The Lobster Explained: What’s Up With the Ending?

Loners Have No Place Here: How Did The Dystopia The Lobster (2015) End. The Meaning Of The Film The Lobster, Explanation Of The Ending, A Detailed Description Of The Plot.

Country: Ireland, UK, Greece

Genre: fantasy, thriller, drama

Year of production: 2015

Directed by: Yorgos Lanthimos

Cast: Colin Farrell, Rachel Weisz, Jessica Barden, Olivia Colman, John C Reilly

The Lobster is a dystopian film that transports the viewer to a society where halftones do not exist, there is only black and white. The idea of ​​the script is quite interesting, but the film itself is not for everyone. From fantasy here, only the time of what is happening, it does not smell like a classic thriller, only drama remains. At the same time, the film has a deep hidden meaning, which will be revealed by a detailed analysis of the content and ending.

What is the movie about

Before proceeding to the interpretation of the meaning, we will briefly talk about the film itself. So, The Lobster is a dystopia set in the foreseeable future. The viewer is presented with a gray society, where everything should be monotonous and follow a certain circle of life. In particular, here everyone should have a couple. Loners are automatically ranked as second-class people.

dystopian lobsterFrame from the film.

The Lobster world is designed in such a way that everyone should have a couple in any case, so one of two options awaits singles:

  • Hotel. This is the last resort that helps to stay in the society of people. Each guest is given 45 days to find a mate and build a relationship. A kind of “House 2”, only much tougher and without a frontal place.
  • Become an animal. This is the fate of those who, even in a hotel, cannot find a partner. Before that, everyone is asked what kind of animal he wants to be. The choice of the subsequent hypostasis remains at the discretion of the loner. After reincarnation, the animals are released into the wild, where they will still find a mate.

The main character of The Lobster is David. After a divorce, a man finds himself in a hotel for singles. During the preliminary interview, he reveals that he wants to become a lobster. By the standards of the hotel staff, the choice is unusual, because most singles opt for dogs. The hero himself motivates the decision by the fact that lobsters have aristocratic blue blood, and they live up to 100 years. David stays at the hotel with his brother, who could not find a mate and now lives in the form of a dog.

Colin FarrellColin Farrell starring as David. Frame from the film.

Life in the hotel is built according to its own rules. All guests have 45 days to find a mate. However, this period is rather arbitrary, given that guests go daily to the nearest forest to hunt singles. Each caught loner extends the time spent in this dubious place by 1 day. Therefore, lucky hunters can stay here almost forever, such as the Heartless Woman.

In the evenings, meetings are held here, strongly reminiscent of meetings of the society of anonymous alcoholics. Beginners talk about their features in order to quickly find a mate on a similar basis. Classical music sounds, skits are played, clearly showing that it is better for men and women to live together.

David’s stay at the hotel is running out, but he still couldn’t find a partner. Then the hero decides to cheat. He pretends to be emotionless and hooks up with the Heartless Woman. However, the chosen one constantly checks her gentleman, bringing him to emotions. For this, she kills the protagonist’s dog. David cries, for which the Heartless Woman accuses him of fraud, and drags him to the hotel administration in order to reincarnate as the most unpopular animal as punishment.

Angelica PapuliaThe heartless woman was played by Angeliki Papulia. Frame from the film.

David escapes after transforming the Heartless Woman into some kind of animal (he doesn’t say which one). He hides in the forest and joins a community of loners. Here it’s the other way around. No relationship is welcome, everyone is on their own and will never lend a helping hand to another. Ironically, it is among the loners that David meets a myopic woman with whom he truly falls in love. The couple prepare to run away to live in the city. However, the Lone Leader finds out about the plans, which blinds David’s chosen one, eliminating the only thing that connects them – myopia.

However, this fact does not stop the hero. He ties the Leader, leaving her to be torn to pieces by stray dogs, and he, together with the chosen one, escapes to the city. His plan is simple. He also wants to blind himself in order to be with his passion. The finale of “Lobster” takes us to a cafe where the hero is going to gouge out his own eyes with a meat knife. Then darkness, credits, singing and the sound of a breeze in the background, the end. What is the clue to this orgy taking place on the screen? Let’s try to figure it out.

