Nickel Boys
Warning : Contains SPOILERS for Nickel Boys !
atomic number 28 Boysis one of the most critically acclaimed motion picture of 2024 , and here ’s what come about at the end of the celluloid , including the fates of Turner and Elwood , explain . Since its release , Nickel Boyshas been nominated for all sort of awards , include the Oscars for Best Picture and Best Adapted Screenplay . The massive film tells a complex history that sweep tenner , and here ’s what occurs at the end of the movie as well as what it all stand for .
Ni Boystells the story of two African American boys , Elwood Curtis and Turner , as they develop a friendship while being held at Nickel Academy . Set in the 1960s , the film chronicles their effort to first better the reformatory before realizing that they must hightail it the school and the Jim Crow South as a whole . Meanwhile , Nickel Boysalso boast flash ahead , with them following an grownup Elwood as he investigates the unnoted graves that have been found near Nickel Academy . However , thing are not as they seem in Elwood ’s grownup life sentence .
What Happens In Nickel Boys' Ending
Turner Escapes, But Elwood Is Killed
After having been mistreated at Nickel Academy for what seems to be month , Elwood and Turner decide that they must escape . It is revealed that Elwood has been logging the mistreatment and cruelty of Nickel Academy in a diary , with him hoping to expend the Scripture to get Nickel Academy shut down . The boy give it to a regime examiner , although nothing confident happens . rather , the higher ups at Nickel Academy discover Elwood ’s architectural plan and keep him prisoner in the sweatbox , with them plan to kill him like the many boys they have stamp out before .
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Turner manages to relinquish Elwood before he is killed , with the two boys finding bike and receive away from Nickel as speedily as potential . However , armed Nickel Academy employees eventually catch up to them . The boy attempt to take flight into a theatre , but one of the employees shoots Elwood . Elwood dies in the discipline , but Turner cope to make it to the woods . Turner find Elwood ’s granny and separate him about what pass , with Turner taking up Elwood ’s name and living as him into his grownup life .
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Why Did Turner Take Elwood’s Name?
He Wants To Honor His Deceased Friend
Nickel Boysfeatures a wad of flash forward-moving scenes , with them featuring an grownup human being explore the Nickel Academy murders . finally , it is revealed that this military personnel is named Elwood , with it being assumed that he is a grown - up version of the protagonist ofNickel Boys . However , when Elwood is killed , it turn this storyline on its forefront . It is reveal that Turner in reality take up Elwood ’s name , with him continuing to use it decades after his escapism from Nickel Academy .
Althoughit is n’t explicitly explained inNickel Boys , it seems that Turner taking Elwood ’s name is a symbolic elbow room for the male child to observe his deceased champion . Turner ’s usage of Elwood ’s name allows him to acquit on the memory board of those who died at Nickel Academy , with him vicariously know out the eternal rest of Elwood ’s sprightliness . This move means that Nickel Academy could n’t rob Elwood of his legacy , even if they did rob him of his exemption and his genuine life history .
Why Nickel Boys Is Shot in First-Person
It Has A Thematic & Aesthetic Purpose
One of the most interesting originative choice seen inNickel Boysis that the film is shot in first - person tip - of - survey . Throughout the film ’s 1960s scenes , the events of the film are always either seen through Elwood or Turner ’s optic , with the characters not appear on - blind together . Symbolically , this permit the audience to experience the horrors of Nickel Academy through the eyes of its victims , rather than envision it as an foreigner looking into the past . According toEW , it also allowed the film to have a more languorous character , as the theatre director explains :
“ The form of the picture show — the shooting proficiency and the editing — is a unmediated lift fromHale County This Morning , This Evening . The idea here was doing it inside a genuinely traditional story in which I could not make my own decisiveness about what to exclude and include , ” Ross say . “ ButHale County This Morning , This Eveningwas about a lack of clear narrative persistence , and this one necessitate it . That challenge elevated the imagery and the concept to be even more humanistic . The greatest gift is that Colson ’s writing and clarity of structure , character , and purport is just so crystalize that you could distill it . ”
Did Elwood’s Actions Lead To Nickel Academy Being Shut Down?
& If Not, What Did?
In the world ofNickel Boys , Nickel Academy is finally shut down . unhappily , it seems like Elwood ’s plans to report Nickel Academy ’s abuses had nothing to do with it . As the moving picture explains , the government inspector was pay the Good Book of abuses by Turner . However , the inspector did nothing about it besides informing the Nickel giving medication , who then put Elwood in the sweatbox .
WhenNickel Boysflashes forrad , it is revealed that Nickel Academy has closed down sometime since Elwood ’s death and Turner ’s safety valve . However , it is never let out if Elwood ’s death or Turner ’s actions had anything to do with it . Many of the literal - life academies thatthe fictional Nickel Academy is free-base on , such as the Dozier School for Boys , were simply close tenner later for budgetary reason . Thus , it can be speculated that this is why Nickel Academy was shut down too .
How Nickel Boys' Ending Compares To The True Story Inspiration
It Was Based On A Real Academy
The story ofNickel Boysis fictional , with the movieadapting the 2019 Colson Whitehead novelThe Nickel Boys . However , both the record book and the movie were inspired by truthful events . Nickel Academy is a fictionalized version of the Dozier School for Boys , a school that was located in Marianna , Florida and first opened in 1900 . The reform school was infamous for earmark the murders , intimate assault , and overall mistreatment of its African American scholarly person , although very small was done about it until the Florida Department of Law Enforcement finally start to investigate these claims in 2010 .
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While the characters of Elwood and Turner are fabricated , they are base on all kinds of tangible - life accounts of Dozier ’s victims . Within two years of begin its investigation , the res publica of Florida discovered 55 unmarked tomb , with them discover more as sentence move on . The abuses that Elwood and Turner suffer inNickel Boysparallels the real - life mistreatment that many hurt , with this being one of the main thematic purposes behind the motion picture .
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The Real Meaning Of Nickel Boys' Ending
It Highlights Things About The Past & Present
One of the main points ofNickel Boyswas to raise awareness about the horrors that African American students face at these boarding schools for decades , with this being something that is n’t babble about enough . Since these abuses did n’t begin to get properly inquire until decades after they happen , there is still very little coverage about them . fortuitously , Nickel Boysdoes not hold back from showing the repugnance of the school , pulling the misuse that the boarding school administrators allowed into the light .
On top of that , Nickel Boysalso attempts to show how traumatic events like this can stay on to affect mass well into their adult life . Although Elwood is much quondam in the plastic film ’s split second advancing scenes , he was forever altered by his time at Nickel , with him being a different person thanks to his name variety . While tragic , Nickel Boysis an crucial film that attempts to highlight important issues from our past times and how they have create a ripple result that go along to impact mass to this mean solar day .
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