If you’ve ever wondered what happens to your favorite actor after they have hung up the cape and powers, Alejandro G. Iñárritu has got it covered. In 2014, Iñárritu cast Batman alum, Michael Keaton, as Riggan, a washed-up actor on the verge of a mental breakdown. Birdman or (The Unexpected Virtue Of Ignorance) is an exceptional movie that follows Riggan during the lead-up to his Broadway debut. Things go wrong, actors get injured, narcissists butt heads, and Chekhov’s gun goes off.
One of the main themes of the movie is the dichotomy of character. Riggan is haunted by his alter-ego Birdman, constantly seeing visions of the character and battling against his persuasive pull. Riggan’s semi-estranged daughter Sam is a recovering drug addict who is trying to get her life together. Sam is consistently fighting her feelings, unable to choose whether she loves or hates her father. And Riggan’s volatile co-star Mike finds real life to be fictional and perceives the stage to be real life. There is such a clear disjunction in the movie, everyone and everything is so split in half it’s almost unbearable to watch. It is this thematic dichotomy that fuels the ending of Birdman.
The Ending
After a successful first act on Opening Night, Riggan talks calmly to his ex-wife Sylvia about an attempted suicide. He tells her he loves her, that he loves their daughter Sam, and that he wishes he was more present when they were married. Sylvia observes that Riggan seems weirdly calm. We watch as this calm washes over him as he does his vocal warm-ups whilst loading a real gun. He takes this gun onstage in lieu of the prop he was supposed to use, and he delivers his final monologue for an audience of adoring fans. Then, he shoots himself in the head, while the audience claps in adoration.
Riggan wakes in a hospital room to the news that he’s survived his attempted suicide, and that his “stunt” was a huge success with his play getting rave reviews. He’s also shot his nose straight off his face. The camera pans over to him and his face is wrapped in bandages that look eerily like the Birdman mask. Sam comes to see her father at the hospital, and they hold each other for a moment, everything seemingly forgiven and forgotten.
After taking off the mask to reveal a black and blue face with a swollen beak-like nose, Riggan sees an apparition of Birdman on the toilet. Riggan walks over to the hospital window as classical music swells in the background. He looks out to the birds flying high over the city and smiles. We watch as he opens the window, climbs onto the ledge, and… the camera pans away. Sam wanders into an empty hospital room, she runs over to the window, she looks down. She looks up to the sky. She smiles. The camera fades to black as we hear Sam giggle with wonder.
Magical Realism
What is magical realism, and what part does it play in this analysis? Well, for anyone who watched Jane The Virgin, you already know. But for those who aren’t familiar, magical realism is a genre of literature and media that presents you with a story set in our world but then incorporates magical elements.
Think of 2019’s Rocketman, a semi-biographical movie based on the life of Elton John. The story takes place in our world, obviously, but the characters constantly burst into song, they float in midair and talk to younger versions of themselves.
Another example of magical realism comes from the aforementioned Jane The Virgin. Jane is a writer who grew up on telenovelas and romance novels. Those interests heavily influence Jane and as we watch her story unfold, in what we assume is our world, we see how the magical realism that she grew up loving bleeds into her everyday life. Snow falls around her in the middle of summer in Miami, her heart literally glows when she meets the people she loves, it’s truly beautiful.
So what does this mean for Birdman?
Well, Birdman integrates magical realism heavily into the movie. One of the most well-known aspects of the film was how it was shot in a way that makes it look like one hugely long take. This lends its hand to realism, but it creates ways to bring in more magical qualities. Actors seem to appear in multiple places at the same time, time seems to skip around and although subtle, these factors make the action feel almost dreamlike.
And while magical realism is often thought about as a perfect blend, a perfect combination, that works together to enhance the story it’s being used in. In Birdman, this technique is actually used to drive home the theme of dichotomy. After all, the magical and the real are essentially polar opposites. It's the theme of magical realism that takes the ending of Birdman and splits it into two possible meanings.
The Magical
Throughout Birdman, we get to see the… visions? Hallucinations? … of Riggan. He repeatedly sees his superhero character Birdman, speaks to him, imagines himself with the powers of the superhero and wrestles with this alter ego. For the most part, when we see these visions, we are immediately given the real version of events.
In a scene where Riggan is drowning in the stress caused by his play, we see him wrecking his dressing room by using telekinesis. Then, the camera pans to Riggan’s friend and lawyer standing in the doorway, and we get to see what is really happening: Riggan is throwing things around and smashing stuff… with his hands. After walking down the street with Birdman following, Riggan visualizes scenes from an action film happening all around him, with swat police, mechanical dragons and falling helicopters. Then, Riggan begins to float up in the air. We think, from the reactions of people on the street, that this is actually happening. Until we see that what they are actually looking at is Riggan standing on the ledge of a tall building. Riggan then jumps from the building, and he flies around New York City until he gets to his theater and walks in for opening night. We then see the taxi driver who actually got Riggan there run after him asking for his fee.
But, there are actually a couple of times when we don’t see the real scenes: at the beginning and at the end. At the start of the movie, we see Riggan meditating while levitating a few feet in the air, but we never get to see what actually is happening. We are led to believe that what we see is true. Likewise, at the end, when Riggan presumably jumps from the hospital's window, we don’t see what happens to him, we only see Sam looking up in wonder. So we are once again led to believe that the magic of what she sees is real. But, we don’t actually get to witness what she is seeing, and that is why some audiences believe the end means something different.
The Realism
The other interpretation of Birdman’s ending is a bit more blunt and obvious. Another of the main themes of the movie is the battles people have with their mental health. Sam grapples with drug addiction, and Mike, the unbearable co-star, struggles to distinguish between real life and acting. But it’s Riggan that is suffering the most. As mentioned, he is haunted by delusions of his famous character. He’s starring in a play that he wrote the adaptation for and is directing, a Hail Mary to prove his talent as a performer. And as the action ramps up for the finale, we start to really see the cracks in his life.
He may joke about the time he tried to drown himself, he may have been drawn to the ledge of that building because of his delusions, but it cannot be denied that these are clearly cries for help. By the time he pulls out that gun and shoots himself in front of hundreds of paying customers, it seems like a cry too late to be heard. So, when the camera pans away from him standing in the hospital window, it seems natural to conclude that he purposely jumped to his death.
The Meaning Of It All
Iñárritu stated in interviews that both endings are equally true. We see the ending through the eyes of Sam because it leaves the ending open to interpretation. It is true that there are magical elements to this movie and that Birdman is real to Riggan. It is also true that to the rest of the world, Birdman is only a character from the big screen. Both views on the hero are true and valid. And the movie culminating with Sam looking up and seeing something wonderful ties the two worlds together and ends the movie with the same magical realism that it started with.