Warning: Please don’t read ahead if you haven’t watched The Shape Of Water yet, as the following article completely ruins the conclusion for the Best Picture Oscar winner.
“The Shape Of Water” features one of the most beautiful movie conclusions of recent years.
For those of you that can’t quite remember it, Guillermo del Toro’s sci-fi fantasy finishes with United States Colonel Strickland (Michael Shannon) killing both the Amphibian Man (Doug Jones) and Elisa (Sally Hawkins).
However, the creature suddenly heals itself, slashes the throat of Strickland, and then jumps into the canal holding onto Elisa’s lifeless body.
Under the water he uses his healing powers to bring Elisa back to life, and then is even able to turn the scars on her neck into gills that she can now breathe through.
It is a conclusion that is so sumptuously shot, beautifully acted and achingly romantic that you can’t help but get swept up in it.
But a Reddit user by the name of caerul has now added an extra dimension to the end of the film, as he spotted a number of clues throughout “The Shape Of Water” that led him to believe that Elisa is actually a half fish-man herself.
Careful wrote, “I got the impression that she was half fish-man herself. Clues were left – she was found in a river, she’s never been able to speak, she masturbates underwater every morning, and most importantly he healed her ‘scars’ into working gills.”
“He was never shown to have transformative powers, only healing powers, implying that she had partially-formed gills from being, perhaps, a half-breed.”
“This explained, at least to me, what otherwise would have felt like a hasty and forced connection between the two: she felt a primal kinship with him, instinctively, and was immediately drawn in.”
Well, I’m convinced. Especially since that theory makes “The Shape Of Water” more well-rounded, sophisticated and creative. So even if Guillermo del Toro never intended for the film to be interpreted in this fashion, he should probably start saying this was his plan all along.
