what does dantes father confess has happened to him during his absence

Welcome to the jumbo explanation of Prisoners. What follows are the vital details of Prisoners studied, analyzed, deconstructed, dissected, unraveled, and presented for your review. What happened? Why it happened? Let's get some answers.

Table of Contents

The main story of Prisoners is the kidnapping of two young girls. But the movie as a whole is an examination of the kinds of prisons people detect themselves in—physically, mentally, emotionally, and spiritually. Mazes finish upwardly being a bigger deal than you lot'd probably expect. The whole concept of a maze is that people become lost in the convolutions and complications of the structure. Prisoners puts that concept onto how people struggle to piece of work through and escape from their traumas. Whether that's the expiry of a child, the loss of faith in God, discovering a parent who has committed suicide, murdering a murderer, having your child abducted, torturing someone you know is guilty but won't confess, or a loftier-stakes job where lives are on the line.

That idea of the maze goes across the characters to the structure of the story. Prisoners could have presented information in the style near movies do—stacking details in a chronological, linear style that's digestible and allows viewers to become from a place of total ignorance to a place of complete understanding. Instead, it purposefully scatters important details throughout the story, without chronological context, meaning it's easy to forget them or not connect them the way we should connect them. This is done in order to have Prisoners become a narrative maze. The seemingly unproblematic progress of the story is an artistic selection to create the sense of an itch you can't quite scratch, that there's more going on than y'all may have realized. Denis Villeneuve and company accomplished this by placing cardinal backstory and exposition details throughout the movie without ever having a scene that conspicuously ties them all together. Meaning it's on the viewer to actively complete the few missing pieces of the puzzle.

There are two more layers that make Prisoners an even deeper kind of cinematic dive. One is thematic, the other is…well…for lack of a ameliorate discussion, pretentious.

Thematically—across mazes—religion and trees are huge motifs. The main villain is in a war confronting the Christian God, while the hero is named after a god of Norse mythology. There are characters named Grace and Joy. Many times throughout the film, there's an emphasis on forests and trees. What a coincidence that Joy'southward last name is "Birch" (a very common tree in America). There'due south something being said in this collision betwixt civilization and nature, Christianity and the "Old Gods."

The pretentious stuff gets at the construction of the story. The final shot of the pic is Loki, at night, hearing a faint whistle. Nosotros know it's coming from Keller Dover, trapped hugger-mugger. Unfortunately, Loki doesn't know that. At that place's tension as Loki hears the whistle simply dismisses it, hears it once more, but dismisses it again, before hearing it some other time. Merely before we see him decide to investigate or leave—the movie ends. We're left with the question of, "Does Loki save Keller or not?" Maybe the most impressive matter to me most Prisoners is that near everything that happens in the movie is a clue for Loki. The question is will he put it all together and solve the puzzle? Which really is a question for us. Have nosotros been paying attention to all the clues that point to whether Loki volition or won't discover Keller?

Why it'southward called Prisoners

The championship is simple but that simplicity tin can disarm yous. At showtime, we might remember it applies to the abduction of Joy and Anna. They're prisoners, right? Simply then midway through the movie, Keller Dover (Hugh Jackman) kidnaps Alex Jones (Paul Dano) and keeps Alex prisoner. And what do you know, at the end of the movie, Keller's imprisoned by Holly Jones (Melissa Leo), Alex's "aunt". You might think that's the end of it.

Just the more than you dig into Prisoners it somewhen becomes articulate as day that the entire movie is this layered exploration of various types of prisons: physical, mental, emotional, and spiritual.

Beyond that, the story plays out in such a manner that it intentionally leaves viewers to put together key details. Compare this to other law-breaking thrillers similar Silence of the Lambs or Seven or Girl With the Dragon Tattoo. Those three movies practice the normal thing of stacking information and so that as the plot progresses we feel more knowledgeable and empowered well-nigh what'southward going on. You outset the movie in a place of ignorance simply end with a sense of superiority in understanding the who, what, when, how, and why.

