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The Backrooms Movie's Most Confusing Moments Explained - Video học tiếng Anh
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The Backrooms Movie's Most Confusing Moments Explained
The Backrooms Movie's Most Confusing Moments Explained
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0:00
Wow, who'd have thought? Back rooms was
0:02
a little confusing. The plot and POV
0:05
switchups won critics over, but left
0:07
some viewers scratching their heads.
0:09
Let's join forces and make our way out
0:12
of this maze. Throwing audience members
0:14
into the deep end without so much as a
0:16
context clue. Back rooms begins with a
0:18
found footage style cold open. The video
0:21
labeled Async and dated June 19th, 1990
0:25
shows someone fleeing from something as
0:27
they make their way through the back
0:28
rooms, a labyrinthine liinal space just
0:31
outside of reality that serves as a main
0:33
backdrop for the film. Charging forward
0:36
to find a room filled with equipment,
0:38
the cameraman picks up the radio
0:39
microphone to request help from whatever
0:42
is after him. He identifies himself as
0:44
Narin, explaining that he's been
0:46
separated from his group and has never
0:49
been out this far before. before taking
0:51
off again. Through his camera, we
0:53
experience the sights and sounds of the
0:55
back rooms, a seagull that flies
0:57
directly into the floor before taking
0:59
off again, signs with backward text, and
1:02
endless pale yellowed walls littered
1:04
with furniture, much of it strangely
1:06
rendered. The footage ends as a creature
1:08
seemingly catches up with Narin, causing
1:11
him to scream and drop the camera. The
1:13
VHS tape ends, revealing a row of four
1:16
blurry figures in white lab coats
1:18
reflected in the dark TV monitor.
1:20
Exactly who the camera operator or
1:22
viewers are isn't clear for much of the
1:24
movie until it's revealed Async is a
1:27
former MRI company currently studying
1:29
the back rooms, suggesting Narin was
1:31
with them. 10 days later, they watch as
1:34
Clark enters the back rooms, eventually
1:36
finding Narin's blue backpack. By this
1:39
point, Async already has a
1:40
well-established presence in the back
1:42
rooms, suggesting they watched and stood
1:44
by for science as other characters
1:47
suffered.
1:48
>> You still haven't told us what we're
1:49
doing here, man.
1:50
>> I did tell you research.
1:53
>> It doesn't take long after Clark
1:54
convinces his young employee, Cat, and a
1:56
cameraman boyfriend, Bobby, to enter the
1:58
back rooms that they encounter the
2:00
spaces more dangerous properties, which
2:03
leads to Bobby's almost immediate death
2:05
after he is lowered into the laundry
2:07
room. After nearly escaping, Bobby is
2:10
yanked down by his robe, leaving a trail
2:12
of blood behind as Cat runs off after
2:14
him, screaming. Clark follows behind,
2:17
making his way through a series of rooms
2:19
until he finds himself in the last of a
2:21
series of pool rooms where he hears
2:23
Cats, but can't see her. Pounding on
2:26
something, a sobbing cat begs him to
2:28
please let her in. In this space, Cat
2:30
and Clark experience the back rooms in
2:32
completely different ways. This scene
2:34
establishes a frightening truth about
2:37
the liinal space. Like the house in the
2:39
surrealist horror novel House of Leaves,
2:41
backroom space is governed by subjective
2:44
experience. It's mutable and changes
2:46
depending on who's seeing it, which
2:48
explains how Clark and Async create maps
2:51
out of the place while Clark's therapist
2:53
Mary perceives its layout differently.
2:55
As Kane Parsons told James Juan in the
2:57
A24 podcast, the back rooms aren't
3:00
inherently good or evil. He said,
3:02
>> "It's a natural phenomenon. There's
3:04
nothing like like like like spiritual or
3:07
or like um there's no like moral
3:10
morality to it.
3:11
>> Basically, it's just a place you can get
3:13
stuck in that uses your mind to generate
3:15
a wonky subjective version of reality.
3:18
It makes sense then that Cats who
3:19
selflessly leaped after Bobby while
3:22
Clark looked for a more
3:23
self-preservationist route would
3:25
perceive a window whereas Clark only
3:27
perceives a wall. As Clark enters that
3:29
last paw room to try and understand
3:31
where Cat is, he sets the camera down on
3:33
a patio table just inside the door. Thus
3:36
ends a long stream of POV footage,
3:39
mirroring the found footage that began
3:40
the film with an atmospheric shot of
3:42
Clark gesturing in the distance as he
3:45
faces the wall Cat is purportedly on the
3:47
other side of. Although Clark can't see
3:49
her, the window she sees him through is
3:51
every bit as real as that wall thanks to
3:53
Back Room's logic, which means she can
3:55
see everything Clark is doing and
3:57
experiencing. As Clark places his hands
4:00
against the wall, speaking with Cat, a
4:02
dark, blurry shadow edges into the
4:05
corner of the frame. With the sound of
4:07
shuffling, the camera view shifts at
4:08
first and then begins to shake as if
4:11
handled by someone incompetent with the
4:13
camera. As Cat sees someone behind him,
4:15
the camera cuts out, marking the film's
4:17
POV shift to Mary. What happens to Clark
4:20
after the camera cuts is never fully
4:22
explained. We only get a glimpse of
4:24
Cat's ultimate fate in the dinner scene
4:26
later in the film. Although we never
4:28
learn who picked up the camera, we soon
4:30
learn this moment marks the end of any
4:32
potential redemption arc for Clark, who
4:34
comes to realize how much he loves
4:36
stewing in his own narcissism and the
4:38
immersive world created by his own
4:40
gaslighting of everyone around him.
