First Reformed: What Does The Ending Really Mean?
4. The Last Temptation Of Toller
The ending to First Reformed has undeniable echoes of Scorsese's Schrader-scripted 1988 biblical drama The Last Temptation of Christ.
The film revolves around Jesus Christ (Willem Dafoe) encountering a crisis of faith once nailed to the cross, envisioning a life where he marries Mary Magdalene (Barbara Hershey) and gives in to the whims of Satan. But ultimately, Jesus prevails over the temptation and dies on the cross, saving the soul of man in the process.
Similarly, First Reformed sees Toller encounter a jarringly optimistic vision while in the final moments of his life.
In both instances, the love of a woman named Mary appears to be the protagonist's salvation, and it's impossible not to see this as Schrader riffing on not only the Bible but also his own prior work.
Scorsese's film of course lacks the same ambiguity about what's real and what isn't, but there's enough shared DNA between the two films for it to be a significant clue about Toller's true fate.
If you're not fully convinced yet, then consider that there's also another of Schrader's movies that he pays tribute to...