What Does The Ending Of Enemy Really Mean?

Unravelling Denis Villeneuve's masterful mind-bender.

By Jack Pooley /

A24

Denis Villeneuve's 2013 film Enemy may not have been a box office smash, but it is one of the most provocative and entrancing psychological thrillers of the last decade.

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Loosely adapted from José Saramago's 2002 novel The Double, Enemy stars Jake Gyllenhaal as Adam, a despondent college history professor whose life is turned upside down when he discovers a doppelgänger of himself, Anthony (also played by Gyllenhaal, obviously), while watching a movie.

What begins simply enough quickly becomes increasingly dizzying and complex, as the identities of the two men become blurred in decidedly David Lynch-esque fashion. This leads to a third act and a final scene in particular that's wide open to interpretation and has been passionately debated over the last five years.

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There are no 100% definitive answers, and Villeneuve has patently refused to clear anything up - because why would he? - but by taking a deep dive into the cerebral thriller, we can perhaps uncover quite what it all means...