August 12, 2010 0237

Many people have been confused by the ending of this movie. This is my theory. Obviously this contains heavy spoilers and should only be read if you've seen the movie.

It is stated that Nemo has the ability to see the alternate futures that can become of his decisions. At first, Nemo’s life remained a straight line until his parents spilt up.

First I will list the possible futures should he stay with his dad.
1. After falling in love with Elise, but not confronting her about it, he crashes his moped and falls into coma before eventually dying.
2. After falling in love with Elise and getting rejected, he ends up with Jean. Here, he is bored with his life and in an attempt to add some excitement pretends to be Daniel Jones however, an assassin attempting to kill Daniel ends up killing Nemo.
3. He marries Elise, however she dies in a tanker explosion on their wedding day. He takes her ashes to Mars (like he promised at age 16). While there, he meets Anna and she tells Nemo about the “big crunch”, however they are both killed by a meteor shower that destroys their shuttle.
4. He marries Elise however she is not happy in their marriage. She ends up leaving him. Nemo and Elise both end up unhappy.

Now I will go through the possible futures should he go with his mom.
5. He falls in love with Anna, but she is not interested in him due to the comment, “They’re idiots. I don’t go swimming with idiots.” He runs into her as an adult. She has children and he is unhappy.
6. He and Anna fall in love however are kept apart by their parents. They loose touch.
7. He and Anna get married and live a happy life, however, Nemo crashes his car into a lake and drowns.
8. He and Anna fall in love but are kept apart by their parents. In a chance encounter at the train station they meet. She says she’d waited for him for all those years but can’t love anymore because of repressing it for so long. She gives him her number, saying to call her in two days, however, rain destroys the paper it is written on and they loose touch. He decides to wait for her at the lighthouse. After at least a few days, she returns there and they finally live together happily.

I also believe there is one more future where he chooses not to choose (or chooses neither depending how you look at it).
9. He runs away from both his parents.

Now we’ve gotten to my theory of how this movie ends. The 118-year-old Nemo talking to the journalist stated that that future didn’t exist and we see it being taken apart. After this, we see future 9, where Nemo runs away from both parents. This is what he chooses. We then see the 118-year-old Nemo die, meaning that had to have become the “real” future since nine-year-old Nemo had already made his choice. As he’s dying he whispers Anna’s name, showing that he still loves her. This makes my think that he regretted his decision and had been doing everything he could to stay alive until the big crunch so that he can go back and choose again. He dies as the big crunch happens and time begins moving backwards. He barely made it and starts laughing (while moving through his life backwards) because he is so overjoyed that he made it and can go back in time to see Anna again. Once he’s gone back, he makes his second choice. This time he chooses future 8.