But Prisoners doesn't neatly stack information. Instead, it gives y'all a pile of puzzle pieces. If you desire to get the total picture show of the story, you have to unite the fragments. In this way, the picture show itself becomes a fleck of a prison, a kind of labyrinth we can lose ourselves in. This is purposefully meta, as midway through the film the motif of the "maze" is introduced. At first, the maze might seem similar nothing more the ravings of a mad man, put into the script to add to the mystery and tension. But, like the title, things aren't always so unproblematic…

Explaining the plot of Prisoners

The plot in chronological order

To talk about Prisoners, information technology helps if we un-maze the story by laying out its fundamental events in chronological order.

• Dorsum in the 80s, Holly Jones and her husband are devout Christians.
• Their son—still a kid—dies, causing them tremendous grief. Their pain turns to acrimony at God, every bit such tragedy must have been His will. What happens adjacent Holly somewhen describes as, "Making children disappear is the state of war we wage with God. Makes people lose their faith."
• In August of 1987, they kidnap a boy named Barry. They rename him Alex and raise him under the guise that he'southward their nephew and they adopted him after his parents died in an accident. They drug him, a lot.
• A 1987 newspaper article nearly Barry mentions there might exist a serial child abductor and the FBI are involved in the case.
• Years laissez passer and the Joneses abduct and murder over a dozen other children. An FBI agent writes a book chosen Finding the Invisible Human, which details the theory virtually this serial abductor in the Pennsylvania area and the abductor's obsession with mazes.
• At some point, the Joneses had kidnapped Bob Taylor (David Dastmalchian). Taylor eventually leaves the home, either by escape or indifference from his captors (possibly due to age). He is mentally cleaved by and obsessed with his ain abduction.
• 5 years before the events of the film, Holly's hubby, Mr. Jones, goes to the church building and confesses his sins. The Father, horrified, kidnaps Jones and leaves him tied upward in the basement to die (add that to the count of characters who qualify every bit a prisoner).
• Because Holly tin't steal children easily on her own, fewer children go missing.
• The pic starts.
• Alex drives his RV to the firm he had been abducted from in 1987, the abode of his actual parents. It happens to exist near the Birch house, where the Dovers celebrate Thanksgiving.
• Joy and Anna see the RV while on a walk with their siblings, Ralph and Eliza. Considering Joy and Anna play on the RV, Alex keys in on them.
• Joy and Anna leave the Birch's to notice Anna'southward missing whistle. Alex, nostalgic about his own babyhood, tries to play with the girls in the RV. Ends up bringing them home. There, Holly does what crazy-psycho-child-snatchers exercise. Alex, terrified, drives away from the home. Is arrested as the prime suspect.
• Later the police force let Alex become, Keller kidnaps Alex. Because Alex is missing, Holly doesn't leave the girls in the hole to dice merely brings them into the house to continue her company. That choice allows the girls to eventually survive the ordeal.
• Loki goes to the Father'southward business firm, discovers a secret passage behind a refrigerator, finds, in this subconscious basement, the body of Mr. Jones (identity unknown to Loki).
• Bob Taylor hears near the girls gone missing and "plays" kidnapper by doing weird stuff similar showing up at the vigil and stealing wearing apparel and burying mannequins in his chiliad (in an equivalent spot to where the hole is at Holly'southward house). He ends upward arrested then commits suicide because Loki'due south loss of command allows Taylor to seize a gun from an officer.
• Alex succumbs to Keller'due south torture and mentions a maze, so Keller goes to Holly's house to see if she will reveal something about a maze. Unbeknownst to him, Joy and Anna are in another room and Joy sees him/hears him. Holly offers Keller tea, which would probably exist drugged (nosotros later run into she kept a jar of drugged liquid in the fridge). Merely a newspaper on the table catches Keller's eye equally it mentions Taylor'due south suicide. Enraged, Keller leaves before Holly can capture him.
• Joy and Anna attempt to escape, but only Joy is successful. In the hospital, Joy says to Keller, "You were there," which Keller realizes means Holly's firm and that Holly wasn't an innocent old lady. Nosotros then become the final showdown that involves Keller's imprisonment and Loki's heroics. We stop with Loki either saving Keller or Keller dying hush-hush.

