Anubis2005X

Finally, thanks for the heads up!!!

WiiDSmoker

Once in a lifetime we come across a film that truly opens our imagination and touches our hearts. The Fountain, to me, is the greatest movie of all time. I am here to show you why it is my favorite film and to offer you insight into understanding the film. The Fountain encompasses an engaging storyline, moody music, and superb visuals using macro-photographer technology.

The Fountain is a science fiction/fantasy film released on November 22, 2006 and was directed by Darren Aronofsky. Darren Aronofsky's claim to fame was the movie Pi, and garnered even more success with the released of Requiem for a Dream. The Fountain explores the themes of love and mortality across characters from three different time periods. The film stars Hugh Jackman (Wolverine) and Rachel Weisz (The Mummy Returns). Originally to be filmed and released in 2002 on a $70 million budget with Brad Pitt and Cate Blanchett, but production was ceased when Brad Pitt backed out of the movie to film Troy. Darren Aronofky was able to restart the project in 2005 with a $35 million budget.

Understanding The Fountain

Since the film's release there have been numerous explanations of the storyline and I am here to tell you what actually went on. The Fountain is a confusing piece because the storyline continually jumps from the past / future / a piece of literature. In The Fountain there also exists a story called The Fountain that we see being written and played out while the real storyline is progressing. This has caused constant complexion from movie goers.

All three storyline intermingle with each other despite the fact that one of them is a book. To help you understand I will start with the fiction piece known as The Fountain that is being written by Izzi (Rachel Weisz).

The conquistador. Fiction. Storyline written by Izzi and eventually finished by her husband; Tommy Creo. It is 16th century Spain and the Spanish Queen (played by Weisz) has been accused of being a heretic by the Grand Inquisitor Silecio. He is in the process of acquiring land from Spain and killing her followers along the way. Tomas (Hugh Jackman) is a conquistador for Queen Isabella. He is on his way to assassinate Silecio, but then he is stopped by Captain Ariel, urging him to put down his weapon as ordered by the Queen. The Queen delivers a message of eternal life. She speaks of a Tree of Life believed to be in New Spain. Queen Isabella and Father Avila are true believers of the Tree of Life as written by the Bible in Genesis 3:24:

"So He drove the man out; and at the east of the garden of Eden He stationed the cherubim and the flaming sword which turned every direction to guard the way to the tree of life."

The location of the tree is revealed by a hidden map displayed on a Mayan ritual dagger that was stolen by Father Avila. Tomas doesn't at first believe of the Tree of Life until The Queen persuades him with the Bible passage. She also says "You will find Eden, and when you do, I shall be your Eve." His quest is even more dear to him for his love of The Queen and for Spain. In New Spain, father, finds the temple that guards the Tree of Life. Tomas is attacked by the Mayan warriors, but, he alone, survives. They force him to climb the pyramid. When he reaches the top, he is stabbed in the stomach by a Mayan priest.

Thus this ends the story as written by Izzi. Below is the ending as written by Tommy.

Once Tomas is stabbed by the Mayan priest he sees a greater calling and it is revealed that he is the reincarnation of the First Father. The First Father, as believed by the Mayans, is a man whom sacrificed himself so that life could dwell. The Mayan priest then asks the new First Father (Tomas) to kill him so that they may be together. Tomas slices his throat as requested and his eyes reach true bliss when he sees the wonders of the Tree of Life.

At first confused, he stabs the tree, and is in awe at the sap that seeped forth from the tree. He gets some on his fingers and in the process a few drops of the sap falls to the earth, which turns grass into beautiful plants in an instant. Seeing this, he spreads some of the sap on his wounded that heals in an instant as well. In a sense of happiness and confusion he stabs the tree more and drinks the sap that poures out of the Tree of Life. The sap eventually consumes him and as such Tomas is overcome by plans growing out of his body and thus the circle of life is complete and Tomas is turned into plants.

This ends the book and one of the storylines.

The second storyline I shall talk to you about is the past. Some may call this the present day; however, that is entirely false as we see in the future that Tommy is reliving his life. This storyline is about the struggle that Izzi and Tommy face with the tumor that is within Izzi's brain. Tommy Creo is an oncologist who is trying to reverse brain tumors in monkeys.

