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omnilynx t1_j6ihc02 wrote

Reply to comment by Select_Action_6065 in Question about The Menu ending by RollingKatamari

Yeah, it's crazy how many people missed the theme/point of the movie. Slowik didn't just enjoy killing people for no reason. He was obsessed with the idea of turning all the people who'd made his life hell into his magnum opus. He had no reason to kill Erin. She was the one person there who made him genuinely happy, and who had done nothing to deserve to be there.

That dramatic beat at the end of the movie wasn't there to hint at another twist, it was to convey the transformation that Erin had gone through.

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SuperZapper_Recharge t1_j6izx6x wrote

He was a monster but a principled one.

He was really struggling with her presence the entire movie. She brought him joy in cooking - which is what he was punishing everyone else for.

That cheeseburger was the real deal. She's fine.

And it probably was the cheeseburger that reminded her of what it was like to eat her first cheeseburger.

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Cazmonster t1_j6m0kjd wrote

Yep Slowic was definitely Lawful Evil. If he killed you, he had a defensible reason to do so.

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staedtler2018 t1_j6k27o7 wrote

>Slowik didn't just enjoy killing people for no reason.

I mean... he kinda did.

Killing someone because they went to Brown with no financial aid is.. funny, certainly, but there's no real principle to it.

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Ashamed_Ladder6161 t1_j6ijn3j wrote

You say this, and I get your point, but I think it’s meant to be a point of contention; the foreshadowing for the bad meat is NOT subtle, and the pay off is how she chokes on it the while on the boat in the closing seconds. It’s there to make you doubt what’s happening. Personally, I find it unlikely that he’d kill her that way, I think the director has said so himself, but the film is posing that question. It’s being impish.

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omnilynx t1_j6iko3q wrote

The foreshadowing on the bad meat is to show how morbid the staff are and how close to death the customers are without knowing it. It doesn't need a physical payoff where it's used to kill someone.

Also, as someone else pointed out, you would never use aged meat for a classic hamburger. The difference in taste would be immediately apparent.

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NoHandBananaNo t1_j6k0801 wrote

>how morbid the staff are and how close to death the customers are without knowing it

Also how there is a relationship of inherent trust between customers and chefs insofar as customers trust chefs to be safe and not poison them.

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Ashamed_Ladder6161 t1_j6ikxij wrote

It’s Chekhov’s gun. Don’t show the ingredients can be deadly if you don’t intend to flirt with it. I think they’re plenty of ways you can illustrate that same point, not that you need to, the film already established this without needing it… also, the film closes on her having a coughing fit. That’s not an accident. Lol

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omnilynx t1_j6inq1x wrote

A "coughing fit"? You need to watch the ending again. I can't even find a moment where she chokes or coughs, let alone a whole fit. She sits down, panting (from exertion and adrenaline), gasps at the explosion, gets out the burger, takes a bite, wipes her mouth with the menu, takes a second bite, and a clap signals the cut to credits.

Anyway, this is moot because the director said the fan theory was wrong. Margot survives.

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Ashamed_Ladder6161 t1_j6iofqn wrote

Ok 2 things; first, I think she lives as well, and I’ve even said the director said as much earlier. But I did think she had a cough at the end of the film- but I’m more than happy to admit I’m wrong on this if that’s not the case. There’s 0 chance I’m sitting through any of that again.

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omnilynx t1_j6itbe9 wrote

I mean, "death of the author" and all that, you're welcome to interpret the movie any way you'd like. But you can't build a convincing case by saying that the director must have intended foreshadowing when they explicitly said they didn't.

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Ashamed_Ladder6161 t1_j6jifa4 wrote

He never said he didn’t intend that from what I recall, but I’m clearly far from the only one who saw that as a clumsy piece of foreshadowing. Having already accepted I remember the end of the film wrongly, I’m not quite sure why that got downvoted since much.

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