Did Alex actually take Joy and Anna?

While Alex is a victim, he can exist a dick. There'south a reason that scriptwriter Aaron Guzikowski and director Denis Villeneuve included the scene of Alex yanking the domestic dog off the basis by the leash to sentinel it choke and boot. It's pretty well-known that the victims of abuse are prone to abusing others.

Among 747 males the run a risk of beingness a perpetrator was positively correlated with reported sexual abuse victim experiences. The overall charge per unit of having been a victim was 35% for perpetrators and eleven% for non-perpetrators.

Source

So the answer to the question of "Did Alex really take Anna and Joy?" is yes. We know this for a few reasons. We know he was in the area, in the van. We know the girls were interested in the van. And later on, Alex tells Keller "They didn't cry until I left them" (more on that in the side by side section). Prisoners never shows us the abduction or has someone explain outright what happened. Instead, it leaves a few context clues there for usa to piece things together.

The girls went to Anna's habitation to find her whistle. Got it (which is why Keller finds it in the hole at the end). Merely on the way back they saw the van and decided to play on it since their older siblings weren't there to tell them no. Alex invited them into the van. Then took them back to Holly. Holly preceded to do crazy Holly things.

Bob Taylor didn't accept the opportunity. He'southward a red herring that creates dubiousness most Alex. He's merely reacting to the abduction because information technology reminds him of his own and he starts to copycat, reliving the nightmare of what he experienced with Holly and her husband. He'south thematically relevant to Prisoners but non crucial to what happens and how it happens.

Holly somewhen admits to Keller she tin't really abduct kids without her husband so hasn't been as active. So it's unlikely she suddenly appeared and seized the girls. If that was the instance, Alex's "They didn't cry until I left them" wouldn't exist meaningful or even logical.

And while Alex may take initially had innocent intentions with Anna and Joy, to pretend he was a child once more, free from the burden of his theft, he had to have known bringing them dorsum to Holly wouldn't end well. He isn't innocent here. If he was, then he wouldn't accept continuously lied to the police and Keller. He'd have explained what happened. But the same casual way he decided to asphyxiate the dog, he probably decided to bring the girls dorsum to Holly.

This tin can be the complicated nature of someone who has been hurt as substantially every bit Alex has been hurt. Their plight is immense and it tin drive them to practice unto others equally has been washed unto them.

Why didn't Alex confess to the police force or Keller?

The reply to this question isn't actually explained, but it is shown. At that place's a second "Alex" in Prisoners. That's Bob Taylor, one of the many children Holly and her hubby had abducted. Taylor was lucky plenty to have survived (others did not), though it's never explained how long he was in that location, or when he left, or how—just that he had been abducted, was kept by the Joneses, then was out existence an adult.

Both Taylor and Alex are old plenty that they could physically movement beyond what happened to them. Yet, psychologically, neither can. Fifty-fifty though Taylor lives somewhere else, it seems all he thinks about is Holly and her husband. He's burying mannequins in his chiliad. Obsessively drawing mazes on the walls because he can't stop reading an FBI amanuensis'due south book about the mysterious child abductor, known as the Invisible Human, who was never caught (and who was actually Holly and her husband). Splashing pigs blood on children's clothes he so locks in boxes with snakes. All equally a "best imitation" of his abductors.

When Loki brings Taylor in, Taylor can't just explicate what happened and why. Instead, he draws a maze. That's the only way he can communicate to Loki where the girls might be, what happened to him, etc. How does ane start to put into words something that's equally cosmically horrific as existence stolen and everything that follows?

