9 Confusing Films Where Absolutely Nobody Knew What Was Going On

6. The Fountain

The Fountain tells a love story spanning three different time periods. The central one takes place in the present, as Tom (Hugh Jackman) desperately searches for a cure for his wife Izzi's (Rachel Weisz) brain cancer. During this time, she writes a story set in the 16th century, where Queen Isabella (Weisz) waits for conquistador Tomás Verde to discover the Tree of Life for her in the hope that it will help maintain her throne. After being stabbed, Tomás uses sap from the Tree of Life to cure his wounds, and after drinking it, begins to sprout grass from his body until it consumes him. There is also a future storyline which features Tom as an astronaut in the year 2500, travelling through space in a biosphere towards the cosmic body known as Xibalba. He also carries the Tree of Life with him inside the bubble, as he appears to believe that taking it to Xibalba will result in Izzi's resurrection. However, the tree dies, and it is only when an apparition of Izzi appears before him that he is able to accept his and her death, as Xibalba goes supernova, killing him but resurrecting the tree. A vision of Izzi takes a fruit from the tree, handing it to modern-day Tom, reflecting a conversation Isabella and Tomás had earlier in the movie about Adam and Eve. He then plants the apple in Izzi's grave, hoping that, as Izzi suggested, it might allow her to live on by nourishing the tree with her dead matter. Theories: The main contention surrounding the three stories is whether the past and present stories are true or not, or merely figments of Izzi and Tom's imaginations. One can argue that these stories merely have an allegorical meaning, and serve to reflect how patterns repeat themselves through time, while re-using the same actors and names is merely a handy way to tie it all together in a poetic tableau of sorts, referring to the spiritual idea of reincarnation. Perhaps the only true story is the present one, as Tom tries to cure Izzi, and the others are merely their imaginations trying to cope with the idea of loss and find a way to transcend the fates that await them. Aronofsky himself has remained pretty vague when talking about the film in interviews, though he has asserted that much of what people have read into was consciously placed by him rather than a mere coincidence.