Chaos Walking (2021) Ending Explained

Doug Davison, Allison Shearmur, Erwin Stoff, and Alison Winter produced Chaos Walking, a dystopian action film directed by Doug Liman and produced by Doug Davison, Allison Shearmur, Erwin Stoff, and Alison Winter. It was released in theaters in South Korea on February 24, 2021, and in the United States on March 5, 2021.

Patrick Ness and Christopher Ford wrote the script based on Ness’ science fiction series Chaos Walking. The first book, ‘The Knife of Never Letting Go,’ inspired Chaos Walking. Chaos Walking made $13.3 million in the United States and Canada, and $12.1 million in other markets, for a worldwide total of $25.4 million on a $100 million production budget, resulting in a Lionsgate write-down.

The film was announced in 2011, but many authors have since rewritten it extensively. Principal photography began in 2017 after Liman was announced as the director in 2016. Although the film was scheduled to be released in 2019, it was postponed to allow for reshoots.

In the year 2257, humanity has abandoned Earth, and the first wave of space settlers has arrived on a new planet, where they are plagued by “the Noise,” a strange phenomenon that allows everyone to hear their every thought.

Todd Hewitt (Holland) is the youngest guy in Prentisstown, a town ruled by the merciless Mayor Prentiss (Mads Mikkelsen) and where all of the women have been slaughtered. When a mysterious woman named Viola (Ridley) unexpectedly arrives on the planet, Todd, who has never met a woman before, helps her escape the mayor and connect with her spacecraft.

While the theory is intriguing, especially given that the book from which it is adapted has won numerous prizes and is well-regarded by critics, it does not transition well to the screen. The cinematic adaptation has received a wide range of criticism.

According to Rotten Tomatoes, the film received a good review from 21% of 145 critics, with an average rating of 4.50/10. “Chaos Walking sets out on a potentially interesting path, but this dystopian adventure badly bungles its premise and limps toward the finish.” The site’s reviews agree. The film garnered “generally unfavorable reviews” according to Metacritic, which gave it a weighted average score of 39 out of 100 based on 30 critics.

It is a good idea to review it for ourselves in the midst of all the mixed evaluations.

No One Escapes The Noise – Chaos Walking (2021)

The film is a futuristic tale of modern colonization. Set in the year 2257 AD, the narrative takes place in a New World colonized by a fewer group of men and only men, no women around. Through Todd Hewitt, our protagonist, the film presents a condition inflicted upon the humans as they colonized this new world where they can hear each other’s thoughts also termed as “Noise” in the film.

Todd’s character is played by Tom Holland and funnily enough, he was asked to grow as much facial hair as he could for his role. But all he could muster was the thinnest of a “Guy Fawkes” that is barely even visible outside of close-up shots, and which took him five whole weeks to accomplish. However, our boyish British bloke does not disappoint in the looks department in any possible way. 

The colonists fought a bitter conflict with the native humanoid species known as The Spackle, in which all of the female colonists were purportedly murdered while half of the men survived. Todd Hewitt lives with his adoptive fathers, Ben Moore and Cillian Boyd, in Prentisstown.

Pastor Aaron, the town’s mayor David Prentiss, and his son Davy are among the other citizens. Prentiss has mastered the art of controlling his Noise, making it difficult to see and hear his thoughts.

The mayor of the village, Mads Mikkelsen’s David Prentiss, has created a religion of enforced, ritualized hyper-masculinity, with men affirming that The Noise around their heads gives them strength, chastising themselves and each other for showing weakness and expressing feelings, and persecuting any man who does because he’s “acting like a woman.”

When a spaceship loses touch with the First Colony, a scout ship is dispatched to examine the planet, but it crashes. Todd is at work one day when he notices someone stealing and pursues the criminal, only to end himself at the crash site. Once he is back from the crash site, Todd tries to remain silent, but the other men hear and see his thoughts about the crashed ship, and they go to inspect the crash spot and loot some of the ship’s parts, but no survivors are found.

