10 Ambiguous Movie Endings That Had Ridiculously Simple Solutions
4. Shutter Island
The Ambiguous Ending: Is Teddy insane or not?
Shutter Island took Scorsese fans by surprise. The king of the gangster movie took his high-end sensibilities and applied it to the typical B-movie format. Brilliance ensued. The film culminates with the disturbing discovery that Leonardo DiCaprios Teddy wasn't the Marshall he thought, rather an inmate of the institution on the titular island. The entire plot was a scheme to try and wake Teddy up from his madness, but when that failed the doctors had no other option but to lobotomize him. But in his last moments, Teddy gives a hint to his doctor that perhaps hes aware of his dangerous nature and in fact sacrificing himself.
The Simple Solution: The clue's in the film's closing message.
The big difference between the film and Dennis Lehanes book of the same name is the ending. In the novel, Teddys madness is a lot more clear cut, but the films introduction of the closing line which would be worse to live as a monster, or to die as a good man? left many confused. Those involved in production were either tight lipped or as confused as the rest of us. It was only when The Guardians David Cox asked James Gilligan, the films psychiatric adviser, we got a definitive answer; Teddy has indeed been cured, but cant deal with his violent past. Gilligan felt the film should draw focus to the amount of lobotomies conducted in the fifties and thus didn't have the same desire to keep quiet as the rest of the film's crew.