Charlie Kaufman is the film adaptation of Ian Reid’s haunting debut novel, I’m Thinking of Ending Thingsis set to premiere on Netflix in September. While the movie adaptation, starring Jessie Buckley, Tony Collette, and Jesse Plemons, may differ from the novel, the novel is about an unnamed woman who goes to meet her boyfriend’s parents on their farm. Many of the strange events ensue, in which the “Bride” continues to consider the possibility of finishing things. The novel ends with a dramatic plot twist that might be wondering about after seeing the trailer. If you don’t mind spoilers, you’ve come to the right place. Here’s how to play everything.
The Characters and the Plot
Once Jake and his Girlfriend are meeting in a college of the trivia of the night, he slips his number on a piece of paper in your bag. Do not date before Jake takes the Bride to meet her parents on their farm. The bride feels as she’s known Jake for longer than she has, and despite its increasingly close, Girlfriend think of to end things often. These thoughts make her feel guilty for going to meet Jake for their parents, but she goes anyway. She is not plan to tell their parents about Jake, but she didn’t say that. In its place, on the way to the farm, the two talk about big words like “cruciverbalist,” which means that a person that has talent with crossword puzzles, and if the people can be really fun.
Bride speaks about “The Caller”, a person who follows his call with the same message: “There is only one issue to resolve. I’m scared. I feel a little crazy. I am not lucid. The assumptions are correct. I can feel my fear growing. Now is the time for the response. Just a question. A question to answer.” She doesn’t know who the caller is or what they are talking about, other that the author of the call sounds like a man trying to talk like a woman with a high-pitched tone. She didn’t tell anyone about The caller, despite the fact that she feels afraid.
From the moment in which the Bride meets Jake’s parents, she can say something off. Their parents make strange comments and she is confused by a lot of what you see. For example, she sees an image of a person that she thinks that it is his younger self, but Jake says that he is.
The peculiarities don’t end up on the farm: On the way home, Jake and his Girlfriend stop at a Dairy Queen, in which the Bride will recognize the cashier, but can’t find out how to know it. After finishing their treats, Jake decides he’s going to pull the cups in a high school. Once you are back in the car together, kiss each other. After a few moments, Jake believes that the goalkeeper has been watching.
Filled with anger, Jake is still the goalkeeper in the school building. After waiting in the cold car for a while, feeling worried, Girlfriend decides to check on Jake. She quickly lost — but then remember where you found the gym, despite never having gone to this school — and goes from there.
The Plot Twist
Upon entering the school, the first plot twist occurs: the Bride realizes, above all, from the picture of Jake that she thought she was, that she and Jake are the same person. Jake becomes the narrator of the novel. Despite this understanding that only one of them is in the school at that moment, both Jake and his Girlfriend sitting in a closet together, and Jake tells that wish that had given him the Girlfriend of his number at the bar instead of letting the fear get the best of him. The reader can assume The person who was Jake playing this fantasy of dating a Girlfriend and trying to figure out if life was possible for him.
Then, the second plot twist occurs: This story, the novel portrays is really what Jake wrote in his novel, in which he gave to the Girlfriend of his number. He wished they had gotten together so badly that he made it real through writing about it.
The End
The porter opens the door of the closet and into the hands of the Bride in a coat-hanger. “I’m thinking of ending things,” she says, and stabs herself. Jake realizes once more how alone he is. While Girlfriend stabs herself, because she is not really there, Jake who dies by suicide.
Between these chapters are dialogues in italics spoken by characters unknown about a terrible event that happened in the school. Towards the end of the novel, we learn that Jake was a janitor for 30 years, and his parents died many years ago as well. The people in the school realized that he wrote in his notebook a lot, but did not realize what was truly going on, until they found the notebook by Jake body.
If you are struggling with thoughts of suicide, you are not alone and deserve help. Please get in touch by calling the hotline of Suicide, 1-800-273-8255, or send a text message to the Crisis Text Line, 741-741.