4:42
Whatever picked up the camera, it was
4:44
undoubtedly a product of Clark's
4:45
maladjusted personality. Like Pirate
4:48
Clark, the distorted life form
4:50
reflecting Clark's most toxic
4:51
tendencies. Back rooms does a good job
4:54
of presenting memory as a source of
4:56
unreliable narration. To Clark's
4:58
therapeutic role- playinging sessions,
5:00
we see a man who ruminates on his last
5:02
fight with his ex-wife, editing his
5:05
recollection as he revisits it. She's
5:07
not even present in the room, and Clark
5:09
still insists on litigating their
5:11
marriage. And although he recounts
5:13
breaking a glass as if it was an
5:14
accident, there's a heavy implication
5:16
that Clark is downplaying his aggressive
5:19
behavior. Self-help author and therapist
5:21
Mary Klein's recollections are also less
5:24
than objective. Whereas Clark recreates
5:26
his version of reality with his words,
5:28
Mary holds her cards closer to the vest,
5:31
silently revisiting a relationship from
5:33
her past inwardly as she ruminates on
5:36
her own childhood trauma. Like Clark,
5:38
Mary is caught in a mental loop. ironic
5:41
given that this is a subject of a failed
5:43
self-help book. And like Clark, Mary
5:46
remembers objective reality by the way
5:48
that it felt, making it very difficult
5:50
to decipher what actually happened to
5:52
her versus her traumatic recollection.
5:55
In the first of Mary's memories, we see
5:57
her as a child placing handprints in
5:59
cement. Her mother's figure looming over
6:02
her from above. But Mary's later
6:04
recollections are much more frightening,
6:06
depicting a severely mentally ill mother
6:09
who physically shut herself in a filthy
6:11
house with her daughter before she was
6:13
institutionalized. Through Mary's
6:15
nightmare, she recalls her mother's
6:17
distorted voice warning her against
6:19
going outside moments before the
6:20
barricaded front door is knocked down by
6:22
what appears to be a bulldozer. Although
6:25
it's tough to tell how much of this has
6:27
actually happened, it doesn't really
6:28
matter since like Clark, Mary's mind is
6:31
revisiting the feeling associated with
6:33
the specific trauma.
6:35
>> It's beautiful,
6:37
am I right?
6:39
>> It's hard to understand what draws Mary
6:41
to the back rooms. As Clark's literal
6:43
therapist, Mary should be maintaining a
6:46
professional distance, but instead she
6:48
somehow ends up creeping around the
6:50
liinal space filled with his
6:52
psychological problems. What compels
6:54
Mary to personally check on Clark, aside
6:56
from her murky concept of professional
6:58
boundaries is unclear. As a child of
7:01
someone who was institutionalized, it's
7:03
quite possible that she feels
7:05
responsible due to her past with her
7:07
mother. It's even a little possible that
7:09
something inside her believes him. By
7:11
the time Mary shows up to find days
7:13
worth of unattended mail, it's unclear
7:15
how much time has passed or what has
7:17
been going on since we last saw Clark.
7:20
But it's pretty clear Clark has gone all
7:22
the way off the deep end by the
7:23
voicemail he leaves her. A horse manic
7:26
sounding message referencing Mary's own
7:28
window to the mine theory. He tells her
7:31
that he opened the window and that he
7:33
isn't coming back. As she descends to
7:35
the lower level of the furniture store,
7:37
Mary sees a mess that suggests Clark has
7:40
been exploring far beyond the map he
7:42
showed her. The power is going haywire.
7:44
There's a whiteboard map that builds on
7:46
the map Clark already showed her. There
7:48
are windchimes hanging all over the
7:50
place, and there's a ton of furniture
7:52
Clark clearly pilered from the back
7:54
rooms. But even after watching a fly
7:56
buzz through the door, Mary barely
7:59
hesitates before pushing her hand
8:00
through Clark's backroom's door. It's a
8:03
reminder of how much a character foil
8:04
she is for Clark, who fully scadaddles
8:07
after watching his employees get dragged
8:09
away. Viewers first complete glimpse
8:11
into the world of the back rooms comes
8:13
through Clark, the deeply disaffected
8:15
king of his miserable kingdom. As a
8:18
film's first major POV character,
8:20
someone who is clearly down on his luck
8:22
after a painful divorce, and a man who
8:24
seems to be working on his issues in
8:26
therapy, Clark presents as a sympathetic
8:29
figure in the beginning. You want to
8:31
root for him, but cracks show early,
8:34
like when he loses his temper in therapy
8:36
or with his employees or when he spends
8:38
the night outside of his ex-wife's
8:40
house. When Clark discovers the surreal
8:42
world of the back rooms, he loves all of
8:45
it. In the world outside, he exists as a
8:47
failed architect. Inside the complex,
8:50
Clark finds he can literally create
8:52
reality with his mind. That reality is
8:55
warped, but it doesn't matter to Clark.