He hopes to use this knowledge to help cure his wife. After numerous failures on a monkey named Donovan, Tommy breaks medical protocol and uses an untested compound abstracted from a tree in Guatemala. Unknowing to him, this is actually the Tree of Life. The compound is put into Donovan, whom at first showed no signs of success, but, Donovan eventually recovers cognitive abilities. Donovan performs faster at tests than when we was younger and before he had the tumor. We eventually hear the news that the tumor is shrinking; however, the news comes too late.

During all this, Izzi becomes fascinated with the Mayans and begins to write a book; The Fountain. She tells Tommy the story of Xibalba, the Mayan underworld. Xibalba is the real world is a dying nebula that is golden in color. She hits a writers block and is unable to finish her storyline, so she advises Tommy to read the story. One morning, Tommy wakes up and learns that his wife has gone to the museum. There she explains the creation story of the Mayans; the First Father. She suddenly collapses from a seizure and is rushed to the hospital. She tell Tommy that she is not afraid to die.

Tommy does not accept her fate and continues to work on finding the cure. He finds the cure without even knowledge of himself, but the news is delivered too late and Izzi dies. At the funeral Tommy breaks down and says "Death is a disease, like any other. And there is a cure. And I will find it." One night his depression kicks in and he remembers that his wedding band is missing.

Using the ink that Izzi gave him to finish the story, he pokes his finger to make it bleed. He then puts the ink in to the blood to make a permanent stain where the wedding band use to be. While this may seem like the end of this storyline, it actually ends at the very end of the film where we see Tommy planting a seed from a Tree above Izzi's grave so that she may become the tree and fly with the birds.

While not directly told to us, we do know that Tommy does indeed find a cure for death and is able to live for many centuries.

Thus the ends the second storyline.


The third and final storyline takes place in the present day (not the future) around the year 2500. We are not told of what has become of humanity, but we do know that Tommy is the Last Man. He is the only known survivor of mankind and he is floating through space. In the sphere that he travels in is the tree that he planted above Izzi's grave. Tommy believes the tree to be Izzi. While we don't know truly how Tommy is surviving in space we do know that he is able to eat the bark from the tree; thus he is eating Izzi, and apologizes to her by doing so. He is struggling with the fear of death and the visions of Izzi. We also know that he is currently floating towards the Xibalba nebula that his wife truly appreciated.

We are shown his past life through flashbacks. These flashbacks are the first and second storylines. We also see that he has ink markings all over his bodies that he used to count the many years since Izzi's death that "Pulled me through time". He is constantly hunted by Izzi telling him to "Finish it", which refers to The Fountain (book). For 500 years he has been unable to finish the last chapter of the book due to his depression and dedication from losing Izzi.

He eventually cracks and sees Izzi and Queen Isabella for the last time. The Queen delivers her final message, "Will you deliver Spain from bondage?". The Queen wants the storyline to be finished as well. He finishes the book, which is the ending of the first storyline, and eventually accepts death.

His sphere connects with Xibalba and explodes like all dying nebulas do. He dies from this and thus ends The Fountain.


A film directed by Darren Aronofky.
Music composed and written by Clint Mansell.

Clint Mansell is a friend of mine and knows of my dire appreciation of The Fountain and the music within it. He has provided me with numerous unreleased tracks that I am free to distribute. However; with that said, under no circumstance, if you download these songs, are you able to sell, modify, or use any part of the tracks other than personal usage. Remember these are all unreleased and if you want to buy the Official Soundtrack please read near the bottom of the thread.

Please right click and choose "Save As".

The Fountain - Trailer Theme
The Fountain - Tree of Life
The Fountain - This Is The Modern World
The Fountain - Snow
The Fountain - Holy Dread
The Fountain - The Last Man (w/ vocals)

I hope that you will support The Fountain by buying the film. Either on:

DVD for $14.99

HD-DVD for $16.49

Blu-Ray for $16.49


They can also be bought at all major retailers. I also hope that you support Clint Mansell by buying the Official Soundtrack of the Fountain which can be found here.





I do hope you have enjoyed this thread, and I ask again; Will you deliver Spain from bondage?

I also ask you to let me know what you thought of this thread, I may decide to do more along the same lines for other works of art.

MartinBlank

Spoilers?

A-aron

Another case where the username is a seemingly perfect fit - after reading all of that I have the munchies

JPRaup

One of the greatest movies ever.

hardercore

I remember seeing this film, not understanding most of it, but just being so moved by it. The music and the cinematography did it. Really good film, would look forward to revisiting it to see if I can gain any of the above insight.

