【Kairaku Jigoku no Toriko (2019)】

This article contains spoilers for the ending of Sorry to Bother You

Sorry to Bother You is one of the wildest rides in theaters this summer. The Kairaku Jigoku no Toriko (2019)movie not only defies all genre convention, but seemingly reality itself.

Both an office-comedy about the soul-sucking nightmare of entry level desk jobs, anda reality-bending sci-fi horror depicting the uprising of a half-horse half-human hybrid species -- it is designed to make you ask questions.

And the final act of the movie introduces the most WTF elements of all.

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At a Q&A for a private screening in Los Angeles this past June, Mashable was able to ask the film's writer/director Boots Riley about the intentions behind its unpredictable twist ending.

During a discussion moderated by Kahliff Adams (of the Spawn on Me podcast), Riley explained how he wanted to show part of the human experience that media rarely represents authentically.

And certainly, "equisapiens" are something neither previously seen nor imagined by audiences.

But of course Riley views the equisapiens as a fantastical extension of a reality with far less representation on film than even genetically mutated animal monsters: The never-ending, cyclical struggle for your humanity in a capitalist system that only values you as labor.

"I needed Cassius [played by Lakeith Stanfield] to see himself," he said about his reasons for needing the equisapiens. The party thrown by WorryFree CEO Steve Lift (Armie Hammer) was meant to incite the protagonists' turning point from complicit cog and into a union rebel.

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The "rap performance," where Cassius simply repeats the N-word over and over again to a crowd of delighted white people, was a good start to this transformation. "But I knew I needed something more, something that shook him in a physical way."

So the equisapiens were born. Riley chose horses because of the cultural connotations, using the animals association with labor, domestication, and racism as a motif. "It's all over our language: 'strong as a horse,' 'working like a horse,'" he said. "Even 'hung like a horse.'"

Aside from the unusual content of Sorry to Bother You's climax, the ending also avoids traditional conventions of film structure too. While most movies aim to leave audiences with a clear, uncomplicated emotional conclusion, Sorry to Bother You does the opposite.

The film disorients viewers with a multitude of false endings. At first it seems all is well (mostly, except for the fact that exposing WorryFree only made its stocks go up). Having learned and grown, Cassuis returns to his roots to live happily with Tessa Thompson's Detroit.

That is until his face contorts horrifically, and he transforms into an equisapien himself.

Original image has been replaced. Credit: Mashable

But even that horror movie ending is subverted. Equisapien-Cassuis gets the last word by barging into his former boss' lavish mansion with a posse of fellow horse-humans seeking revenge. Like most of the film, the final scenes deliberately leave us unsure of how to feel, refusing to give viewers unambiguous answers to complicated issues. It's neither a wholly "happy" nor "sad" ending.

"I don't think you can be in this world and come out unscathed. But that doesn't mean it's the end. The fight is still going on," Riley said about the choice to turn Cassuis into an equisapien.

"Even when they say, OK we've won this strike and they're now a union, that doesn't mean that everything has been fixed. WorryFree is still there. But even before he turns into a horse, I hope that you get this feeling that the resolve is that he's fighting now," Riley said.

That's why Riley was sure to include that last beat where Cassuis is demanding justice. "He's an equisapien, but he's leading the fight. Which is, in a lot of ways, better than where he started."

Sorry To Bother Youis not a comedy for those who want unchallenging laughs, and its ending is not concerned with making you feel like everything's going to be OK. But it's also a film that refuses to let us lose hope -- or make excuses for not joining the fight for humanity, which is what's at the core of the equisapiens plight.

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