Alex is in a similar situation. He clearly remembers something about his life before the abduction, otherwise he wouldn't park at his old house. Notwithstanding he still lives with Holly. That says a lot about his mental state, the degree of Stockholm Syndrome he's experiencing. With all the opportunity to gush to the police force almost what happened—he stays silent. And and so refuses to reveal anything to Keller, despite the constant torture, despite Keller'due south utter desperation and desolation. Like Taylor, Alex is both influenced by his abductor and struggling to speak on something that is also terrible to express.

At their first come across, in the parking lot of the police station, Alex toys with Keller, much like he did the dog, by saying, "They didn't weep until I left them." He knew what he was doing. Right before the altercation with Keller, we witnessed a stare down between Alex and Loki after Loki had spent hours belittling, demeaning, and flexing on Alex in the interrogation room. Alex couldn't do annihilation to Loki, only when Keller comes barging in and grabs Alex—Alex could injure Keller. So does.

Merely old during Keller's torture of Alex, the dynamic changes. It'southward no longer Alex being the byproduct of Holly and her hubby, or being cruel just to be cruel. He's reduced to a scared child who finds it impossible to provide the logic of language to the absurdity of the life he'due south been forced to live. He'due south essentially frozen by cerebral dissonance. That's why all Alex can eventually muster, even when it's his life on the line, is, "They're in the maze."

This is reinforced later by Joy's struggles to explain what had happened to her, merely able to look at Keller and say, "Y'all were in that location…. Information technology put record on my mouth." But in the moments earlier she speaks, we see Joy'due south retentivity of escaping, the flashes of being in the house, on the ground, someone leaving the room, the book of mazes they had to consummate, running away. Despite her knowing all this, remembering all of this, what does she express? Zilch more than than chilling fragments. She was there less than a week. Now imagine Taylor and Alex being there for years and years.

And just to put a bow on it, when Grace brings Anna to encounter Loki, a similar silence occurs. This is the human who saved Anna, and Anna doesn't say a word to him, despite being prompted past her mom. And then while Alex not confessing what happened to Keller could seem crazy, it's in-line with how Prisoners shows other victims of abduction struggling to express themselves.

Who was the guy in the priest's basement?

This is office of the maze-like structure of Prisoners. Some people may follow the clues and put 2 and ii together. Others will be so invested in the first watching that this goes right over their head—which is intentional on the moving-picture show's part.

When we first meet Holly, she tells Loki that her husband has been gone for 5 years. Doesn't know what happened to him.

When Loki finds the torso in the priest's basement, the priest/father explains the man came to confess and spoke proudly nigh killing 16 children. So the priest left the man tied up to die. The body is beyond recognition, just there is a necklace of a maze.

Nosotros and then have Bob Taylor being obsessed with mazes and the FBI agent'due south book detailing how the kid abductor dubbed the Invisible Man had used mazes. We know Bob Taylor was abducted by Holly Jones and her husband.

In Joy'southward flashback there'due south a note maxim to complete all the mazes in the volume. Alex Jones also refers to a maze.

Finally, when Loki'due south at Holly's business firm, suspicious considering he thinks Keller might be in that location and might have washed something awful, he sees the picture in the sleeping accommodation. It's Holly's husband, and he's wearing the same maze necklace as the mysterious trunk from the basement.

No one e'er says out loud, "THAT WAS HER HUSBAND!" They could have. There are a ton of changes that could be made to make this subplot more than efficient and straightforward. Just information technology'southward washed in this subtly disorienting mode to make you accept a sense of, "Wait…who was that guy…" and so hopefully effigy information technology out and accept an ah-ha! moment.

Does Loki find Keller in the pigsty or not?

The screenwriter, Aaron Guzikowski, did an interview with Buzzfeed and just straight up said:

"Oddly enough, that's how it was in the script when it was bought. And it never actually inverse. When we were shooting, we did shoot a version where information technology goes a little beyond where the fade out is. There's a version where he moves the car and sees Hugh down in that location, and and so on. None of united states of america really wanted to do that version, just we wanted to make sure we had it in example once the film was put together it seemed like information technology really needed it. But later on testing the film with the catastrophe it has now, everyone decided that was definitely the way to become. Joel Cox, the editor, felt very strongly well-nigh it. I just think that's the moment when the moving picture is gear up to end.

