Comments on: 2005 Movie Stay Discussed Unpacked Explained

By: Zaydan

Zaydan — Thu, 16 Jun 2022 20:55:35 +0000

you all can analyze this garbage all you want, but, the movie was dime a dozen “let’s be so fancy with twists that we confuse everyone into thinking this is a deep movie”. Acting was horrific, and it was like watching paint dry.

By: Melanie Porter

Melanie Porter — Sat, 21 May 2022 16:56:58 +0000

Who is Harold?? In your entire ‘Quick Spoiler’ section, you keep referring to Harold (??). No one has said anything?? You will need to fix that.

By: KL

KL — Fri, 27 Aug 2021 19:48:34 +0000

I watched this movie stay just last night (Aug 26 2021!) without knowing anything about it or even reading about what type of movie it was. I just picked it from a streaming app on my Roku, and assumed it was a decent drama given the great acting line up. About 20 minutes in it dawned on me that “stay” was not your typical all star physiological drama……..it was a mindf.,k (excuse the French)movie.

So yeah I too was thinking……. is Sam seeing ghosts…….or is Sam a ghost himself without realizing (A la @The 6th sense”)…….or perhaps Henry was Sam’s alter ego……….or Sam was actually mad in need of a shrink himself!

The final scene obviously revealed many parts of the jumble jigsaw together,,,,,,i.e that Henry was dying and reliving his guilt via Henry and lila.

I will present another layer that I think (I may be completely wrong!) the film was portraying……..in that Henry’s dying brain was being competed for control over, by the left side logical thinking brain as represented by Sam versus the right side the artistic side represented by Lila.

Lila had one attempted suicide believing, just like the suicidal bridge jumping artist that leaving this life was a beautiful thing to do.
Sam (left side of the brain) however wins that battle by saving Lila (Right side of brain). Sam is also trying to prevent Henry’s suicide.

Lila has a change of attitude and thinks more clearly when she stops taking her meds.
There is a little scene where Henry is talking to Lila in their apartment, and Lila says to Henry, “Why don’t you let me talk to Henry” (I paraphrase) and Henry is a little dismissive saying ” what could you tell him” …….she replies ” there is so much beauty in the world”

Cut to the final scenes…….. Henry is finally persuaded by Lila and Sam to “stay” (hence the title!)……the problem being is that his body is too badly damaged.
So Henry is in a dilemma, but the solution comes in the form of Sam……. Henry can live via Sam (yes the old do bodies have a soul question and does can a mind survive bodily death) ….. cut to Sam flashback scenes with Henry’s dad”
Sam ask Lila out and will eventually propose to her……..and they all get to live happily ever after Henry included!

That’s my thoughts anyway…….obviously others may ave a different interpretation……but I think the movies is deliberately design to have different interpretations.

By: Luke

Luke — Tue, 18 May 2021 18:17:04 +0000

Saw this in theatres and loved it from the go. I remember puzzling over wth was happening. I mean, was it a ghost story (his mothers house)? Is he some kind of superhero savior (healing blindness)? (Those were two of the more disappointing possibilities, so I was glad they were debunked.)And so many other thoughts. I loved how visceral, how surreal, how disjointed and beautiful it was at the same time. Ewan Mcgregor especially sold it. At the end, i prescribe to the more straight-forward ending, while allowing that it’s not an either-or situation. There are threads throughout and you can take all or none at your discretion.

By: Taylor

Taylor — Sat, 10 Apr 2021 23:24:52 +0000

Totally agree Giancarlo!! Gah!! This guy should get to the point about something eventually, but no. Never. I mean prattle prattle prattle, huh what? What point? What was I talking about here? So annoying. It’s as if the author starts building this sucker up, and builds and builds and builds, but before he gets anywhere near a valid explanation he quits. What?

Here is my recommendation to the author. Write your explanation like this:

1. Movie trailer
2. One sentence about ending.
3. One sentence about what it means.
4. Start a new movie.

Finii. Simple, so much extra nonsense in your write ups. And it’s useless drivel. So yeah, take my advice. And maybe I’ll keep reading. Or maybe not.