Plot transcript

An explanation of the ending can be found in the film itself, a review of which does not reveal the full depth and absurdity of the society that is shown in it. Let’s start with the fact that the very content of the film “The Lobster” indicates that everyone here is lying. The laws invented by no one knows who, that everyone should have a couple, do not work. At the very beginning, a woman kills a donkey. Here we can assume that this is her ex-husband, to whom she takes revenge for past betrayals or insults.

The hotel itself is no better. The word love is never heard throughout the film. The conclusion is simple – it simply does not exist in this world. Those who live in the city and are allegedly married are simply afraid to be alone. Couples are created not by mutual sympathy, but by the similarity of partners. Here, everyone is just partners, and partnership always implies mutually beneficial cooperation, which, in fact, is happening.

Lobster actorsJohn C. Reilly as Robert (lisping man), Colin Farrell, Ben Whishaw as John (lame). Frame from the film.

Hotel guests come up with similar signs for themselves so as not to turn into animals. A prime example is John, who regularly breaks his nose to look like a girl with nosebleeds. At the same time, the chosen one perfectly understands that her partner is lying. That is why she slaps David, who comes to the couple on a yacht to tell the partners about the true state of things.

The administration itself is no better. A man, pressed against the wall, claims that his companion must die, because she cannot survive loneliness. When he is given a gun (not loaded) in his hand, he pulls the trigger. No self-sacrifice and no attempts to save your companion. This is logical, because they are just partners, nothing personal.

Against the background of the lies of couples and hotel guests, it can be concluded that singles are ideological resistance fighters who are trying to defend the individuality of each member of society. However, it is not. It’s the same hotel, only in reverse. Any relationship between loners is prohibited here, those who show feelings are severely punished. At the same time, the Leader herself violates the principles of the community she leads. She maintains a relationship with her parents, takes other singles with her to visit, who are played at these meetings by couples in love.

Therefore, the general meaning of the dystopia is that the hotel and the forest are two sides of the same coin. Black and white, which cannot exist without each other. At the same time, there are no halftones in Lobster. Please note that the hotel does not allow bisexual relationships, there are no half shoe sizes: only 44 or 45, no 44.5.

It is also a very strange moment that relationships are built precisely on physiological characteristics. The lame can only live with the lame, the oblique with the oblique, the nearsighted with the nearsighted. It is these individual characteristics that the heroes of this dystopia turn to. If you remove the similarity, the couple will break up. This can be clearly seen in the situation when the Leader blinds David’s chosen one. First, the woman tries to hide her blindness, then she confesses. A man who before this did not look for the soul in his chosen one, quickly cools towards her. He no longer brings her rabbits, so the girl sits hungry. It turns out that the external similarity is much more important than any mental anguish and heartache.

David is even ready to sacrifice his own vision to become like his partner. However, having decided on self-mutilation, will the hero be able to bring his plan to the end? Let’s try to find an explanation for this in the final.

The meaning of the ending

Fast forward to the end of the Lobster movie. The hero decides to blind himself in order to be with his chosen one and settle in the city. A desperate step, but in reality useless. Being among singles, the couple got used to communicate non-verbally, having developed a peculiar sign language. They need to see each other. If David gouges out his eyes, it’s just going to be dark. There will be none of what he is used to.

Moreover, he is constantly trying to adapt to the laws of the society in which he is located. At the hotel, he unconditionally accepted all the rules of the administration and decided to cheat, only realizing that he could not find a mate. Among singles, he also accepted the rules of the game, and did not clash with the Leader. Therefore, the ending of the film “Lobster” can have two explanations.

hotel living roomFrame from the film.

First – David could not eradicate the principles and morals of the society in which he lives. In this case, he needs to achieve similarity with a partner. Then he decides to gouge out his own eyes. Then comes darkness, in which the partners do not find each other, and they are again placed in a hotel as loners. This is indicated by classical music playing in the background of the credits, and then the sound of the surf – blind David did not find a mate, becoming a lobster.

The second – the man was just scared. His girlfriend sits alone and waits for her partner to look like her. However, David realizes that if he blinds himself, he will not be able to live a normal life. Therefore, he simply runs away from the cafe, as before from the hotel and the singles camp. His woman is taken to a hotel, where she also cannot find a partner, and in memory of David becomes a lobster.

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