Warning: this article contains spoilers for the movie Slingshot.The 2024 movieSlingshotis a gripping science fiction thriller that ends with a lot of twists.Slingshot’s castis led by Casey Affleck, Laurence Fishburne, and Tomer Capone as three astronauts who are slowly losing their grip on reality as they attempt to carry out a risky mission. As the movie becomes more tense,they find themselves lost in spacewith little chance of making it home alive, especially when they begin to turn on each other, makingSlingshotfeel incredibly claustrophobic.
WhileSlingshotonly received mixed to negative reviewsfrom critics, its intensity does keep audiences entertained throughout its runtime. As the movie progresses, it becomes clear that John is having hallucinations, but in the film’s final minutes, it is revealed that even his fellow crewmates are hallucinations too. John has been alone the whole time, and he eventually even comes to believe that he is not really in space. Because John becomes so unable to distinguish between what is real and what is imagined,Slingshotends on a shocking note as John decides to go outside.
Why John Opens The Airlock
He Believes That He Is Actually Underground
Slingshot’s ending sees a very confused John realize thatmuch of what has happened throughout the film is all in his head. Though he saw Captain Franks attack Nash and then attack Franks himself, in reality, he was the only person aboard the Odyssey spaceship. After he recognizes that Nash is only a hallucination, John begins to believe he can speak to Zoe, his former girlfriend, on the ship’s radio. Despite the radio’s only having a range of a few miles, John believes that he made it work and can speak to Zoe on Earth. Shockingly, she tells him he never left Earth at all.
Rather than being in space, millions of miles from the Earth, Zoe’s voice tellsCasey Affleck’s characterthat he is in a testing facility that is meant to monitor his ability to survive and complete the mission sanely before he can actually be launched into space. Unfortunately, she says, an earthquake caused a cave-in to block their access to him, so he must crawl out by exiting through the airlock.
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Though the Captain Frank hallucination tells him not to do it, John ultimately decides to open the airlock. At first, it seems like he truly is underground, buthe ultimately comes out of his hallucination just as he is sucked into space.
Was Zoe Always A Hallucination In Slingshot?
The Movie Leaves Their Real Status Somewhat Ambiguous
At the beginning ofSlingshot, the movie seems fairly straightforwardly split between John’s time on the Odyssey and his time with Zoe as he prepares for the launch. However,as the movie unfolds, it starts to become much less clear whether anything that is happening can be relied on. John hallucinates Zoe aboard the ship and Captain Franks later tells him that she never cared about him and was only seeing him as a test to confirm whether he could handle being in space. These events served to make John wonder how much of his relationship was real at all.
Beyond Franks' assertion that Zoe did not truly care about him, John’s imaginary conversation with her over the radio and the knowledge that Franks and Nash were never real throw Zoe’s very existence into question.There seems to be no tangible proof throughout the spaceship that Zoe existed outside of John’s hallucinations, especially considering that he imagined other people as well. While the more positive and likely interpretation ofSlingshotis that his memories of Zoe were real and John just got very confused, it is slightly ambiguous whether she existed at all.
Why Was John Hallucinating In The First Place?
The primary reason that John was having hallucinations inSlingshotis due to the drugs used in his hibernation capsule on the spaceship. The movie outlines that John’s hibernation cycle lasts for three months, then he wakes up to ensure that the Odyssey is still functioning correctly, to make sure his mission is still on track, and to send word back to Houston of his journey’s progress. However, each time that he awakens,he feels very disoriented as a result of coming off the hibernation drugs and is often unsure of what exactly is real.
Slingshotis currently available to stream on Paramount+.
While the Odyssey’s computer does inform John of the potential side effects of the drugs, it is interesting to see how they affect the different characters. Though Franks and Nash are just a figment of John’s imagination, they each have their own side effects from hibernation, adding an extra layer of complexity to the movie’s twist. In addition to the drugs, a likely reason that John’s side effects manifest as hallucinations of other people specifically is because of his loneliness. Despite considering himself a loner,John is still not mentally equipped to be completely alone for so long.
What Is John’s Real Mission?
He Is Traveling To Saturn’s Moon Titan
Though most of what happens throughoutSlingshotis quite uncertain, John’s mission is one of the most stable parts.He is tasked with traveling to Saturn’s moon, Titan, to collect methanewhich can be used on Earth. However, a flashback scene does make it clear that the mission is risky because if he fails to gather enough, he will not have enough fuel to return to Earth. Likewise, the flight is made more complicated by a dent in the hull that the crew is unsure whether it will affect their (later revealed to be just John’s) safety.
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When John begins to believe that he is underground,there is a brief period when it seems possible that his mission is not what he believed it to be. If he were underground rather than in space, his mission would simply be testing the feasibility of traveling alone for so long. However, in the final moments when John flies out of the airlock,Slingshotdoes confirm that the mission is exactly what the audience was told all along.
What Each Slingshot Character Represented To John
They Each Carry Different Aspects Of John’s Personality
Slingshot’s biggest reveal is that of Captain Franks and Nash both being hallucinations. John is completely alone in space and sees fake crew members who help give him someone to talk to and work with, and each of them is quite distinct from John himself. Captain Franks, played by Laurence Fishburne, is very commanding, but when his hibernation side effects become more apparent, it manifests as violence.For John, this character seems to be about authority and at certain moments reason, since he keeps John on the right track for as long as possible.
Franks and Nash serve as great contrasts to each other because they can be seen as two sides of John’s thoughts that he cannot reconcile.
In contrast, Nash, played by Tomer Capone, has a greater understanding of the ship’s reactor systems, but he is much more paranoid. He is the first of the three men to feel the harsh side effects of the hibernation drugs and believes that they should return to Earth after their hull is dented. Franks and Nash serve as great contrasts to each other because they can be seen as two sides of John’s thoughts that he cannot reconcile.
The Real Meaning Of Slingshot’s Ending
The Movie Explores John’s Loneliness And Uncertainty
Despite knowing throughout the movie that John is an unreliable narrator,Slingshot’s ending still comes as a shock. When John decides to leave the ship’s airlock, he is no longer thinking clearly, and it is only at the moment of his death that he finally finds clarity. In truth,Slingshotis simply a look into John’s own loneliness and his wish that he had done things differently on Earth.John’s hallucinations of Zoe prove that she is what he truly misses more than anything, but it is too late for him to express his feelings to her.
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AlongsideSlingshot’s exploration of John’s loneliness in space, it also weaves an interesting story about his uncertainty about what the truth is. John is unable to distinguish between his hallucinations and what is real, further cementing his fears and desires. Before joining the mission, John believed that he wanted the emotional disconnection and freedom of space, but he only came to realize what he gave up when it was too late. All the hallucinations and dreams help fill John’s time, but their unreality ultimately makesSlingshot’s ending quite sad.