…

"They motion the car. They see he's down there. You lot know he'south going to be taken out of the hole. I like it much better being ambiguous. Even though y'all assume that's what'southward probably going to happen, I like that there's a pocket-sized chance that he's non going to get him out of at that place for any reason."

Buzzfeed

Keep in mind, the last scene was foreshadowed earlier in Prisoners. When Loki's at the priest's house, he sees the marker on the flooring where the refrigerator gets moved in order to access the secret door to the hidden basement. His initial response is to dismiss it. But his instinct, thoroughness, and marvel go the meliorate of him. So he moves the refrigerator and finds the body.

Replace the refrigerator with the onetime automobile. And the hidden basement with the hole in the footing. And the long-dead Mr. Jones with the notwithstanding-alive Keller Dover. That kind of foreshadowing is washed for a reason. The implication being that Loki will be as thorough as before and discover Keller.

The themes of Prisoners

The motifs

Real quick recap. Themes are developed through motifs. Motifs are repeating elements in a movie, which can be annihilation, from physical objects, to dialogue, to shots, to music, to concepts. A theme in the Star Wars universe is that good is associated with light and bad is associated with darkness. That theme reinforces itself through motifs such as Darth Vader'southward black armor, his black cape, and often beingness shadowed (not to mention the heavy, marching music that feels very royal and domineering). Compare that to Luke, when Luke finally becomes a Jedi, wearing a white outfit (and having more than hopeful and heady music).

Or in the pic Black Swan, a theme is duality, then we often meet the main character, Nina, reflected in mirrors or windows. Or in the movie Us, we have subterranean beings created by the regime. 1 of these surreptitious people tells a shocked family, "We're Americans." After that information, the title, Us, can exist read as U.s.a., or U.Due south., or United States. These repeating elements, and a few others, add together up. To the signal where it becomes undeniable that one theme of Us is the cultural state of America.

The main motifs in Prisoners are:

-Prisons (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual)
-Mazes
-Organized religion

Principal motifs

Prisons

We've talked a lot most prisons already, and so this might be repetitious to yous. If yous skipped right to his section, welcome! The notion of a "prison" recurs so often. Allow'due south go through the various types that bear witness up.

Physical imprisonment: Holly keeping the two girls (then Keller) captive. Keller having Alex captive. The priest trapping Mr. Jones in the basement to die. And Loki literally arresting people with the intent of sending them to prison house.

Emotional imprisonment: the disappearance of Anna and Joy emotionally devastates the Dover and Birch families. Grace, Anna'due south mother, goes from sad denial of reality to drugging herself into oblivion. Franklin, Joy'south dad, objects to Keller's treatment of Alex, but participates for a fourth dimension because he feels he has no other option if he wants to get his daughter back. In that location's an extreme cerebral dissonance that Franklin struggles with.

Psychological imprisonment: Alex and Bob Taylor both suffer from the trauma of their kidnapping. The kidnapping stunted both young men. And there's a contrast to how their trauma expresses itself. By that, I mean Alex has headed towards introversion. Barely talking. Barely existing. Nosotros (and Keller) struggle to understand what's going through Alex'south heed. Compare that to Bob. Bob'due south virtually completely externalized his hurting. He draws mazes on walls. Imitates kidnapping children. Everything is action, action, action. Yet he's equally difficult to understand.

Spiritual imprisonment: Holly and her husband found it impossible to motility beyond their belief God had wronged them. Considering of that, they've tortured other families to cause a similar crisis of faith and turn more than people confronting God. How fitting nosotros have a grapheme named Grace, a word typically associated with God'south favor. Information technology's Grace who, in the wake of her daughter beingness stolen, completely falls apart. Her character is the embodiment of the spiritual crisis the Joneses promise to enact.

Mazes

Before nosotros talk about mazes, permit's talk well-nigh in-roads.

An in-road is a purposeful element that the author/director includes to inkling the viewer in on thematic subtext or plot mysteries.

