The Wrestler Plot Summary
There are a lot of fascinating attributes to Darren Aronofsky’s 2008 film, The Wrestler. For starters, Mickey Rourke’s tour de force Oscar-nominated performance as aging wrestler Randy “The Ram” Robinson; the tracking shots from slightly above the back of Randy’s head, so we see the world from his perspective.
The brutality of the staged acts of professional wrestling is there for us all to see, and the loneliness that hits these performers once they walk back through the curtain to their dressing room. But what really has people hung up after 15 years past its release, is the film’s ending and the assumptions that come with it. So let’s dive in and explore what happens to Randy the Ram?
What are the themes of The Wrestler?
We’ve all heard the stories of the aging wrestlers who fall to the indie circuit and live sad lives in their later years. The elevator pitch for The Wrestler is just that: an aging wrestler who is down on his luck and looking for a comeback.
We all know Darren Aronofsky to be a better filmmaker than that. Not only is Randy the Ram a lonely character, but the other people in the film are as well. Marisa Tomei, who plays love interest Cassidy, seems like she has nobody besides her kid, whom we never see.
Even Randy’s estranged daughter, played by Evan Rachel Wood, feels like a lost soul in the few scenes we see her in.
Stick to what you know – even if it kills you
Rourke and Tomei have brilliant chemistry of two people in the same boat in life. Their connection carries most of the sentimentality in the film. They both have professions where they use their bodies for money at an age when maybe they shouldn’t: professional wrestling and exotic dancing. But Rourke’s portrayal of Randy the Ram is of someone with a lot of pride who only knows one thing, and that is what to do in the squared circle.
He can’t connect with anyone romantically; he can’t be a father. And despite his injuries, near-death experiences, and doctors telling him to hang up the tights, he realizes that he has to stick to all he knows.
Does Randy accept the match offer?
Randy takes an offer to be in the main event at an independent wrestling event. We knew going into it that he’s not at 100% after his heart attack earlier in the movie.
On his way out to the ring, Cassidy shows up to give us what feels like the cliché movie moment where she drops her walls and offers to connect with him.
His rejection sums up his arc perfectly: “The only place I get hurt is out there”, he says referencing the real world. “The world don’t give a shit about me. You hear them? This is where I belong”, he tells her before walking through the curtain and out to his match.
What happens during the final match?
The camerawork in the film’s finale is splendid. With the camera in the ring, it feels like you, the viewer, are a member of the match. At the tail end, Randy seems to be having another heart attack. He sucks it up and climbs the top ropes to do his finisher move. But you know Randy is potentially about to die from a heart attack. He knows it too, but the crowd cheering for him doesn’t; once again he’s alone, even in a moment that should make him happy.
Randy has tears in his eyes as he thinks this is it. He jumps off the top rope out of frame, and the film cuts to black. Cue Bruce Springsteen’s song that pairs with the movie.
Does Randy the Ram die in the ring?
So, did Randy die in the ring? We don’t know, and that’s okay. It’s easy to think that with his health problems and the same sound from earlier of a faint ringing that is heard through his perspective, yes, he is having another heart attack. But it’s never known for certain that Randy the Ram dies doing what he loves, and we don’t need to have a concrete answer.
For all we know, the match finished, Randy got put on a stretcher, his life was saved, he retired for a year, and he came back again, like most wrestlers do.
The fact of the matter is that The Wrestler is a window into Randy’s life. We started at a certain point and left at another point. We don’t need to know or see more then what we saw, which explains the ambiguous nature of the film’s ending.
The Wrestler ended, and if he did die we don’t need to have a fallout from his passing. Like all those who were around Randy, they eventually left him, and so do we.
Well there you have it, the ending of The Wrestler definitely leaves things open for discussion. What do you think happen to The Ram in his wrestling match. Did he live? Did he die? Feel free to discuss in the comments below.