Told you I'm never going back
In part 1, we discussed the presence of ‘kaukokaipuu’ and ‘torschlusspanik’ throughout the film, however as a reflection to these feelings, we see Hanna and McCauley alternating between loneliness and obsession. This is where we return to Colville’s Pacific.
This served as an inspiration for the mood, feel and story of this film, and it connects our two leads. Both of these men are the offspring of Colville’s themes:
perspective-changing experience,
the inability to return to normal life,
a yearning for something they can never have, and;
a feeling of time running out.
It’s a futile attempt to create a moment that will last forever. The result of Hanna and McCauley’s attempt at this is depicted in the film’s showdown.
In the finale we see the culmination of Hanna and McCauley’s shared obsession, beginning with them running against the flow of people :
What follows is a chase which, while less visceral than the earlier bank shootout, contains much more emotional resonance.
Hanna and McCauley engage in a protracted shootout across the runways of LAX, and it’s here that they finally collide.
Beyond the shootout however is something else, a moment which is hinted at throughout the film, and finally comes to fruition as the two men stand off.
This is the one moment in the entire movie in which we see aligned, subjective POV shots.
Prior to the final scene, we see four POV shots. Two from McCauley’s perspective:
And two from Hanna’s perspective:
The last time we see this subjective POV for both men, is during the final standoff:
In this scene, The POV shot is initiated by Hanna and answered by McCauley. From this we can extrapolate meaning:
In the earlier situations where we experienced POVs from one person, this subjective viewpoint was not returned by the subject. In this final scene, we get the asking and answering of a subjective experience. This is in direct contrast to the realism of the street shootout.
What we experience therefore, is the reality which both of these men were consumed by. For the briefest of moments, sounds distort, feelings extend, and reality heightens for both characters and viewers. As fleeting as this experience is, it’s what they live for. And for that moment, they are alive.
It connects back to the impossible duality of man – good, but bad, together, but alone, different, but alike, subjective, but the same. This is the culmination of their antagonistic and respectful relationship - the dovetailing of two human experiences, clicked into perfect alignment.
It’s this shared moment where these men achieve their pursued reality, and both sides live through the other.
As with any moment of heightened reality, it cannot last forever. It is quickly and unceremoniously bought to an end by Hanna.
As McCauley staggers and falls, we are immediately hit with a wave of consequence. McCauley’s dreams of drowning become manifest as he gasps for breath. Within this moment, both men come crashing back to reality, echoing their return to normality after every heist, bust, or return from a conflict zone.
Moby’s ‘God Moving Over the Face of the Waters’ flows into the scene and heightens the emotional resonance.
As Hanna looks over McCauley, the final exchange is shared between them:
Neil McCauley: “Told you I’m never going back.”
Vincent Hanna: “…Yeah.”
Rather than a moment of triumph, it’s bittersweet. With justice prevailing, Hanna may have the ‘nobler’ ending, but it is a hollow victory. There’s no macho posturing typical of action movies, or a sense of satisfaction in Hanna avenging Bosco’s death. Instead, there is a great sadness in Hanna’s demeanor, and we can see that he is filled with remorse.
As a counterpoint to this, we see McCauley’s final moments – a man at the peak of his craft mentally, but incarcerated emotionally, showing his innermost need:
Nothing is said in this moment, but the intention is clear – this is a man who has experienced the extremes of loneliness in solitary confinement, and is now at the point of shuffling off this mortal coil. In his final moments what he needs is companionship, to know that he is not alone.
Hanna reflects this. Both men feel extreme loneliness and an incompatibility with the normal world. In this moment they understand their shared fate – in a city of millions, there are two men who truly understand each other. Their connection is forged as one of them dies at the hands of the other.
There’s something about this ending that hits very, very hard.
It echoes a universal concept. Anyone that has experienced something beyond their normal tensile range can connect.
For example:
visiting a vibrant, cosmopolitan city, then returning to a dead end hometown
having the most memorable night of your life, then returning to the drudgery of a nine to five
loving someone, then losing them
Everyone has experienced an extension of the above: going beyond the limitations of your own world, then returning to normality. Within this experience there is a universal truth:
When the coin is tossed in the air and the outcome is not set, that’s the time when we feel the most alive.
And after that, we can never go back.
