The red band trailer for Spike Lee’s Oldboy remake has been released and like the original it’s filled with sex and violence but will it also have the infamous twist ending?
SPOILERS:
In the original Korean version (based on a Japanese comic), a kidnapped man is released after years of imprisonment. He unknowingly falls in love with his daughter, then hypnotizes himself to forget so he can continue their incestuous relationship unburden by the knowledge.
At first glance, the Hollywood version does not seem to keep this twist. Billionaire Adrian Pryce (Sharlto Copley) kidnaps Joe Doucett (Josh Brolin) but allows him to watch TV. He sees a new report that he is a suspect in wife’s murder. The kidnapper also torments him with home movies of his daughter growing up during his captivity. She eventually takes his place and will die unless Joe can solve the mystery of why he was kidnapped and released.
The father and daughter seem to have little direct interaction in this version and since he knows what she looks like he probably won’t knowingly engage in incest with his daughter. However, Joe does develop a relationship with a mysterious girl named Marie (Elizabeth Olsen), who just so happens to be his daughter’s age. It’s a pretty good bet Marie is his daughter and the other girl an imposter.
Producer Roy Lee told Screen Rant the conclusion will actually be “a bit darker.”
Possible darker endings:
What if Marie knows Joe is her father? And the only way to get him released was get him to fall in love with her. Or she’s really in love with kidnapper and working with him because she believes her father killed her mother.
What if rather than voluntarily choosing to forget one of them forcibly erases the other one’s memory rather than lose them. Or maybe no one’s memory is erased and they stay together anyway.