Since Netflix came around, it has drastically altered how people watch movies. If before, they line up in queues in cinemas, Netflix is providing the opportunity to watch their favorite movies at home – no need to be in long lines for tickets – with a subscription and Internet connection.
There are several great movies you can watch on Netflix, and one of them is “White Noise.” “White Noise” is not as grand as the other films regarding how audiences have received it, but its ending has created much buzz in the Netflix community. In this article, we’ll take a look at this controversial ending and probably offer an explanation for it.
About ‘White Noise’
“White Noise” is a 2022 absurdist comedy-drama film. To give context, absurdist comedy is a kind of drama that emphasizes the absurdity of human existence by incorporating meaningless dialogue, logical development, confusing situations, unrealistic scenes, and illogical behaviors.
“White Noise” is written and directed by Noah Baumbach, based on the 1985 novel of the same title written by Don DeLillo. The film stars Adam Driver, Greta, Gerwig, and Don Cheadle, among others.
Set in the 1980s, the story of “White Noise” follows the life of a niche academic and his family as they encounter trials and tribulations, starting with an environmental disaster nearby their residence.
The Ending Of ‘White Noise’ Explained
Furious and worked up about Babette taking Dylar, a drug still in clinical trials, in exchange for intercourse with Mr. Gray, Jack embarks on a search of the man, wanting to kill him with a gun. Jack simply cannot forget about the image Babette’s image lying on the bed with the television. This drives him to commit violence while setting aside his personal anxieties about his impending death. Jack then shoots Mr. Gray with the gun Murray Siskind gave him while he was in the throes of a hallucination. Afterward, Jack attempts to make everything look like suicide.
Babette arrives to stop Jack, but Mr. Gray shoots both of them, then the three are seen in a hospital where German atheist nuns tend their wounds. Babette and Jack, whose anger has dissipated, kiss and make up over the Dylar issue. Being in a dangerous situation, with death looming before then, has made them realize that their argument is so little compared to the relationship and family they have built together.
“White Noise” then leaves things off with the Gladney family back in the grocery store, where everybody begins dancing in the aisles.
Intriguing, right? There is no better way to explain this ending than by seeking the word from the director, Baumbach, himself.
In one of his media interviews, he said that the dancing in the ending is a dance of death and a dance of life, a celebration of everything that’s ending. However, he also pointed out that the book on which the movie is based gives room for so much interpretation that he did not want to narrow these things in the film.
“We create this sort of dance for ourselves daily to not acknowledge our mortality, and at the same time, we’re putting all these images of death in our entertainment and following horrible stories with a kind of delight because it’s happening somewhere else or it feels unreal to us,” Baumbach added.
In conclusion, the film essentially takes the viewers to what happens when people are confronted with their own deaths and the different steps they take to deal with the horror they create, from seeking solace from their families and depending on drugs to being driven to commit violent crimes and keeping a tradition of religious faith alive.