Gunde

Great post. Thanks man

RichC2

I watched The Fountain with a few friends when I got an HD DVD player, we all pretty much agreed - entertaining, overall well made with an interesting plotline, but a few scenes unintentionally turned to camp (the tree oozing scene was especially bad). I don't understand the complaints of the movie being confusing though... honestly, it wasn't confusing at all. It's a good movie with a few poorly executed scenes. It also needs an extended version as it is abrupt in spots.

DVD Josh

Regretfully this is the first post after such an amazing insight into the movie.

Kudama

My firm impression was that two of the storylines were fiction with the future one being the chapter Izzy was imploring Tommy to write at the end of hers-"Finish it."

Either way, this is one of the most moving films I have ever seen in my life. I just watched it at 5 in the morning yesterday and it got me again. It's the only movie that isn't porn that I have to watch alone (with a big box of tissues).

Draven6593

I agree (almost) completely with the OP and disagree with Kudama. There isn't anything to suggest that Tomas becomes Tommy the space traveler, while there are many scenes that suggest Tommy the space traveler is also Tommy the oncologist.

Quick question: how do we "know" Tommy the space traveler is the last man alive? Where is this suggested---beyond the titles of the songs? Is there anything within the film that suggests this? I've seen it several times and can't recall anything.

DVD Josh

I don't know if I remember anything specifically, but I do remember thinking that he was during my viewing of the film.

I didn't like the movie at all, but I really appreciate the OP's effort here.

SuckaMC

It all clicked with me the 2nd time i watched it. (past being the novel, Dr. and space traveller are the same guy) What mainly clicked was that he finished the novel (starting with him appearing as space traveller in the past) and his realization that the quickest way back to Izzie was to die. Great movie.

PopcornTreeCt

Great post. I enjoyed the movie got pretty much everything explained in the OP.

DullandWitless

Love "The Fountain". Thanks for the in-depth take and helping me understanding the film a bit more.

MartinBlank

Lighten up, Francis. This post is forcing me to rent the movie. I've heard of it, but have never heard anything about it. I had no idea it was held is such high esteem.

Kudama

I'm not trying to be argumentative, but doesn't that mean Tommy never wrote the last chapter? I just thought of that possibility and could buy that. I always thought the space part was Tommy's invention because it denotes final acceptance and not the terror of the scene in spoilers.

Either way -great movie and great OP.

Anubis2005X

My interpretation of what happened is a little bit different than the OP's, but I think Aronofsky wanted each viewer to take something unique away from the film.

EDIT: By the way, tell your friend Mansell that we'd love to have this unreleased music in higher quality, not just the versions that have been ripped from his myspace page...thanks!

Draven6593

Well, right. As I see it, Tommy never literally "writes" the final chapter---he sees/envisions it. He understands Izzy wanted him to learn that death is a natural part of life. As soon as Tommy the time traveler understands this, he is able to finish the story: the spoiled scene you refer to.

For much of the space narrative, Tommy does not accept death as part of life. Think of the first scene where Izzy comes back and tells Tommy to finish it, for example. He says that he can't finish the story---largely because he hasn't accepted Izzy's message about life and death yet. It's only upon further reflection (reflections that we see, by the way) that he finally comprehends her message.

And now it's my time to be argumentative. I simply disagree with the idea that Aronofsky wanted each viewer to take something unique away from the film---insofar as this refers to different narrative "interpretations." There are simply too many narrative/visual cues to substantiate the OP's version of the film to argue anything else successfully.

Anubis2005X

Are you serious? If there's one film that's open to almost limitless interpretations, it's The Fountain...

Kudama

Plus Aronofsky is a damn slippery fish when asked to give the definitive version. It's like he's getting off on the debates it generates. Good for him I say.

Anubis2005X

Truly it's one of the things I love most about the film. It seems like no matter who I talk to, they pick up on things or interpret something in The Fountain in a way that I never did.

You're right about Aronofsky. Have you tried listening to the commentary?

Apone

Rats! The songs are only 96 kbs.

Anubis2005X

Considering the source, I'm not too surprised...

http://www.myspace.com/themusicofclintmansell

Draven6593

Quite serious. It might be "open" to limitless interpretations, but that doesn't mean most of those aren't wrong.

I myself am open to an interpretation of the narrative that works as well as the OP's---but I simply don't think that will happen. I would be glad to be proven wrong, though.