In-roads aren't always necessary, every bit many artists will use more than obvious devices. Like inNocturnal Animals we have 3 stories being told. There'south Amy Adams's character going most her life in the present day. There's the world within a book she's reading that was written by her ex (Jake Gyllenhaal, funny enough). And lastly, we get flashbacks to her time with Gyllenhaal that reading the book triggers. Nocturnal Animals, through cantankerous-cut, makes it articulate there's a connection between what happens in the book and what happened in the relationship with Gyllenhaal. That the book is a dramatic retelling of Adams cheating on then dumping Gyllenhaal and the pain he dealt with in the backwash of her hurting him. No story in-roads are necessary because the editing/plot sequencing makes obvious the parallels between the book and the relationship.

Now if Nocturnal Animals didn't have flashbacks, if we but saw Adams read this book and get emotional but otherwise live her life usually…that wouldn't work. The book would lack pregnant because it lacked whatever and all context. You'd accept to add together some sort of in-route, like a conversation she has at a party where she mentions she used to date someone who wanted to be a writer just she broke his center. That line would be an in-road that provides the necessary context to agreement why the book has such a devastating impact on her.

When yous get to the end of a pic similar Inception, there's no explanation almost what happened. We're purposefully left to figure it out on our own. We practice that past identifying in-roads, understanding their implications, so arriving at a conclusion.

Prisoners, like Inception, ends on a cliffhanger. Will Loki put 2+2 together and save Keller? Or will Keller dice in the hole Holly Jones had left him in?

Okay, back to mazes.

Midway through Prisoners we're introduced to the concept of the maze. Bob Taylor's house has mazes drawn on the walls. When he's in police custody, the police demand to know where the abducted girls are and Taylor spends 3 hours drawing a maze to bear witness them. The expressionless body discovered in the priest's firm merely so happens to have on a maze necklace. There's an FBI volume about a serial abductor who was obsessed with mazes. And the imprisoned Alex Jones eventually tells his captor that the girls are, "In the maze."

On the surface, all of that merely plays into the drama and mystery of a crime thriller. We look psychos to have weird obsessions like mazes. And just basic everyday human psychology-wise, mazes are kind of magnetic, 1 of these archetypes that take been part of myths and legends and interest for centuries and throughout cultures.

But and then you look at the structure of Prisoners, how information technology tells its story, how it reveals information, there'southward an understanding that the maze stuff wasn't just to spice upward the thrills (equally some people have complained). It serves a meta-purpose to make us aware of how to watch/empathise the movie. This technique is more than common in "artsy" projects than information technology is mainstream ones.

A funny example is Kendrick Lamar'due south 2017 anthology, Damn. The final song on the anthology is called "Duckworth". Information technology tells the story most how Kendrick'southward mentor, Acme Dawg, robbed a fast food place that Kendrick'southward dad worked at. Kendrick'southward dad had always given Height Dawg extra biscuits on the house. So when TD robbed the place, he didn't shoot Kendrick'southward dad. Considering of that, Kendrick's life turned out one,000% different than it would have had he grown up without a dad. That's absurd, that'southward interesting.

Simply at the outset of the vocal, there's an intro that concludes with, "Nosotros gon' put it in reverse." Then near the end of the song, Kendrick raps, "Pay attention, that one decision, changed both of they lives/Ane curse at a fourth dimension/Reverse the manifest and good karma…Because if Anthony killed Ducky, Top Dawg could exist serving life/While I grew up without a father and die in a gunfight." There's a gunshot and the sound of sound reversing with lyrics from before tracks playing backwards. The album finishes with the very first line from the first song: "So I was takin' a walk the other twenty-four hour period…" It'due south a line that begins a situation where Kendrick gets shot and killed.

There'southward clearly an attempt to get us to think nigh listening to the album in reverse chronological order. Instead of tracks 1-fourteen, listen 14-1. Merely so many people missed this concept that Kendrick actually released a special edition of the album that was reverse chronological order. That mode people without a uncertainty understood the signal was for the album to have a happy catastrophe ane mode and a tragic ending the other way.

