The Remember Me ending earned the ire of many critics with its shocking last-minute twist since it surprisingly relates to the events of 9/11. Released in 2010, Remember Me was one of Robert Pattinson’s first attempts to expand his repertoire beyond the Twilight series. Although he was an established star by 2010, the divisive and often parodied Twilight movies were (mostly) dismissed by critics as lightweight tween fare. Remember Me was the total opposite in tone, although it generated its own share of controversy - especially its 9/11 twist at the end.
The heart of the Remember Me movie's story is the relationship between Emilie De Ravin’s Ally and her love interest Tyler (Pattinson). Since his brother’s suicide, Tyler’s relationship with his father was strained, and it is worsened over the movie by his courtship of Ally. Tyler’s earliest blowout with his father Charles (Pierce Brosnan) happens when Charles fails to attend Caroline’s art show. Their reconciliation occurs when Charles hears Tyler beat up bullies for attacking Caroline. Charles tells Tyler to meet him at work, so he can arrange a lawyer for his estranged son. It's at this point the Remember Me ending takes a controversial turn.
What Happens In Remember Me’s Ending
Charles works in the World Trade Center, specifically on the 101st floor of the North Tower. That’s where Tyler attempts to meet him on the morning of September 11, 2001. That alone explains the Remember Me ending. This was the time and location of the September 11 attacks, simply referred to as 9/11. The unprecedented attacks saw terrorists fly hijacked commercial airliners into the two World Trade Center towers, felling the buildings and killings thousands. The Remember Me ending is the only part of the movie to mention the attacks, and it came as a huge and unwelcome surprise.
Does Robert Pattinson’s Tyler Survive?
In the Remember Me ending, Robert Pattinson’s Tyler dies offscreen, with the established date and his gazing out the window of the North Tower being the only depiction of his fate. It's later confirmed that Tyler is dead when his grave is seen next to that of his brother. This tragic role marked a massive departure for Pattinson, whose role as a big Twilight star was at its peak during Remember Me’s release and who was heavily featured in the movie’s marketing materials.
The actor gives a solid turn and is one of the better elements of the flawed film, with many Remember Me reviews singling out his anguished performance for praise. However, fans of the popular Twilight franchise and of Pattinson did not expect to see him killed off, let alone killed off in an ending that used one of living memory’s greatest atrocities as an unexpected twist. As such, the audacious Remember Me ending was divisive for both critics and audiences.
Why Does Pierce Brosnan’s Charles Live?
Although Tyler does not make it to the end credits of Remember Me alive, his father Charles surprisingly does survive the events of the movie. Given the fact that the North Tower was his workplace and Tyler was only visiting, it seems unlikely that Pierce Brosnan’s character would make it out alive, but he is evidently either late to work or held up elsewhere at the time of the attacks. This is important to Remember Me’s thematic preoccupations.
Like Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind's ending, Remember Me’s core theme and message behind its story is the importance of accepting fate and chance despite tragedy often befalling innocent people, and urges viewers to search for meaningful connection (both romantic and familial) when faced with unexplainable cruelty. What the former proves about the latter, however, is that this thematic depth doesn't justify the Remember Me ending's narrative decisions.
What Remember Me’s Ending Really Means
Remember Me attempts to implore viewers to work on their relationships with family, romantic partners, and friends before it’s too late. Remember Me’s central thesis (and the reason some fans argued the movie was right not to disclose it's ending early) is that lives intersect in ways both unexpected and impossible to track, meaning it is always worth trying to forge a worthwhile connection and stand up for the less fortunate. If this movie had explained the twist ending early by telling viewers Tyler will die in the 9/11 attacks, it might have been more tactful.
However, it could also have made his effect on the lives of his sister, his father, his roommate, Ally, and her father much less impactful, as viewers would be expecting him to be a tragic figure of unrealized potential. Thus, keeping the ending as a shocking twist (while in questionable taste) effectively recreated the real-life impact of such tragedies by leading viewers to become invested in a character before stealing them away with an explanation in a brutal, unexpected fashion.
Why Critics Were Angry About Remember Me’s Ending
While the Remember Me ending has a thematic justification, this did not stop many critics from being angered by the movie’s twist ending. Criticisms ranged from reviewers who felt the material could have been handled well but wasn’t, to those who felt that any mention of 9/11 in a movie not centered around the attacks was exploitative. The most common stance was one outlined by legendary critic Roger Ebert, which argued that Remember Me ironically worked against its own interests in the closing stretch. Ebert argued that the movie’s twist meant the story “upstage(s) itself so overwhelmingly that its characters become irrelevant.”
There were plenty of critics who agreed with that description. Lisa Kennedy of The Denver Post wrote that the ending was a little too coy by the filmmakers who jumped ahead 10 years in the story and only had the date written on a chalkboard as a reveal to the viewers. She wrote, "The finale manages to be tasteful and exploitative at the same time. It touts forgiveness while being mildly infuriating. Such is the danger of borrowing from the enormous to merely entertain. If that." She then wrote that a movie about 9/11 should never be forgettable, but "Remember Me is just that."
Elizabeth Weitzman of the Daily News had a similar outlook, writing, "There's no shame in exploring tragedy through art. But exploiting it to make your very ordinary movie feel more important? That's another story." Weitzman was mostly dismissive of the entire movie, often referring to Pattinson's Twilight roles in the review. However, she noted that the filmmakers likely realized they had a lacking love story, "which is the only reasonable explanation for a supremely misguided ending."
The Controversial 9/11 Twist Didn't Pay Off
While many movies sport unsuccessful twists, the Remember Me ending handled not only the ending poorly but the inclusion of 9/11 as a whole. While it may have been a product of screenwriters, at some point, studios had to give the 9/11 twist the go-ahead. In the end, it seemed to be more of a grab for attention than a solid ending to a domestic drama. The Remember Me ending twist did certainly garner plenty of conversations and attention to boot, but it definitely wasn't the right kind of chatter. The film underperformed at the box office, which is largely a result of the twist ending.
Remember Me got an abysmal 26% critics score on the review aggregator site Rotten Tomatoes. While the movie does have an average 69% audience score, it wasn't enough to save the Remember Me ending from critics' wrath. On a budget of $16 million, the movie only made back half of that during its domestic opening. Remember Me's saving grace is that it made $56 million worldwide. At the time of the making of Remember Me, less than 10 years had passed since the tragedy of 9/11. Many felt that it was too soon to depict the event, especially in such a blasé manner. It seemed that the 9/11 twist ending didn't pay off.