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The Fountain, explained
Posted By avi
After finally watching The Fountain, I decided to post my interpretation of the movie for anyone who cares. I know a lot of people who said they just didn’t get it. And while there are a few mysteries and ambiguities, I think the themes of the movie go a long way to explaining which Toms are real and/or the same person, what exactly happened, and why.
If you haven’t seen the movie, watch it first before reading on. It’s out on DVD. Go ahead. I’ll wait…
Okay. I found the the following explanation on the web, including links to other critical interpretations. So rather than say this in other words, I’ll excerpt Josh’s version and add my caveats at the end.
What’s really happening in The Fountain? My interpretation is that the past is the story written by Tom’s wife, and then finished by Tom in the final moments of his life. The present is of course real, and the future is too. It’s a true science fiction movie, Tom uncovers the secret to immortality [too] late to save his wife, and uses it to stay alive for centuries while looking for a way to resurrect her. Future Tom and Present Tom are the same person, and Past Tom is Izzy’s interpretation of the real Tom’s attempts to cheat death, and when Tom finishes the book he writes the Conquistador’s demise as sign of his acceptance of Izzy’s belief that death should be embraced as a way to become a part of nature and the universe. Tom the Conquistador turns into a hedge. When future Tom is disintegrated in the stuff of stars, he has chosen to abandon his quest to save his life, and instead travels back in time to do over her few remaining days on Earth.
I’d agree with most of that, except the last bit, perhaps just the phrasing. Tom must have known what’s going to happen to him when he left Earth, though he hasn’t completely accepted his fate or finished Izzy’s story. He’s not wandering aimlessly. He wants to reach the Mayan underworld to be reunited with Izzy and to bring the Tree of Life — the only thing left to keep him alive (millions of years, most likely). But he knows the nebula is going to explode, and he knows he’s going to die as a result. In fact, I’d go so far to say that since the Tree of Life is dying, he may actually be the last man alive and he’s trying to reincarnate more than just Izzy.
I was wondering for a while if the tree might just be Izzy’s tree that he plants near the end. And it is, in a sense, both. But both trees serve the same metaphorical role — life growing out of death — for Izzy and all life on Earth.
So when the nebula explodes, it is an act of ultimate creation. The tree blooms again. And Tom becomes the First Man — the one the Mayans believe gave his life to sprout the Tree of Life and create the universe. And so, in the final scenes, when the Mayan priest recognizes Thomas the Conquistador as the First Man, Izzy’s book becomes the book of life, the story of the universe, and so does the movie attempt to blur the line between fiction and myth and real. That’s one of the things I like about it. Like all good SF, it’s saying something about our world, about death especially, and life.
As for the religious themes of the movie, I think it’s worth discussing the importance of the Inquisition scenes, because they really bring the themes home to modern life. Queen Isabella, confronted with oppressive religion in Spain, was trying to find immortality, not just for herself, but to throw off the shackles of religion. Without death, there is no need for religion. There is no fear of death, and no final judgment by God. And that’s what the Inquisitor was so deathly afraid of, so to speak.
But ironically, the Inquisitor was slightly closer to the essential truth of the movie — that eternal life loses meaning, as does Tom, save his mission. It’s unnatural, dying in spirit if not in flesh. That’s not to overstate the beneficence of the Church — it also preaches eternal life, albeit in Heaven, not on Earth. The Church, in a sense, is obsessed with Original Sin (see the Inquisitor whipping himself) — the loss of the Garden of Eden — which Tom essentially rediscovers, and then literally recreates to bring the movie full circle.
I think present Izzy and Tom in the end would say they were both wrong, the Queen and the Inquisitor, and that for all its faults, the Mayan religion captured this essential truth — life is cyclical, and it’s best to embrace death as the natural precursor to life.