This kind of internal instructional clue is something that didn't really be until the 20th century and the rising of modernism and post-modernism. By the plough into the 21st century, storytellers got pretty good at blending traditional narrative techniques with some of the more oddball ones from the modernism/post-modernism movements. Almost a hundred years later, information technology can exist pretty seamless.

And then yeah, the maze stuff in Prisoners is part of the basic plot. And yep, it also reinforces the theme of imprisonment, because a maze can be, after all, a prison and most every character in Prisoners is working through some kind of maze (physical, emotional, psychological, or spiritual). But it's too a clue from the filmmaker to treat the picture as a maze.

Organized religion

As mentioned before, nosotros have a graphic symbol named Grace. And we have a character named Loki.

"Grace" originated, as a word, in France in the 1200s and soon after had a firm clan with Christianity and the idea of virtue and receiving the favor of God. It'southward a huge part of the organized religion—like…a cornerstone of Christian theology. And so while Grace may seem like a simple proper name, information technology'southward non.

Same with "Loki." In Norse mythology, Loki's a big deal. Popular depiction has Loki as a trickster. A god who complicates things for other gods. Norse mythology's climax is Ragnarok, where gods fight giants and everyone dies. Loki is on team giant and kills the god Heimdall.

Christianity ties itself to notions of organized religion and God's grace. Ephemeral, spiritual things that operate on a metaphysical level.

While Norse mythology roots in paganism and assembly with the natural globe. Germanic paganism/mythology (of which Norse is an offshoot) put great symbolic importance on trees and forests and stones. To the point where they said the center of the entire universe was a gigantic tree named Yggdrasil. Non to mention how tattoos relate to paganism and Norse culture.

Villeneueve even discussed trees in an interview with Indiewire.

"They're kind of like ghost characters," director Denis Villeneuve said of the recurring motif of trees in the picture; every bit nosotros said earlier, like silent witnesses to the various violent crimes in the film. "They're ever there, at least in the background. Each scene you lot tin feel their presence. And they are linked with this idea of necessary violence."

Indiewire – 2013

Keeping the source of these character names in mind, if y'all re-picket Prisoners you definitely option up on some thematic subtext involving faith.

Regarding Christianity, we hear the Lord's Prayer. Nosotros encounter many crosses. Characters pray. They invoke God's name. Keller keeps Alex in a box that's like to a confessional box. That whole torture subplot is like a twisted form of repentance. The idea of organized religion comes up over again and over again. Faith in God, faith in the constabulary, faith in yourself.

When I say "organized religion in the police," keep in heed that Loki is the detective. This means the Dovers and Birches accept to place their faith in…a character named after a Norse God. A character whose kickoff scene is talking about Zodiac signs. A character who wears a Masonic ring. Has astrological symbols tattooed on his hands. And on his neck, a star that probably represents some other non-Christian religion.

So we have 2 very Christian characters in Keller and Grace who are dependent on Loki, a character symbolizing non-Christian religions. So the cinematography. It's full of images relating to Christian iconography and references. But as well pagan and other spiritual iconography and references.

What'south it mean that Keller prays to God to salvage him from the hole and it's Loki who's there? Does Loki represent a spirituality across Christianity? Or the sum of other religions being in service to the Christian God? I don't remember there'south a definitive reply. It's an unsolvable puzzle. A maze without an exit.

But the important thing is that one time you're aware of this motif, you tin can re-sentinel the moving-picture show and appreciate what it adds to the overall feel of Prisoners and the pregnant you derive from it.

A quick discussion nigh names

The 2 kidnapped girls. One has the final name Dover. The other Birch.

"Birch" is a blazon of tree.

In Latin, "Dubris" meant waters. And "was the proper name given by the Romans to Dover, England," according to DoverHistorian.com.