Todd meets Viola, the crash’s sole survivor, while he is alone. In the book series, Todd and Viola are supposed to be in their early teens, but in reality, the main actors are early to mid-twenties. He is taken aback by the sight of a girl because he has never seen one before.

Viola is apprehended by Prentisstown’s men and taken to the mayor’s residence, where she is interrogated about her origins. Prentiss describes the Noise and what has occurred in their world to her. Davy is tasked with keeping a watch on her while he goes to speak with the men. Davy inadvertently toys with one of Viola’s gadgets resulting in large holes in the walls which help her escape.

As she escapes, she overhears Prentiss talking about his plan for stopping her from contacting the mothership, intercepting their landing, killing them while they’re still under cryosleep, and scavenging the ship. Todd finds her hiding in his family’s barn and tries to hide her when one of Prentiss’s men comes looking for her. Ben informs Todd about another settlement called Farbranch where Viola would be safe.

Viola promptly escapes on a motorcycle while Todd follows her on one of the horses. Prentiss and his men come back to the farm, claiming Viola is a spy and demanding her return. Cillian is killed by Davy, and Ben is compelled to join them.

Todd, meantime, catches up with Viola and the two embark on a trek to Farbranch with Todd’s dog, Manchee. During the journey, Viola discloses that she is from a big Colony Ship transporting over 4,000 passengers and that her parents died during the 64-year journey from Earth to the New World.

Todd also reveals that he has never met his biological parents. Later, he Viola opalescent smoke in the sky that is not human Noise far away from their location to warn her of nearby Spackle. Viola refutes Todd’s notion that the Spackle are aliens, arguing that the humans are the true aliens on New World because they have invaded the Spackle’s homeworld. Manchee begins barking at a Spackle settlement on the water that Todd and Viola come upon later via an overlooking bluff.

A male Spackle emerges from a nearby river, sensing Todd’s Noise, while they run. Viola urges Todd to suppress his Noise when the Spackle takes Todd and allegedly carries him towards the Spackle town. While Manchee barks at the Spackle, Todd stabs it and begins fighting it.

Todd, enraged by his parents’ deaths, throws the Spackle into a nearby river, nearly killing it until Viola begs him to stop. Todd stops stabbing, and the Spackle wanders into the forest peacefully, although, now scared of Todd. He reveals that the Spackle murdered his parents and feels insignificant for saving a Spackle’s life.

When they arrive at Farbranch, which is inhabited by men, women, and children, some of the residents are displeased with Todd’s presence because he is from Prentisstown. There, he finds his mother’s diary which he is unable to read, so, he asks Viola to read it for him.

He finds out that the women were not killed by the native aliens, but rather by Prentiss and the men of Prentisstown. The men could not stand not knowing the thoughts of the women when they could hear theirs, which drove them crazy. Angered, Todd realizes that everything he had been told was a lie. 

Prentiss and his men reach Farbranch demanding Viola. Ben tries to convince Todd to surrender her but Todd refuses. He is angry with Ben for lying. So, Ben uses an image of Viola to distract the men allowing Todd and Viola to escape but Aaron chases after them.

They come across a boat for their escape but Aaron kills Manchee, Todd’s dog, resulting in another temper flair. Thankfully, they reach the ruins of the first colony ship by the next day. However, when they try to send a signal to the colony ship, they find the antenna is damaged.

While Todd tries to repair it, Prentiss’s and his men arrive holding Ben hostage. Todd decides to surrender himself while Aaron goes inside the ship to kill Viola. She uses one of her gadgets to immolate him. When Todd appears, Prentiss shoots Ben who sneakily hands Todd a knife.

