Watch I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020) Online Free Movie Streaming
- Title: I'm Thinking of Ending Things
- Year: 2020
- Duration: 2h 14m
- Rating: 6.6
- Genres: Drama, Thriller
Summary I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
Full of misgivings, a young woman travels with her new boyfriend to his parents' secluded farm. Upon arriving, she comes to question everything she thought she knew about him, and herself.
Despite second thoughts about their relationship, a young woman (Jessie Buckley) takes a road trip with her new boyfriend (Jesse Plemons) to his family farm. Trapped at the farm during a snowstorm with Jake's mother (Toni Collette) and father (David Thewlis), the young woman begins to question the nature of everything she knew or understood about her boyfriend, herself, and the world. An exploration of regret, longing and the fragility of the human spirit, I'M THINKING OF ENDING THINGS is directed and written by Academy Award® winner Charlie Kaufman (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind). Inspired by Iain Reid's bestselling namesake novel.
Synopsis I'm Thinking of Ending Things (2020)
The film opens with an inner monologue from a young woman. She anxiously explains how she is thinking of ending things, although she can't say long she has been or how the idea formed. She has been in a relationship with Jake for a month now, although she says it feels like it has been much longer.It is the middle of winter and Jake is taking her on a road trip out to a rural area for her to meet Jake's parents. As she waits on a street corner for Jake to pick her up, she expresses how she regrets not breaking things off before agreeing to this trip.
During the car trip the young woman keeps finding herself drifting off into her own head in lengthy inner monologues as Jake tries to make small talk. They pass by a demolished house with a swing set in the front yard. The woman remarks how bizarre it is that a torn down home would have a brand new swing set in the front yard.
As the trip progresses, the snowfall grows much heavier. The couple's conversation's occasionally become deep and philosophical. Both characters seem very analytical and well educated about a wide variety of topics.
There is a moment where Jake calls the young woman "Lucy". (She is called by several different names throughout the film.)
Jake turns on the radio and sings along to a song from the musical "Oklahoma!". The young woman is surprised to discover he is a fan of musical theater.
At one point the young woman reads a lengthy poem about the comfort of going home, and the existential terror of actually arriving. The poem features themes of loneliness, regret, and the fear of growing old. Jake remarks he feels as if the poem was written specifically about him.
Occasionally the film cuts away to the daily routine of an elderly janitor. His backyard has the same swing set from the house. He is shown going to work at a high school. His life and job seem lonely and mundane. He watches students as they rehearse for a school production of "Oklahoma!".
Eventually the couple arrives at Jake's parents' farmhouse. Jake refuses to go inside at first and instead insists he first shows her the animal stable. As they enter they find several dead sheep lying in the entrance. Jake avoids explaining how they died. He instead tells the story of a pig that died in the stable years ago. His father had neglected to check on the pigs for a few days and eventually found one of them was being eaten alive by maggots.
They go inside and can't find either of Jake's parents at first. Eventually they are discovered to both still be upstairs getting ready.
Jake gives the young woman a tour of the house. She mentions how the house reminds her of her own childhood home. She also finds a baby photo of Jake on the wall she seems to believe is a photo of her. Jake shows her the door to the basement which is covered in scratches and has been taped shut. Jake tells her it's unsafe to go down there and the scratches are all probably from the family dog.
The parents soon come downstairs and they all sit down for dinner. The parents are friendly and welcoming, but exhibit some peculiar behavior. The young woman shows off some of her artwork to the parents who don't know what to make of any of it. She also tells the story of how she and Jake met at a trivia night, a story which features several inconsistencies. The father seems to take everything completely at face value and doesn't understand anything beyond its literal meaning. The mother has a habit of mispronouncing words and laughing hysterically until she seems to be in pain.
During dinner, the young woman receives a voice mail from someone with the caller ID "Lucy". The caller delivers a cryptic message: "There's only one question to resolve. I'm scared. I feel a little crazy. I'm not lucid. The assumptions are right. I can feel my fear growing. Now is the time for the answer. Just one question. One question to answer." She doesn't seem to react to the message and casually carries on with the dinner conversation.