Jun 8th, 2007
Good interpretation but I would have to say I disagree that the past did not occur. On the contrary I think it is quite clear that all 3 timelines did occur. In the end Tomas was completing the story (in his head), but I’m sure that the book she was writing was their biography. At one point while he is reading it, he falls asleep but the story continues (in his dreams?). He would not have known the story if he had not lived it…her book just made him remember. It was after all 400+ years since he found the tree of life.
Also remember her joke about “I went to junior high”. It was a joke between them because she never attended modern day junior high but was educated as a queen in the 1400’s.
His finish to the book in that the conquistador finds death by becoming part of the tree symbolizes that by searching for eternal life you will only find your death. The true story is that he finds the tree of life, Isabel lives for another 400 years until developing terminal cancer, while Tomas lives for around 1000 years.
There are further clues to all 3 timelines being real:
1) The trailer says the story spans 1000 years
2) It is clearer in the graphic novel that Aranofsky wrote before making the movie
3) Tomas is not interested in reversing aging because they have already been doing this for hundreds of years. In fact he seems to want to keep the reversal of aging hidden.
The first song on the soundtrack is “The Last Man” so that was pretty clever of you to pick that up if you didn’t know that fact. With the tree of life dying so must all other life which it helped create.
The thing is that Tomas turns into a shrub in the "past" part of the story. So it’s hard to imagine that all happening in standard chronological order (past first, then present, then future), because even if Tomas survived for 400 years until present, he’s still a shrub.
Plus, Izzie’s message is that the cycle of life is life reborn from death — that immortality is unnatural, contrary to what Queen Isabella believes. That’s a parallel contrast between past and present characters to Tomas/Tom. But having Izzie go through such a major transformation off-screen (in the 400 years between Isabella and Izzie) is bad storytelling, and I don’t think Aranofsky would resort to that. I think that indicates they’re distinct characters, or at most fictional analogs. In the case of Tom, we do see a transformation, but mostly from present to future Tom, where he finally gets what Izzie meant and why she wrote the book.
Unless you assume time is cyclical, and the story of Tomas the conquistador was actually from the next cycle of time, happening in a sense _after_ the modern and future story lines in the new world born from the exploding nebula. And that could have even happened in our past if you think that time is literally cyclical, that all things repeat every 12,000 (or whatever) years.
But I think it makes more sense to think of the "past" part of the story as originally fictional, at least until the end of the movie, where it may have become real through future Tom’s solitary act of creation.
I just saw this a few nights ago, and it’s been rattling around in my head. Here’s my take on it, and I’d love to hear your opinions.
Tomas the conquistador is fictional. He’s the protagonist in Izzy’s story. In the story, Queen Isabella (Izzy) sends him on a quest to find eternal life, which she believes is the solution to the problems caused by the Inquisition: no death means no judgement, no judgement means no religion, no religion means no Inquisitors. Tomas battles his way to the Tree of Life, until he’s confronted by the Mayan priest, who stabs him, saying “Death is the road to awe”. Izzy’s story ends, leaving Tommy to complete it.
Enter present-day Tommy, the brilliant cancer researcher struggling in vain to save his wife, Izzy. In his obsessive search for a cure, he neglects his wife. Every bit of his energy is focused on preventing her death, so when she asks him to walk in the woods with her, Tommy’s search for a cure is more important. He is missing much of Izzy’s final days of life.
Izzy, who is fascinated by the Mayan mythology of the First Father (who sacrificed his life to give birth to the World Tree), writes her story, “The Fountain”. She gives it to Tommy, asking him to “finish it”. Tommy works frantically to discover a cure, finding a promising candidate in a chemical derived from a Central American tree. The Tree of Life has been rediscovered, albeit in pharmaceutical form. However, Izzy dies before the discovery can prolong her life. Remembering Izzy’s joy at the thought of becoming one with a tree and the birds, Tommy plants a seed on her grave.
