‘Megalopolis’ ending explained: is Cesar’s utopian vision intact?

Francis Ford Coppola's controversial sci-fi epic is in cinemas now

Francis Ford Coppola’s epic fable Megalopolis is in cinemas now, but is Adam Driver’s character’s vision of utopia intact at the end of the film?

• READ MORE: ‘Megalopolis’ review: as mad and memorable as everyone is saying

The sci-fi drama was released in cinemas on Friday (September 27), and is set in an alternate present-day version of America, where Driver’s futuristic architect Cesar Catilina, who has the ability to pause time, is clashing with the conservative mayor of New Rome, Franklyn Cicero (Giancarlo Esposito).

The film also stars Aubrey Plaza, Shia LaBeouf, Jon Voight, Nathalie Emmanuel, Laurence Fishburne, Talia Shire and Jason Schwartzmann, and premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May.

Megalopolis has been a passion project for the director of The Godfather and Apocalypse Now since the early 1980s, but has continually been faced with financial challenges. With major studios hesitant to invest, Coppola eventually chose to fund the film himself, selling personal assets, including portions of his wine empire.

The project has been riddled with controversies, with an extra from the film saying she was left “in shock” after being kissed by Coppola on the set, and a trailer that included fake quotes from critics leading to a marketing consultant being fired.

It has also been met with mixed reviews, including a somewhat hostile reaction at Cannes. In NME’s two-star review of Megalopolis, Lou Thomas wrote: “The whole piece is so uneven, that at times it’s akin to watching a toddler being given free rein as an interior decorator. Just because you can, doesn’t mean you always should.”

Megalopolis ending explained: is Cesar’s utopian vision intact?

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The film’s protagonist Cesar Catilina believes he has a new bio-adaptive material, Megalon, which will change the world, and he wishes to use it to build ‘Megalopolis’, a utopian city of the future.

However, his vision is met with fierce opposition from Mayor Cicero, who smears Cesar by spreading information about the death of his wife and subsequent disappearance of her body.

As the film draws towards a close, protests have engulfed New Rome, fuelled by Clodio, Cesar’s embittered cousin. Clodio, however, is ultimately killed by the protesters, after being wounded by Crassus, the ultra-wealthy uncle of Cesar.

Cesar gives a passionate speech about the possibilities of a better future and wins the crowd over, and Crassus pledges to financially support the building of Cesar’s Megalopolis.

The film ends with a scene set in the already-built Megalopolis, where Cicero and Cesar appear to reconcile. Cesar and his wife Julia, on the stroke of New Year, pause time and all around them are frozen, except for their new daughter.

In this climactic moment, Cesar would seem to have delivered on the utopian vision that he had argued for. The corruption and greed that had plagued New Rome appear to have been resolved.

The amoral billionaire Crassus has even decided he needs to be seen as being a good man, despite having just killed his wife Wow Platinum. His apparent altruism, however, is plainly an act of self-preservation to protect his reputation.

The final moment offers a sense of hope, but also challenges the viewer to question what will happen next – will Cesar’s ego get out of control as the benevolent creator of Megalopolis? What is the significance of his daughter being unaffected by the pause in time?

The film offers a scathing reading of contemporary Western culture and the depravity of its ruling class, but also seems to offer the audience the possibility of hope, as if asking the viewer if they still have it in them to believe that things can in fact be better than they are.