Over dessert, the young woman talks about studying Gerontology and how she has always been fascinated by the aging process and upset with how society treats the elderly. Mid-conversation, Jake's mother is briefly overcome by a buzzing in her ears caused by tinnitus. She fearfully wonders aloud if the buzzing is someone trying to communicate with her to share the secrets of the universe.
As the night goes on, more bizarre and unexplained things begin to happen. Jake's parents begin to rapidly age and de-age between scenes. The young woman goes up to Jake's childhood bedroom and finds it seemingly untouched from when he was a child. She finds a journal which somehow contains her own poem that she recited in the car earlier.
Jake's father, who is at this point elderly and suffering from some form of dementia seems to misunderstand that Jake's girlfriend is there to stay the night. Despite her repeated attempts to explain she needs to be home tonight, the father offers her Jake's childhood bed to sleep in and the mother's old nightgown which has a large stain on it.
Jake's mother asks young woman to go down to the basement to throw her stained nightgown in the wash. She goes to the basement and gets another mysterious call repeating the same message. She opens the running washing machine and finds inside an entire load of identical shirts. Down there, she also finds several paintings signed by Jake which seem to resemble her own.
The young woman eventually convinces Jake to leave and they head back on the road. By this point the snowfall has become a blizzard. There's a moment where Jake calls the young woman Amy. She seems no longer able to remember much of what happened at the house after dinner.
The conversation turns to John Cassavete's film "A Woman Under the Influence". The young woman gives a lengthy eloquent and condescending critique of the film. She even seems to conjure a lit cigarette out of thin air to punctuate her suddenly very smug attitude. Jake says he connected with the film emotionally although he seems too ashamed now to try to articulate why.
Jake suddenly suggests they pull over for ice cream. They stop at a place called "Tulsey Town". Two of the employees seem to recognize Jake, who is clearly embarrassed, refusing to make eye contact. The young woman seems to recognize the third employee, but can't recall from where. The girl, who has some sort of rash on her arms, cryptically tells Amy she doesn't have to go forward.
Back on the road moments later, Jake decides he has had enough of his ice cream after barely touching it. The young woman suddenly decides she doesn't want any more either. Jake tries to search for somewhere to dispose of the ice cream before it melts inside the car.
Jake pulls over at his old high school nearby. He disappears for a moment to throw the cups away and soon returns. They are about to leave when Jake spots the janitor watching them from inside. Jake gets out again and disappears into the building. The young woman waits for what seems to be a very long time and Jake never returns. She gets out of the car and accidentally locks herself out.
She goes into the school looking for Jake. She encounters the janitor and tries to hide from him at first. He soon finds her and she talks to him. She tells him that nothing ever happened between her and Jake that trivia night, and that she can't even remember what he looks like.
The young woman and Jake soon find one another. Two dancers appear, dressed the same as them and a lengthy dream-like ballet sequence follows. The dance concludes with a third dancer, dressed as the janitor appearing. A dance fight ensues which ends with the janitor killing Jake with a knife.
The janitor finishes his shift. He goes out to his truck and is about to turn it on, but hesitates. He sits out in the cold and appears to suffer a mental breakdown. He hallucinates characters from a "Tulsey Town" commercial outside. He undresses and follows an animated pig back into the school. The pig resembles the one from Jake's story, with it's underside infested with maggots.
In the high school auditorium, a version of Jake, wearing stage makeup to look older, receives a Nobel Prize and delivers a speech about his journey through the metaphysical. Lucy/Amy is watching from the audience. She as well as most of the audience are made up to look older. Jake finishes his speech by singing the song "Lonely Room" from "Oklahoma!"; a song about walking away from isolation and an imaginary girl, becoming stronger, and taking charge of your life.
The film ends with a shot of the school parking lot the next morning. The snow storm has stopped and the janitor's truck is covered with snow. At the very end of the credits a sound of an engine beginning to turn over is heard. Perhaps suggesting Jake has changed his mind about ending things.