Spaceman’s Ending Explained By Adam Sandler, Paul Dano, and Director Johan Renck
“It’s almost a string theory idea that time doesn’t exist.”
Spaceman is a movie about Adam Sandler hallucinating a giant spider in space. But depending on how you look at it, it’s also so much more. Streaming now on Netflix, the film from director Johan Renck (with Paul Dano as the voice of the spider) sends its hero to the edge of our solar system on a mission to explore a mysterious purple phenomenon.
But when Jakub Procházka (Sandler) finally gets there, what ultimately happens is somewhat up for debate. Luckily, Inverse had a chance to interview Sandler, Dano, and Renck about this bizarre sci-fi movie, and we took the opportunity to probe them for answers about Spaceman’s ending. Here’s what we learned.
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Spaceman 🚀
Spaceman’s ending, explained
Adam Sandler in Spaceman.
First, let’s talk through what actually happens on screen. Throughout the movie, Jakub and the spider (whom he names Hanuš) work together to unearth repressed memories that explain why his wife has decided to leave him. But when Hanuš comes to the conclusion that his shipmate is a selfish man who drove away the love of his life, the spider decides to jump ship.
Around the same time, the ship reaches its final destination and Jakub prepares to complete the mission, but it’s at this moment that Hanuš reappears to reveal a tragic truth: He’s infected with a parasite that’s slowly eating him from the inside out. Hanuš then exits the ship, presumably to die in peace, but Jakub follows him, jeopardizing the mission to spend a few more moments with his friend.
The two of them float together into the purple space cloud where they experience some sort of cosmic vision, with Jakub seemingly coming to terms with his marital issues. Hanuš then dies, while Jakub is rescued by a South Korean spaceship that’s been on his tail for most of the mission. In a final scene, we see him on the Korean ship as he talks to his wife on the phone, suggesting that they’ve reconciled their issues.
OK, but with that out of the way, what does any of this mean? Here’s what Adam Sandler, Paul Dano, and Johan Renck have to say.
Spaceman’s ending, explained by Adam Sandler
“I think it’s also bringing back the first time when you first fall in love.”
“It’s about getting to the beginning,” Sandler says, referencing a line Hanuš the spider repeats throughout the movie about how the purple cloud is both the beginning and the end. “Basically, his journey leads him to the beginning. Hanuš knows a lot about the beginning and the ending where everything collides.”
That’s a very straightforward understanding of the movie, but Sandler also offers something a bit more metaphorical.
“I think it’s also bringing back the first time when you first fall in love and what can lead you astray after that,” he says. “Things that go on in a relationship that take away from that first meeting, that first time your eyes locked when you first go, Oh my goodness, I can’t be without this person. And reminding yourself that’s who I fell in love with.”
Spaceman’s ending, explained by Paul Dano
“Maybe the beginning could be death, it could be rebirth.”
Like Hanuš himself, Dano offers a succinct, if somewhat haunting, synopsis of the movie’s final moment and the space cloud where they take place.
“I think the beginning is also a little bit up to interpretation,” he says. “Maybe the beginning could be death, it could be rebirth, it could be the beginning of time, it could be innocence or something.”
Spaceman’s ending, explained by Johan Renck
When I pose the same question to the film’s director, he’s more than up for the challenge, offering an answer that tackles both the literal meaning of what we see on screen and also the metaphysical effects it has on Spaceman’s main character.
Here’s Renck’s answer in full:
“It’s almost a string theory idea that time doesn’t exist. What Hanuš says in that cloud is that everything is permanent, yet nothing ever is, which means the takeaway from this experience is whatever you’ve done in your life, whatever mistakes you’ve made, whatever the wrong steps you’ve made, instead of dwelling on that and not being able to move away from that, you can always start anew. There’s always a way to start anew.
“It’s a very kind of esoterical way of saying: Deal with it and move on. Because that’s all we can do in life. Whatever tragedy, whatever beauty, whatever happens in life, we have to deal with it and we have to move. We have to continue our journey as humans without being trapped in ideas.
“Jakub gets to understand that the universe is as it should be. Everything is permanent until you decide it’s not permanent anymore and you can change it and make it into something new.”
