. But he did not have time to enter – Jack came out and handed him a signed document.
In the evening, when the family was celebrating the victory, strange sounds came from the attic. This frightened everyone, and Jane suggested that this ghost was haunting them because they had taken advantage of “untouchable” money. The door leading to the attic was bricked up, and the next day Billy went up to the roof and threw the box in there.
Some time later, Ellie met with lawyer Porter, who began to ask her questions about Jack’s family. The girl answered him that she had known them for a long time, and had never noticed any oddities behind them.
Ellie later met with Jack and asked him about the father of the family. Jack reluctantly told her that he was a tyrant and a psychopath, and they had come here to hide from him. Porter watched the meeting of young people, and he did not like it very much.
Mia Goth as Jane, Matthew Stagg as Sam, and Charlie Heaton as Billy. Frame from the film.
A little later, little Sam accidentally discovered the terrible secret of the family: their father is a murderer, and Jack was the main witness to his crime. That is why the father persecuted them. Upon learning of this, the boy met with a ghost from the closet.
When the elders found out about the incident, they were very surprised: after all, they invented a ghost so that Sam would not find out the even more terrible truth, which was that they walled up his father in the attic and let him die there.
The secret of the family also became known to Porter, who was convinced that the signature on the document was fake. Sincerely wanting to escape from the backwaters and hoping for a lucrative position in New York, for which he needs to pay bail, the lawyer decided to blackmail.
After discussing the situation, the family decided to use the “untouchable” money again, which they had already returned to the “ghost”. Billy, having gone down through the roof for a box, was ambushed, after which it became clear: their father was alive.
Ending explanation
Toward the end, Jane, who convinced the brothers to confess everything to Ellie, threw her a manuscript – a terrible family chronicle. Freezing in horror, the girl learned about the monstrous confrontation between the insane father and his own children.
Meanwhile, Porter entered the house, made his way to the attic and opened the bricked wall. The lawyer froze in horror: he saw the bodies of Jane, Billy and Sam …
The clue was that a criminal who was stalking his own family had wounded Jack, entered the house, and killed Billy, Jane, and Sam. Jack managed to immure the monster in the attic – the criminal did not die, but, eating rats and birds, he finally became wild.
Also, towards the end, it turned out that Sam was not Jack’s brother, but Jack’s nephew – the youngest of the boys turned out to be the son of the father of the family and Jane.
You can understand the meaning of the film Marrowbone and find an explanation for the ending if you remember the beginning of the picture – the scene in which the frightened Jane heard the shot and informed Jack that his father had found them.
As it turned out, Jack, who witnessed the death of his relatives, experienced a strong shock, and his mind was clouded. He was sure that the guys were alive …
Frame from the film.
All this time, Jack lived in a scary house alone, and Billy, Jane and Sam were a figment of his imagination.
After finishing reading the manuscript, Ellie realized that her friend urgently needed help. Running to the house, she saw Jack talking to himself. Turning around, he tried to drive her away: he was sure that if she remained, then his brothers and sister would disappear.
Hearing a strange rustle in the attic, Ellie went up there and saw the dead bodies and the wounded Porter. And then she was attacked by a madman imprisoned there, from whom Jack saved her.
After a while, the girl convinced her friend to see a psychiatrist, but he managed to cope only with the symptoms of PTSD. Jack’s family never left his mind, but Ellie was not afraid – she decided to stay with him.
The meaning of the ending of the movie Marrowbone is that Jack, who survived a terrible tragedy, had multiple personality splits. But Ellie’s love and care helped him come to terms with his illness and start a new life.
The meaning of the film
The essence of the film has an unambiguous interpretation. At the very beginning, we see young heroes who, at the dawn of their adulthood, face a threat from the past. The true face of this threat is not immediately revealed … As it turned out, much worse than any ghosts or demons – killers and psychopaths that actually exist.
But the meaning of the film Marrowbone is not in this. In their analysis, viewers note that the main idea of this picture is the beauty of the soul of those who are able to love no matter what. The director does not idealize anyone and clearly conveys the idea: a very difficult life awaits the heroes, but they are strong personalities, and they love each other – they will definitely succeed.
Marrowbone can be called a kind of variation of the story about the beauty and the beast. This is a film about love, the call to which is embroidered with very thin threads throughout the story. It is especially brightly reflected in the final picture.
Marrowbone tells the love story of more than just men and women. This is a movie about family love. It is about the fact that true love knows no boundaries, and neither the physical nor the mental state of one of the participants in the relationship is a hindrance to it.
Frame from the film.
Similar films
Here are a few paintings that are similar in meaning to the Marrowbone:
- The Others (USA, 2001). The heroine hides her children, suffering from a rare disease, in a big house. The children claim that the house is haunted;
- Shelter (Spain, 2007). Trying to find her missing son, the main character reveals the terrible secret of the orphanage where she grew up;
- Shutter Island (USA, 2009). A bailiff is sent to a remote insane asylum and finds himself held hostage.