8:57
here. The only person he has to answer
8:59
to is himself, and there's no one to be
9:02
accountable to when his failures harm
9:04
others. This all culminates at Clark's
9:06
dinner. It represents a place where he
9:08
is always right and others defer to him.
9:10
When Mary asks what she can do to help,
9:12
Clark demands she tell her he didn't do
9:14
anything wrong, and she was wrong about
9:17
him, forcing her to recreate their
9:19
therapeutic roleplay in a humiliation
9:21
ritual. Mary and Clark aren't the only
9:24
guests at Clark's dinner party. They're
9:26
also joined by three strange but silent
9:28
figures. The wheelchairbound archerald
9:30
Leland Sutter who turns an antique lamp
9:33
attached to his chair on and off. The
9:35
redheaded woman first seen in the
9:36
Christmas room who is implied to be a
9:38
copy of Clark's wife. And the bearded
9:41
man, a burly six-sided figure who
9:43
contains an edible cotton-like substance
9:45
in his belly that Clark dines on. Their
9:48
faces are waxy and blurred with the
9:50
wrong number of facial features, which
9:52
feels very much like badly rendered AI.
9:54
But it's their mannequin-like lack of
9:56
movement and empty emotionless faces
9:59
that make them truly chilling. Unlike
10:01
the monstrous pirate Clark, these
10:03
creatures don't actively hunt those who
10:05
enter the back rooms, even if they are
10:07
nightmare fuel. Known as still lives,
10:10
they are essentially quasi living copies
10:12
of existing humans from the real world,
10:14
>> misremembering themselves.
10:17
It's a real mess.
10:18
>> And while Clark claims her still lives
10:21
can't feel anything, the film suggests
10:23
otherwise. We never actually get to see
10:25
what happens to Cat after the poor room
10:27
fiasco. Her whereabouts are left a
10:29
mystery until Clark reveals them in the
10:31
dinner scene after Clark serves up the
10:33
bearded still life's belly. He walks to
10:36
the fridge, casually throws the door
10:37
open, and lets out the surprised O of
10:40
someone suddenly realizing they've
10:42
forgotten to put away their leftovers.
10:44
That's when we see Cat's now lifeless
10:46
head sitting on a shelf inside. And
10:48
while Mary struggles to get free, Clark
10:50
seems pretty disinterested in his former
10:52
assistant manager's remains. Exactly how
10:55
Cat's head got detached from her body
10:56
and into that fridge is never outright
10:58
explained. Although it's a distinct
11:01
possibility that it happened at the
11:02
hands of Pirate Clark, but given the
11:05
fact that Pirate Clark is an extension
11:07
of Clark himself, Clark's indifference
11:09
toward her death makes more sense.
11:11
Whether pirate Clark ate the rest of her
11:13
or Clark did really makes no difference
11:15
in the end. As for keeping her head, if
11:18
it was for cannibalistic reasons or out
11:20
of some misplaced performative
11:22
sentimentalism, it goes to show that no
11:24
matter how reasonable he might seem,
11:26
Clark is a violent loose cannon who is
11:28
capable of just about anything at this
11:30
point. One thing most fans tend to agree
11:33
on when it comes to the film's ending is
11:35
just how good a job Parsons did
11:37
subverting viewers expectations.
11:40
As Clark holds Mary captive, tormenting
11:43
her with his self-gratifying theatrics,
11:46
their commotion summons Pirate Clark.
11:48
But Pirate Clark isn't at all to be
11:50
weaponized. He's a Prometheian monster
11:53
with no sense of rules or morality.
11:56
Speaking to Polygon, Parson suggested
11:58
that Clark's connection to Mary here
12:00
breaks his delusion that he's really
12:02
okay with stewing in his own bad vibes
12:04
and his hold over Pirate Clark with her.
12:06
As Pirate Clark is an everchanging
12:08
reflection of real Clark, though,
12:10
Parson's joke that Clark's death at the
12:12
hands of Pirate Clark could just come
12:14
down to Clark being hungry that day. For
12:16
Mary, her ending is left more ambiguous.
12:18
While she escapes Pirate Clark, it seems
12:20
as though she has spent enough time in
12:22
the back rooms for it to take a piece of
12:24
her. Async Phil interrogates her,
12:26
moments echoed by her own still life
12:28
appear somewhere in the back rooms.
12:30
There's no real answer as to whether or
12:32
not Mary will escape, but her still life
12:34
version remains.
