Brick’s ending was all about Tim and Liv using the app originally designed by Anton to break through the nanotech wall that had seemingly wrap itself around the entire building and living to tell the tale. Tim and Liv had had a tumultuous marriage, and Liv had planned to leave Tim in the dead of night and restart her life. When the two woke up, they found that the doors and windows of the apartment building they were in were barricaded by an impenetrable wall. Since the walls and floors between the flats could be cut or hammered through, the couple got in touch with Marvin, Ana, Yuri, Lea, and Oswalt. And while all of them brainstormed a way to crack the code of this weird trap they were in, Yuri seemed to be against the concept of going out since he believed that those walls were protecting them from something catastrophic that had happened outside. In fact, he was the one who had killed Anton for trying to bring down those walls, later killing Lea for trying to do the same, and he was ready to kill the rest if the need arose. So, the surviving members—Oswalt died in a freak accident—tied down Yuri and began working on their escape. Did they succeed? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
What Was The Purpose Of The Wall?
Brick wasn’t heavy on world-building, as it focused more on what the wall was doing to the people that were trapped by it instead of explaining why it existed in the first place. So, my analysis of said wall will be based on whatever was revealed over the course of the film. Okay, we learned that Anton was a senior programmer at a company called Epsilon Nanodefense. This company was located at HafenCity in Hamburg, Germany. We saw that a fire had broken out in HafenCity, and, as per the news reports we heard during the concluding moments of the film, it was being alleged that that incident was what had caused the nanotech to activate and engulf every single building in Hamburg. The authorities hadn’t revealed whether the fire was the result of an accident or if it was caused intentionally, but there was a good chance that the fire probably caused the servers that handled the nanotech to malfunction and activate even though that wasn’t what its creators wanted it to do. Yuri, a conspiracy theorist, was of the opinion that Germany had been attacked by something or someone, and the nanotech was protecting its people from whatever was going on outside. Hence, he was against the notion of breaking out of the building.
The wall had robbed the inhabitants of the ability to connect with the internet or watch the news on cable TV. That’s why nobody actually knew if Germany was in the middle of a war. Still, people like Yuri were okay with this aggressive form of techno-fascism, which had turned every household into a prison. The constant information war and paranoia caused by mainstream media and “deep state” experts on social media had rotted Yuri’s mind to such an extent that he was unable to question why a private company, probably with the help of the government, was allowed to install such a technology without the people’s consent. Yuri just accepted that this should be their life now. The inhabitants of the building didn’t have access to water, food, or any form of communication. But the notion that people smarter than the common folk are doing what they are doing for the betterment of mankind, and not because they have ulterior motives, prevented Yuri from seeing that this “advanced defense system” would eventually kill them via dehydration and starvation if it wasn’t breached. Well, thankfully, Tim and Liv weren’t as idiotic as Yuri, and they dared to use the tools they had to see the truth of the matter.
Did Tim and Liv Break the Wall?
Okay, here’s a headcount. Friedman, the manager of the apartment, got his hands cut off when the nanotech wall went up, and he bled to death. He was a pervert, though—so, that served him right—as he had installed hidden cameras in everyone’s houses. That allowed the inhabitants of the building to see that Yuri had killed Anton for trying to break the wall. Oswalt died when Marvin shot at the wall and the bullets ricocheted. Lea was killed by Yuri after she figured out he had killed Anton. By then, Tim, Liv, Marvin, and Ana had figured out that the wall could be opened because Anton had done so. They tied up Yuri because he was a threat and analyzed the CCTV footage of Anton creating an app that treated the bricks on the wall like a combination lock whose “buttons” could be pressed via the flash on the back of one’s phone. Since Tim was a gamer and knew how to code, he was able to recreate Anton’s app. However, their first try was a colossal failure, as it killed Ana. Since Yuri was laughing in an “I told you so” way, Marvin shot him in the chest and then killed himself because he was unable to live with the loss of his girlfriend. That left Tim and Liv to fight for survival on their own. Now, the almost-separated couple had been through a lot even before the wall went up. Liv had suffered a miscarriage, and instead of processing it together, Tim had put up a metaphorical wall around himself. He thought that, by doing so, he was not only protecting Liv from the myriad emotions that he was feeling, but he was also protecting himself from the pain of the death of their first child.
