Strange World Ending Explained: What is Pando? What Do The Characters Of The Three Clades Mean?
Strange World, directed by Don Hall and Qui Nguyen (also a screenwriter), is Disney animation to the nth degree: action, fun, and good feelings. The story of three generations and at the same time the exploration of a strange and mysterious world, the film recovers glorious narrative traditions that have been culpably neglected by the cinema of recent years and mix them with an audience of very modern themes and messages, in full harmony with the current times.
A film with a hybrid character, it is therefore worth stopping for a moment to try and reflect on what, exactly, Strange World is trying to tell us, how and why. The film, every self-respecting Disney proposal, at least in recent years, moves in this direction, and uses the story of the protagonists, here are the Clades, a legendary family of explorers, as a starting point for a series of broader reflections. This time the attention is focused on the man-nature relationship, but not only. To better understand the philosophy and the thematic system of Strange World, here is a brief reasoned guide on the ending of the film and, possibly, on its meaning. Enjoy the reading. The article contains a lot of spoilers. You are strongly advised to read it only after watching the film.
Strange World Ending Explained: What is Pando? What Do the Characters of The Three Clades Mean?
It has already been said that Strange World puts three generations of Clade at the center of the story. One thing that can be added is that each of the three protagonists acts as a “spokesperson” for their respective generation, representing it in its characteristic features and summarizing its vision of the world. In strict order of age:
Jaeger Clade: in the original version the voice is by Dennis Quaid, Jaeger is the classic hero of yesteryear, macho and in one piece, with twentieth-century morals, and physicality to the core. His lust for exploration clashes with the relative duties of father and husband. This troubles him, but it doesn’t stop him from going on his way.
Searcher Clade: Jake Gyllenhaal in the original, Like any son of a famous and absent father, Searcher rejects the cumbersome paternal inheritance and tries to distance himself from it in every way. A man of science, he prefers brains to muscles, his calmness is a slap in the face to his father’s vitalistic exuberance. But underneath he never stopped wanting to be like Jaeger. The searcher is the poised and mature hero, the product of a renewed turn-of-the-century sensibility. Ambition, but with a sense of proportion.
Ethan Clade: In the original Jaboukie Young-White, Ethan is the youngest of the Clade and represents a small, big revolution. His sexual orientation, by Disney’s narrative standard, is big news. Ethan is the ghost of Christmas future, the first incarnation of a new kind of heroism and the reflection of a more mature man-nature bond. However, this will be seen later.
Searcher and Jaeger are separated when the former is just a child. While trying to cross a mountain during an exploratory mission, Searcher discovers a mysterious plant called Pando, who’s most amazing property is the ability to emanate energy. The boy is convinced that he has made a sensational discovery that will forever change the life of Avalonia, the strange country from which the Clades come. Jaeger disagrees. He has no particular interest in vegetables and does not recognize any value in his son’s discovery; his only goal is to move forward. The searcher doesn’t fit, the two separate. Jaeger disappears into thin air.
Years go by, and Searcher has grown up. His life as a scientist and a farmer, and the exploitation of the energy properties of the Pando have made Avalonia a wonderful utopia. The searcher is married to Meridian (Lucy Campeti) and has one son, Ethan. The idyll ends, at least apparently, on the day when Callisto Mal knocks on the door of the house (Valentina Stredini). Callisto is the president of Avalonia, and she needs Searcher because there is a big problem: Pando is losing energy, and nobody understands why. Traveling deep into the earth’s bowels is necessary to understand the reason for the malfunction and solve the problem. The root of each Pando plant comes from a large spring located at the heart of the earth. An odyssey into the unknown topped off with three surprises. They are to be told in order of importance.
The first surprise is that Jaeger is still alive. Ethan and Searcher find him in the underworld where he has been trapped for years, his attempt to pass the mountain having failed; crossing it meant putting the mountain belt that separates Avalonia from the rest of the world behind you and finally discovering what lies ahead. After the initial embarrassment, the three Clade join forces and arrive at the center, or better to say, at the heart, of the earth, where the great root of the Pando is found, wrapped around the heart as if it were an enormous artery. Mysterious creatures attack the root and try to sweep it away. The men respond by fighting the creatures, convinced that saving the Pando is the priority and, above all, the right thing to do. They are very wrong, and the film’s ending explains why.
This is the second surprise kept in store by Strange World and it is decisive for the understanding of many things. It assumes the contours of a radical adjustment of perspective on the film and in the sense of the efforts of the characters. The three Clades challenge the unknown to save Pando to discover that the latter, ultimately, is the real big problem. Tight around the big heart, suffocating, the plant consumes and degrades it. The price of Avalonia’s energy independence is the death of the organ, emptied of content. And if the heart stops beating, the conditions for life itself are lost. The mysterious creatures that attack the plant are not enemies, but antibodies. They fight to preserve the integrity of the heart from annihilation. The earth is a living thing.
Literally and this is the third surprise of the film. An accidental but invaluable discovery. Jaeger and Searcher find their way over the mountains. They come face to face with a boundless ocean. Behind them…a gigantic eye. What the Clade has always believed to be a land like any other, was the back of a huge living creature, a gigantic turtle, to be more precise, a suggestion recovered by the makers of Strange World by rummaging in the mythological repertoire of ancient civilizations. The underworld, the inside of the animal. As the film’s ending reveals, cutting the Pando is the only reasonable choice for the protagonists. Life on earth is possible only in full compliance with the laws of nature.
The ending of Strange World gives the protagonists a new and more just way of being in the world. Jaeger is a born leader and his desire to go further is admirable, yet there is something toxic about his masculinity. Going home means recognizing yourself as an imperfect father and (ex) husband and making amends for your many mistakes. The searcher is the living embodiment of science at the service of man. But also, the reflection of the risks of reckless energy use. To save the world he will have to tear apart his legacy, the Pando. Ethan understands better than anyone that life is about adjusting.
It is necessary to know how to make compromises: the various generations must accept each other, and man must learn to live with nature, not dominate it. The aim of the game, Ethan explains to his father and grandfather in one of the most intense moments of the film (the photo above), is not to kill each other, always looking for an enemy to beat. But it is living together and about others. Ethan’s world at the end of the film is less advanced than when Pando was. Having to do without a certain type of energy (fossil fuels) changes the scenario. But, this is the moral of the film, building a new relationship with nature, balanced and sustainable, Avalonia (us) manages to do it again and move towards a better future.