By: Giancarlo Vespucci

Giancarlo Vespucci — Sat, 10 Apr 2021 23:18:21 +0000

Thanks for the explanation. It was helpful, but you write in an overly dramatic way that really unnecessarily prolongs an explanation that should be simple and straight to the point.

By: Leora Myers

Leora Myers — Sat, 16 Jan 2021 04:05:29 +0000

Wow!! These comments are absolutely fascinating!! This isn’t the first time that I’ve gone on one of these sites searching for an interpretation of Stay. A couple of months ago I happened to see Stay on TV, at first when watching it, it seemed quite normal and straight forward, but all of a sudden, things started to fall out of place, I soon began to realize that this wasn’t an ordinary movie, I was utterly fascinated!! And one thing that really stands out in my mind was the absolutely brilliant performance by Ewan McGregor!! He was amazing, I love the way he adopted his character as Sam Foster, and how he led us through this journey of trying to help Henry whilst having to keep his own grip and perspective on reality at the same time and playing a character that the audience can relate to. Ewan McGregor is definitely one of the huge reasons why I enjoyed the movie so incredibly much!! And not forgetting that Ryan Gosling and Naomi Watts were great too, but Ewan just stood out to me. Anyways.. getting back to the movie, after watching it, I didn’t understand it at all, especially the end when Henry shoots himself and then all of a sudden he’s lying on the Brooklyn bridge with Lila and Sam hovering over him and it’s as if they had never met before!! at that stage I obviously didn’t get any of the picture yet, there was a whole lot yet to be revealed!! I love the quote that Sam says:” if this is a dream, then the whole world is inside it” this quote shows how there’s such a thin line between fantasy and reality, and how even though the whole movie was Henry’s dream, Sam and Henry’s realities/paths both seamed to cross, as if Henry’s dream/imagination still had a great amount of significance and reality to what was really happening. So After watching Stay, I obviously didn’t understand it, at first but I was intrigued, I definitely wanted to see the movie again, to really understand it!! I wanted to know more!! So on another site, I searched up interpretations and explanations of the movie, and it all made sense, the whole plot was explained,I love reading all your comments and thoughts on Stay, I could spend hours reading these!! but there is still a great deal more that needs to be revealed to me, I am still currently trying to track the movie down, because I really really have a desire to understand the complete depth and meaning to the movie. But it makes me so sad to see how bad the ratings were for the movie, a lot of people say that Stay is pretentious, which is completely untrue!! These days people are so used to watching the typical easy Hollywood movies that spoon feed the story to you… but Stay is really something else!! You have to have a deeper understanding and perspective while watching it, you have to be open minded, because Stay is up to a lot of interpretation, but that’s what makes it so amazing, I have never seen a movie quite like it, But you DEFINITELY have to see it a couple of times to understand it fully,..when I say that I mean at least 4 or 5 times, but that’s the thing with Stay, it never gets old, each time you watch it, you see things you didn’t see in the previous viewing. After watching Stay and really viewing and analysing it over the past few months, I really find myself having an interest and desire in philosophy and deep thinking like never before!! And I’m only 13!!! Believe it or not!! So if you haven’t watched Stay, please go and watch it!!! (More than once) it really is worth it!!!! My name’s Leora Myers

I really hope you enjoyed my thoughts and comments!!

By: Lisa

Lisa — Sun, 01 Nov 2020 14:21:56 +0000

This is one of my all time favorite mind job movies. I remember watching it when it came out and I’ve recommended it to countless people over the years. Such a shame that it bombed (even with an all star cast) but I think that often happens with more cerebral films like this one which are dripping with symbolism and meaning. Hopefully it catches a few viewers who read this site as it’s definitely worth watching!

By: Nancy E Mescon

Nancy E Mescon — Mon, 26 Oct 2020 15:52:38 +0000

thanks for posting “Stay”. I viewed this awhile ago and I must watch again. so I did not read your theories. I love naomi watts.