Flash forward hundreds of years. Tom is the Last Man, traveling space with only a gnarled tree and his haunted memories for company. His monastic garb, shaven head, and lotus-style meditations suggest that he has embraced Buddhism, although he is still tortured by memories of Izzy. The seed planted on Izzy’s grave is now a withered, ancient tree, near to death. He’s bringing her to Xibalba, the dying star that, in Mayan myth, is where the dead go to be reborn.
The final chapter of Izzy’s story is now told. Tomas, the conquistador, is confronted by his own mortality in the form of the Mayan priest’s wound. And, as Tomas realizes this, the priest sees in him the First Father, whose death brings about a new cycle of life. The priest surrenders his life to Tomas in the Mayan tradition. Tomas reaches the tree, and viciously rips into it with the dagger, tearing into the bark. He greedily slurps the sap of the Tree, drinking all he can, but to his horror, finds that too much of the stuff of Life leads to his own downfall. The End.
Izzy’s story is complete, and with it, Tom’s enlightenment. He understands that, like Tomas plunging his knife into the tree, his obsessive pursuit of life is a violent, selfish act. He understands the Buddhist concept that desire causes suffering, and realizes that it is his desire to live forever that has caused his suffering — and Izzy’s. He accepts the inevitable, telling the vision of Izzy, “I will die.”
He surrenders his life in the fiery explosion of Xibalba. He has embarked on the road to awe; he has become the First Father, and the Tree of Life is reborn.
A new Karmic cycle has begun. Tommy is once again at a crossroads: his research is at a crucial stage when Izzy asks him to walk with her. And, having learned from the mistakes of his past incarnation, he chooses to be with her, for as long as they have together.
Whaddya think? Am I close?
John, your understanding of this movie is right on the money. I have to say I read a bunch of the so called ‘explanations’ regarding the movie’s themes and they just showed a discrete and superficial understanding of the film.
You should copy your post and put it on your personal website and let everyone have a look at what it really was about.
Thanks.
John and Laurian, yes, I agree. I thought that’s more or less what I’d written and excerpted above.
Bravo John. You’re explanation answer almost every question I had after watching the film. The only thing that still confuses me about your take on the movie is how modern day Tom becomes “The Last Man.” Is his tree the rediscovered tree of life that saved Donovan? If so, how are we to believe he was able to somehow obtain it for himself? Is it the tree that grew out of Izzi’s grave? If it is, how does eating THAT tree keep him alive?
something to confuse or maybe explain things better :
13.0.0.0.0 the last day of the mayan calander, also known to some as the day of the end of the world…december 21th, 2012 in the gregorian calender…
perhaps the present in the movie is actually 5 years in the future here…with december 21st being the day izzy dies. this would coincide with her referring to the first snowfall of the year as she asks tom to go on a walk a few days or weeks before her own death…
I loved this movie, so trippy and beautiful!
In mayan belief, the sacred tree is a metaphor for the milky way galaxy…it fits well with tom’s journey through space to xibalba
i really need help on this, i feel that johns interpretation is correct, but if it is there is something i missed. if the future is real, that how does thomas end up with the ring when he is in the bubble, he clearly lost it and never found it, so if the future is real, HOW DOES HE HAVE THE RING? i would appreciate the answer because if this is solved that i feel i have a complete understanding of the movie, and until then, i dont think this interpretaion can be 100% correct.
i don’t think john’s interpretation can be 100% percent correct because he only gets the seed he plants over izzie’s grave after he walks with her and she gives it to him at the end .
“The Fountain” is a taste of what can be reached by very few. It is presented to peak an interest into existence. True existence will be reached by only a few. Now and again something stings into consciousness, man is caught up in the spiritual level, and catches a glimpse of ‘the secret plan’. Then hints of a marvellous truth,a unity whose note is ineffable peace, shine, in created things. The barrier of personality is broken, man escapes the sense-world, ascends to the apex of his spirit,and enters, for a brief period, into the more extended life of the ALL.
Want to reach a higher ground?