(But is too "comes from the quondam Scandinavian pregnant a ravine, gap, gorge, or a crevasse between cliffs." The French, Celtics, and Gauls all had like versions of the word (Douvres, Dubrās, and Dubris, respectively) and all meant "water" too. Funny plenty, Dover Historian mentions in Turkey the discussion means "to trounce or hit a person." Keller Dover definitely did a lot of dovering in Prisoners.)

We've already discussed the importance of trees in pagan religions. In Christianity, water is a major theme, playing a vital role in baptism and the idea of purity. So right there in the last names of the two main families, we come across more than religious references.

Tormenting those families we have Holly Jones. Jones, every bit a final name, ways "son of John." And John, as a name, ways "God is gracious." The irony here is that Holly's kid died. And that ignited in her a hatred of God. She feels God is anything just gracious.

Loki doesn't accept a last name, but we know the meaning of his first name.

We've talked about Grace's name. But practise y'all know what Keller's proper noun means? It'south a German language version of "cellar." Meaning basement, store room. Yous know, a room that's underground. What a coincidence that the character with that name ends the movie in a pigsty in the ground?! But, at this point, y'all know better than to think it's coincidence, correct? Hopefully you lot're thinking, "That's an in-road!"

If that is what you're thinking, high-5! Because that's exactly what these names are. In-roads. When you realize one of the names has a deeper meaning, it leads to the question: "Practise the remainder of the names have meaning?" This brings us back to Grace and Loki and Dover and Birch, etc. You accept another piece of the puzzle with which to unlock the deeper thematic intentions and questions of Prisoners.

The main theme of Prisoners

With the motifs in mind, nosotros tin can finally get to what I recall is the most interesting affair about Prisoners. The story is great. The characters are great. The filmmaking is peachy. Simply how the moving-picture show explores organized religion and puts Christianity in conversation with other religions/spiritualities is pretty incredible. Similar to how Fight Club is powerful considering information technology's not really about Edward Norton'southward grapheme but rather a deconstruction of individuality in a consumer-driven culture.

Prisoners is about spirituality and the complicated nature we have with spirituality. How practise we make sense of the bad that happens in the world? How practise we have faith in the face up of bad events? And how do nosotros brand sense of the miracles in our lives? Are they divine or coexisting?

The large issue every character has is with acceptance. Accepting not just the bad but the proficient too. Holly and her hubby could have found comfort in ane another—instead their crusade ends upward resulting in both of their deaths. Bob Taylor survived his abduction but can't move beyond the trauma of it. Grace completely falls apart in the wake of Anna's disappearance, to the point of being non-functioning. People can't accept freedom, they can't take loss.

It's actually but Loki and Keller who keep their organized religion. Dover in his conventionalities Alex Jones knows where the girls are. And Loki in his ain inclinations and deductions. They accept what their instincts tell them and both end up playing the hero. Keller'south faith in preparation creates a chain of events that causes his daughter to go out a whistle in the pigsty in Holly's yard. It's that whistle he uses to betoken Loki. While Loki's faith in following signs guides him right to the imprisoned Keller.

The fact that our two well-nigh faithful characters end the pic together, each trusting in their organized religion, is pretty cute. They'll each find conservancy because of information technology. Though, as the movies ends earlier Loki saves Keller, that sense of catharsis is something Prisoners denies usa. Which is, all in all, pretty fitting. By not showing Keller's rescue, we're left with a choice: practise we accept faith in Loki or don't we? What ending do nosotros choose? What fate for Keller do we accept?

By leaving that selection in our easily, the picture becomes a moment of reflection, of confrontation. It asks you what you believe in.

The terminate

There you lot have it. I promise this was helpful. I think if you re-watchPrisoners after reading this, then the movie is going to feel way more obvious in what it'due south doing and why. If there are any other questions you lot accept, then please go out a comment and I'll get back to you lot! Thanks for reading.

• 

  Chris Lambert is co-founder of Colossus. He writes about complex movie endings, narrative construction, and how movies connect to the psychology of our solar day to day lives.

  View all posts

whickerandendee.blogspot.com

Source: https://filmcolossus.com/prisoners-ending-themes-explained/