Do you remember the ending of The Truman Show? It’s such a great ending:
[spoilers, obviously]
Truman (Jim Carrey) goes through hell in order to escape the literal bubble he’s living in, despite the world’s creator, Christof (Ed Harris), making every attempt to keep him inside it. In the end, Truman bows, delivers his famous line, and steps through the door. Except there’s one more shot, right before the credits, that you probably forgot.
First, let’s rewind through the ending’s full flurry of emotions:
Triumphant → Truman sailing away after he beats the artificial storm,
Surprising → his sailboat runs into the world’s wall,
Hopeless → he bangs his fist against the wall/sky,
Hopeful → he finds a staircase and an exit door (are you following the metaphor yet?)
Before he walks through the door to nowhere, there’s this pivotal conversation between Truman and Christof that could’ve been the transcript of the debate inside my head after I decided to leave the corporate world. Here’s Truman finally asking the mega questions he probably doesn’t want the answer to:
“Who am I?”
“Was nothing real?”
Christof, the douchebag, totally deflects, saying this in response:
“Listen to me, Truman. There’s no more truth out there than there is in the world I created for you. [...] You’re afraid. That’s why you can’t leave.”
Then Christof ends on this killer line, which I swear someone said to me when they wanted me to come back to work:
“You can’t leave Truman. You belong here.”
Of course, our hero doesn’t fall for the seduction (thank god). Instead, he delivers his classic line:
“In case I don’t see ya… good afternoon, good evening, and goodnight!”
<then bows>
<then turns and takes a bold step through the door>
End of movie!!! YAY!!!
We’re rooting for Truman here because we like to think we’d do the same.
Oh yeah, we’d walk right through that door triumphant, head held high, breaking society’s walls, waving goodbye to all the douchebags, adding one last jab in for fun.
We would… wouldn’t we?
But wait! There’s one more shot that you might have forgotten, right before the movie cuts to credits. It’s two security guards staring at a blank screen, after the show within the show cut offs:
Guard 1: “You want another slice?”
Guard 2: “No, I’m okay.”
Guard 1: “What else is on?”
Guard 2: “Yeah, let’s see what else is on.”
Guard 1: “Where’s the TV guide?”
This. This is the moment I want to talk about.
Because after Truman makes his triumphant exit… the world moves on, but I guarantee you that Truman hasn’t.
If you ever decide it’s time to click the “reset” button on your entire life,
you know, rip apart what you used to be and used to know in favor of black hole in the wall: then god bless you.
You’re the hero… for like 10 seconds. Then you’re not. Then you’re standing alone on the other side of a door that leads to nowhere.