Baby Driver is a great film, full of action, and excitement. Edgar Wright’s newest film may feel a bit familiar to fans of heist and car chase movies. The ending of the film is fun but is at the center of most post-film discussions. It is not necessarily clear, ok, it’s completely ambiguous.
THERE ARE HUGE SPOILERS AHEAD FOR THE END OF THE MOVIE. TREAD ON AT YOUR OWN PERIL…
At the end of Baby Driver, Baby (Ansel Elgort) turns himself over to the police. Baby gets a 25-year prison sentence. In his cell, he receives postcards from Debora (Lily James) who tells him she waits on that road-trip they both dreamed about. The next scene cuts to black-and-white and gradually fades to color as Baby exits prison to meet Debora. The shot doubles a scene from earlier in the film.
How is Baby gotten out of prison so soon? Is he out of jail, or is this whole sequence a dream designed to help him cope with prison life? In a recent interview with CinemaBlend, Wright spoke a bit about the ending, but refused to give his interpretation of what happens:
“I think the end scene is up for interpretation. And I sort of learned quickly through the test screening process that I should let people interpret it how they want. I think it’s an important thing with movies where you don’t have to state your actual intention because nobody’s response to it is wrong. I think that’s a good thing to do; you don’t want to have anybody say, ‘No, you’re wrong, you read that wrong.’ It’s better if you have two different interpretations.
Do you understand what the rainbow in the last scene means? Remember the teller tells him about the Dolly Parton quote? He says ‘Dolly Parton, I like her.’ And she says, ‘Everybody wants happiness, nobody wants pain; but there can’t be a rainbow without a little rain.’ He goes through incarceration to get to the rainbow.”
The film’s stars have weighed in on their interpretation of the ending. According to Elgort, the end is in Baby’s mind and he doesn’t feel Debora should wait for Baby to get out of prison. James wanted the characters to get away, but loves the ambiguity in the end of the film.
Baby Driver is in theaters now.
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