10 Debated Movie Cliffhangers That Have Actual Answers

2. What Was Real And What Wasn't? - Mulholland Drive

Mulholland-DriveThe Cliffhanger: David Lynch's unequivocal surreal masterpiece is known for being immensely vague from first frame to last, concluding with the main character, Diane Selwyn (Naomi Watts), shooting herself in the head after experiencing an extremely disturbing hallucination. The Answer: Everything leading up to that is intentionally ambiguous, what with Watts and Laura Harring playing different characters for the first half of the movie. Still, there's a fair consensus among film critics and scholars that the oddball first half is simply a dream sequence that Watts' Diane concocted in her mind following her failure to become a Hollywood star. The second half depicts Diane as her sanity begins to unravel, and her obsession with Camilla Rhodes (Harring) reaches its apex. Realising that she can never be with Rhodes, she takes her own life. The first half is a dream; the second half is the dark reality. Simple.
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Frequently sleep-deprived film addict and video game obsessive who spends more time than is healthy in darkened London screening rooms. Follow his twitter on @ShaunMunroFilm or e-mail him at shaneo632 [at] gmail.com.