Prentiss and Todd clash but Prentiss uses illusions of himself to distract Todd and in an intense moment, shoots him. Before Prentiss can kill him, Todd uses illusions of his mother and other women who died at the hands of Prentiss calling him a coward. Viola enters the scene and pushes Prentiss off a cliff to his death when the colony ship appears which causes the Prentisstown men to flee. The next thing we see is Todd waking up in the ship’s medical room, almost fully healed and Viola taking him to meet other colonists.

Although, it is disappointing that “Chaos Walking” just skims over the backstory of the indigenous species of humanoids who were driven into submission by humans and allegedly cursed the remaining humans with audible/visible thoughts as if condemning them for their sins. Various questions keep arising during the movie that are constantly avoided by Liman, hoping that the running and jumping will keep us distracted.

For that, Holland and Ridley are good enough, having grown accustomed to playing physically energetic franchise fodder, but they’re malnourished by a script that never tries to give either of them even the most rudimentary of characterization, resulting in a lack of a dynamic between the two.

What Was The Noise Disease & Humanoid Aliens [The Spackle]?

The Noise is a disease that affects all animals and male humans in New World. Words and pictures can all be seen and heard in the Noise. When moving, the Noise appears as opalescent trailing smoke around a person’s head, and when still, it appears as the opalescent fog around a person’s head.

In the film, there is also some black noise. The film depicts Mayor Prentiss’ “I am the Circle and the Circle is me” as blue circles and Aaron’s Bible verses as opalescent with orange spikes. In the books, the color key of the Noise is single-colored (one hue per emotion), however, in the film version, the color key is orange (posters) and opalescent (film).

In the books, the Noise is colored based on an individuals’ emotions. Where Anger is represented by red/black, calm by blue/green, pride using purple, hate using black, and yellow for embarrassment. 

In the film, a couple of techniques are seen to be used to shield their thoughts. The first is I am the Circle and the Circle is Me. This technique was created to center a man with Noise and prevent all their thoughts from being displayed all the time. It is also used to subdue individuals, make those who heard it be part of a collective voice and control those with Noise. This technique is shown to create a light blue ring surrounding a person’s head and all thoughts are collectively heard as one.

‘I am Todd Hewitt I am Todd Hewitt’ was a technique given as advice to Todd by Ben. It was used to center Todd whenever his thoughts got out of hand and were used by Todd when he had to hide crucial information. 

The Land, known as Spackle or the Spacks to humans, are the native humanoids of the New World. They share a collective voice but they can retain their individuality. The Noise germ has evolved in the Land, and they utilize it to communicate with one another. The Spackle is named The Burden in the novel.

They have been imprisoned by humans and made to work for them are known as the Burden. The Burden was later killed with a bomb at the abandoned monastery by David Prentiss, Sr. (save for 1017).

The “Spackle” were nearly wiped off when humans came, due to the notion that they had infected all males with the Noise. To survive, a group of Land were enslaved by humans and made to work for them. In the film, the Spackle are portrayed with twisted faces, black skin, black clothing, and four claws on each hand and foot (which seems to play on the themes of slavery which is not surprising since the film itself deals with colonialists). They have both, normal Noise (opalescent) and black Noise. In the film, the Land is also seen to have opalescent blood. 

Is There Going To Be Chaos Walking 2?

After a delay of two years due to constant rewrites and reshoots, the people who enjoyed the film, I’m sorry but you probably shouldn’t expect a sequel to the movie anytime soon. 

According to reports at the time, Lionsgate was not thrilled with the early edit but it still thought Chaos Walking may be saved. However, the movie’s distribution plan may throw light on Lionsgate’s feelings on the film following reshoots. Despite a COVID delay from January to March, there was no simultaneous VOD or streaming release, and no attempt to wait a few more months, when (hopefully) cinemas will be far more accessible.

Chaos Walking, unlike the great majority of recent releases, was effectively tossed into theatres, implying that the film had already been written off. The box receipts have been disappointing, as expected, but the reviews have also been negative. I’d suggest fans read the trilogy instead, considering the reality that the film adaptation of the rest of the series is a far-fetched possibility.