The past decade has left us with a good share of movie mysteries.
From misplaced lightsabers to dreaming mercenaries, here's what we think are the biggest unanswered
movie questions of the past decade.
In Blade Runner, Harrison Ford plays the character of Deckard, a cop tasked with killing very
specific targets: synthetic life forms known as replicants.
"They were designed to copy human beings in every way, except their emotions.
The designers reckon that after a few years, they might develop their own emotional responses."
However, one of the biggest bones of contention between fans and even people intimately involved
in making the film is the question of whether or not its lead character is himself a replicant.
In 2014, director Ridley Scott told Digital Spy that without a doubt:
"He is definitely a replicant."
Harrison Ford, on the other hand, is on record saying Deckard is a human, and writer Hampton
Fancher agrees with him.
Debating fans may have been hoping that the film's 2017 sequel, Blade Runner 2049, would
clear things up, but if so, they were wrong.
Similar to the original film, Blade Runner 2049 ends without a definitive answer regarding
the question of Deckard's humanity or lack thereof.
We learn that Deckard and the late replicant Rachel somehow conceived a child, and Jared
Leto's character, Wallace, gives us a monologue exploring the question, but we never learn
the truth either way.
It seems likely this is one question that audiences will have to accept will remain
unanswered for many years to come.
Exactly how does Maz Kanata get her hands on Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber?
The diminutive alien offers the decades-old weapon to Rey in her tavern on Takodana in
2015's Star Wars: The Force Awakens.
Freaked out by Force visions, Rey initially refuses it, and as a result, Finn is briefly
its caretaker.
However, Rey finally takes it up in order to defeat Kylo Ren at the end of the film.
But how did the lightsaber wind up in Takodana in the first place?
In order of the Skywalker saga's narrative, we first see Anakin Skywalker's lightsaber
in 2005's Revenge of the Sith.
Anakin uses it before his transformation into Darth Vader, and Obi-Wan Kenobi takes it from
Anakin when the latter is defeated at the end of Revenge of the Sith.
Kenobi gives Luke the lightsaber in 1977's A New Hope.
"Your father wanted you to have this when you were old enough."
The last time we see it before The Force Awakens is in the climactic battle between Luke and
Vader on the planet Bespin at the end of 1980's The Empire Strikes Back.
The weapon is in Luke's hand when Vader chops it off, sending it down the long shaft the
pair duel over.
So how exactly did the saber make its way to a container in a tavern on a different
planet in a different solar system?
"A good question...for another time."
Well, we really don't have a better answer other than "the Force willed it."
The ending of 2010's Inception is the kind that's likely to be debated for years, and
even decades, to come.
Directed by Christopher Nolan, the film boasts a heavyweight cast including Joseph Gordon-Levitt,
Tom Hardy, and Ellen Page, among others.
Leonardo DiCaprio plays its lead, Cobb, who's the head of a crew of thieves specializing
in corporate espionage.
Cobb and his team enter their victims' dreams, steal information, and plant ideas into their
subconscious.
"Mr. Saito, this…this isn't your typical corporate espionage.
You asked me for inception, I do hope you understand the, the gravity of that request."
One of the dangers of their work is the risk of being stuck in a dream without knowing
it.
So Cobb and his colleagues each carry totems, which are items that let them know whether
or not they're in a dream.
Cobb carries a spinning top.
Whenever he doubts whether or not he's in a dream, he spins it, and if the top doesn't
stop spinning, he knows he's still asleep.
Inception ends with Cobb testing his totem after being reunited with his children, but
we never learn whether or not the top stops spinning.
Cobb spins the top on the table, then walks away.
The screen fades to black with the top still spinning.
Nolan later explained he ended the film this way to demonstrate that, to Cobb, it didn't
matter whether or not he was dreaming.
During his 2015 Princeton commencement speech, Nolan said:
"[Cobb] didn't really care anymore, and that makes a statement: Perhaps, all levels of
reality are valid."
When the elderly Steve Rogers gives Sam Wilson his shield at the end of 2019's Avengers:
Endgame, it may seem simple as far as time travel plot points go.
Captain America goes back in time to return the Infinity Stones, and rather than return,
he decides to stay in the past and spend as much of the rest of his life as he can with
Peggy Carter.
Then, having lived much of that life, Cap returns to the spot where he was sent back
in time and hands his shield over to Sam.
What's confusing about that?
Well, here's the thing.
When Steve Rogers goes back in time and stays with Peggy Carter, he changes history, and
in doing so, he creates an alternate timeline.
While speaking to Entertainment Weekly shortly after the release of Endgame, directors Joe
and Anthony Russo said that Cap's new life with Peggy does not take place in the prime
MCU timeline.
So if he lives in this new splintered reality, how does he get back to the prime MCU reality
in order to hand the shield off to Sam Wilson?
The Russos have admitted they don't have an answer.
Joe told Entertainment Weekly:
"The question then becomes, how is [Steve Rogers] back in this reality to give the shield
away?...Interesting question, right?
Maybe there's a story there."
In a world like the MCU's, there's no shortage of possibilities.
Only time will tell if we ever get a definitive explanation for Steve Rogers' return.
The Arthur Fleck of 2019's Joker lives in a fantasy world.
Early in the film, Fleck imagines himself in the audience of his favorite late night
talk show, eventually being called up to the stage by host Murray Franklin.
Later, we learn he's even imagined an entire romantic relationship with his neighbor, Sophie,
who in reality, barely remembers his name.
