10 "Ambiguous" Movie Endings (That Totally Aren't)
7. The Final Scene Isn't Real - The Florida Project
Sean Baker's terrific 2017 indie drama The Florida Project chronicles the life of six-year-old Moonee (Brooklynn Prince), who lives with her young single mother Halley (Bria Vinaite) in a budget motel near Florida's Disneyworld.
At film's end, Moonee is about to be taken into foster care due to investigators discovering that her mother performs sex work for money, when she runs away to bid her friend Jancey (Valeria Cotto) goodbye.
At this moment, Jancey grabs her hand and the pair flee to Disneyworld's Magic Kingdom theme park before Baker cuts to black.
Many have questioned whether the final scene is real or not, but looking at everything the movie presents you with, there's not really much room for debate.
For one, getting from their motel to the Magic Kingdom would be a treacherous trip of many miles for small children, and more to the point, how would they even be admitted entrance without adults or money?
But the most telling conceit might well be that when Jancey grabs Moonee by the hand, Baker abruptly switches from a cinema camera to phone footage, implying a break from reality into something dreamlike.
Sadly, Moonee never got to Disneyworld - this was simply her imagining a better, more carefree existence seconds before she's taken into care and her life changes forever.