So when we learn that Arthur's time with Sophie was all in his head, it's difficult to not
call most or all of the film's events into question.
When he finally does show up on the Murray Franklin Show, for example, even though the
host doesn't treat him as nicely as he does in Fleck's earlier fantasy, in many ways his
behavior seems just as nonsensical.
He allows Arthur to say horrible things on live TV.
He doesn't pull the plug but instead argues with Arthur until the failed comedian finally
kills the host.
On one extreme end of the spectrum, it could be that almost the entire story is just Fleck's
imagination.
At the end of the movie, Fleck is in a mental institution.
Earlier in the film, while Fleck talks to his social worker, there's a brief flashback
of him slamming his head into a door in the same institution.
It could be those are the only "real" parts of the movie, and everything else is his fantasy.
Either way, it's one of the biggest unanswered questions in Joker, and one we might never
get an answer to.
The acclaimed TV series Breaking Bad ends with Jesse Pinkman racing his way to freedom.
After being enslaved as a meth cook for a bunch of white supremacists, he's finally
free, and the Netflix movie El Camino tells us what happens to Jesse once he reaches civilization.
After encountering some old friends, discovering a secret stash of cash, and running across
some really bad dudes, Jesse finds Ed - the same guy who relocated Walter White toward
the end of Breaking Bad - and convinces the older man to smuggle him all the way to Alaska.
"I'm looking for a uh, Hoover Max.
Pressure Max, Max Pressure, Hoover, or maybe it's a Pro Max.
You got like uh, like a filter?"
Once they're up north, Jesse gives Ed a letter addressed to Brock, the son of Andrea Cantillo.
In one of the most soul-crushing moments of Breaking Bad, Jesse is forced to watch as
the white supremacists kill Andrea as punishment for him trying to escape.
As for Brock, he was left orphaned and without a clue as to why his mother was shot.
What does Jesse write to Brock?
Well, we never get a chance to read the letter.
We only see the envelope.
It's tough to imagine what Jesse could possibly say to the eight-year-old.
Maybe it's better to not know, or our hearts might get broken all over again.
Most post-apocalyptic films begin and end with only a small portion of the Earth's population
left, and Snowpiercer is no different in that respect.
In the film, all that's left of the human race is confined to a train that protects
them from the fatal cold of a second Ice Age.
What's different about Snowpiercer is that by the end of the film, it isn't clear how
much of the human race is left.
A cruel aristocracy rules the locomotive of Snowpiercer, with the poorest survivors confined
to the tail.
The heroic Curtis leads a revolt and pushes his followers through the length of the train
to the engine caretaker, Wilford.
And when things start getting desperate, one of Curtis' allies, Namgoong, sets off an explosive
that triggers an avalanche, derailing the train and presumably killing most of the people
on board.
"Nice."
In the film's final moments, Yona and Timmy - a teenage girl and a young boy - emerge
from the train wreck.
The movie ends just as they spot a polar bear nearby.
The explosion and the crash it causes are dramatic enough that we have to assume few
survive, but as far as the named characters are concerned, we never know for sure.
We don't see the bodies of Curtis, Namgoong, or Wilford.
If Yona and Timmy really are all that's left at the end of Snowpiercer, it doesn't seem
like humanity has long to go before the end.
The warrior Sif has been missing from the MCU since her appearance in Thor: The Dark
World.
She wasn't there for the battle with Hela, she wasn't on the Asgardian refugee ship in
Avengers: Infinity War, and she wasn't with the Asgardians in Avengers: Endgame.
According to Jaime Alexander, she wasn't there for Ragnarok because of a scheduling conflict
between the movie's shooting schedule and that of her TV series, Blindspot.
Sif isn't mentioned in the film, but Marvel Studios president Kevin Feige gave a narrative
explanation connected to Loki's secret usurping of the Asgardian throne at the end of Thor:
The Dark World.
Just as we learn in Ragnarok that Loki had Heimdall branded a traitor, Feige said Loki
would want Thor's closest friends as far away from Asgard as possible so he found some reason
to exile her.
He said:
"Sif was probably banished.
She's off somewhere."
However, neither Feige nor anyone else has bothered to specify what "somewhere" means.
At the end of The Dark Knight Rises, the final installment of director Christopher Nolan's
Dark Knight trilogy, Bruce Wayne fakes his own death, but he doesn't seem content to
leave Gotham without a protector.
So he leaves a parcel for police detective John Blake - whose first name we learn is
"Robin" - that leads Blake to the Batcave and all its secrets.
At the same time, James Gordon discovers the Bat Signal has been repaired.
The assumption seems to be that with the Batcave's arsenal at his disposal, Blake will take up
the mantle of Batman to make sure Gotham still has its protection against international assassins
and psychotic clowns.
But will that happen?
More to the point, could that happen?
Throughout The Dark Knight Rises, Blake proves himself dedicated to the cause of justice,
which is likely why Wayne chose him as a successor.
Still, he can be as dedicated as he likes but it doesn't change the fact that he's missing
some key components to being Batman.
He doesn't have the billions of dollars at Wayne's disposal, as that's largely left to
his butler, Alfred.
And he doesn't have someone like Alfred to bandage his wounds or Lucius Fox to design
new tech.
He doesn't have the dual identity of a billionaire playboy to help hide is crime-fighting, and
perhaps more importantly, he doesn't have the decade Wayne spent abroad training to
avenge his parents.
Could Blake still fill Wayne's shoes?
Maybe.
But it's hardly a certainty, and now that the movies have moved on from this story,
we'll never find out.
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