Despite that, Liv had tried to rekindle their relationship, but Tim never allowed her to succeed, which was why Liv had decided to leave him and start a new life. If the wall hadn’t gone up, that’s what she would’ve done. I don’t want to say that the forced confinement came as a blessing in disguise because it allowed Tim to see his faults and it motivated Liv to give Tim another chance, but that’s essentially what happened. So, bringing down the nanotech wall sort of served as a metaphor for the couple breaking the barrier that they had created between them because of an incident that was beyond their control. That said, while they tried to breach the nanotech wall, Yuri came back from the dead—maybe because the bullet had missed all the vital organs—and tried to kill Tim and Liv. Thankfully, Liv knocked him out (I don’t think Yuri’s dead), and the couple finally escaped the apartment. Before all this went down, Liv had proposed the idea of using their old caravan to drive all the way to Paris and just, you know, enjoying life. Since this whole ordeal had taught them, especially Tim, to prioritize family over work, they seemingly chose to carry out that original plan at the end of Brick instead of figuring out why Hamburg was covered in nanotech bricks and how it could be reversed, because they would get nothing out of that. Making up for the time they’d lost would be more fruitful for them.
What Do We Need To Know About The Wall?
In Brick’s ending, an emergency news broadcast revealed that the fire that was mentioned at the beginning of the film took place inside the Epsilon Nanodefense facility. The fire had apparently activated the nanotech-based defense system, causing it to spread all across Hamburg overnight, locking everyone inside their buildings. It was unclear if the fire was due to an accident or if someone had tried to sabotage the secret project. Beyond that, we learned nothing about Epsilon Nanodefense or what they aimed to do with that “secret defense system.” While Philip Koch has brought the affairs of this movie to a close in a pretty conclusive way, it won’t be a stretch to say that he has also left the proverbial door ajar enough for future installments. For starters, Epsilon is a massive question mark. Why were they making this nanotech defense in the first place? How did they develop this kind of technology? Was it a metaphor for the COVID-19 pandemic? Was it made with the intention of protecting people? Protection from what? Or were the CEO of Epsilon and the government merely using the excuse of a potential war to turn every building into a prison? Because that’s what people in power ultimately want: power over the people. They want to subjugate just because they can. They want to stifle voices because opinions are a megalomaniac’s biggest enemy. I believe that’s the case because of how the movie uses a housefly (it seemed like a regular fly, not a mini spy drone, right?) as a recurring motif.
You see, during the opening moments of the movie, Tim imprisoned a fly because it was an annoyance to him. When he tried to set it free, it flew back in just probably because it was being forced to go away. Eventually, when the time was right, it took to the skies. So, in this case, I suppose the fly represents regular human beings who want to move freely, while Tim is a stand-in for the oppressors who want people to act according to their whims. I know it’s a flimsy metaphor for subjugation, but something about it makes me think that Epsilon created this “secret defense system” because they were being paid by the government to undo whatever progress the country had made since 1945. Those in power weren’t okay with the way free speech was being exercised, and hence, they created a fusion of fascism and nanotech. However, Tim and Liv’s journey is proof that until and unless people have the will to live, nothing can stop them from attaining freedom. As for the act of triggering the nanotech, there’s a pretty good chance that an employee at Epsilon might’ve figured out the true purpose of the wall. They probably tried to destroy it and ended up activating it. Or maybe activating it was the point, and this whistleblower wanted to show the world the inhuman project that Epsilon was working on. Also, the activation of the nanotech wall could’ve been done on purpose to iron out its kinks. In the grand scheme of things, a few casualties don’t matter to Epsilon or the government as long as they can learn that food and water will be an issue if this “secret defense system” is activated. So, maybe this was just a trial run, and once the hysteria around the incident dies down and all the people who didn’t get to make it out alive (like Liv and Tim) are brushed under the rug, Epsilon will go back to working on a wall that can’t be broken like the one from 1989.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts on the ending of Brick. What are your opinions on the same? Feel free to share them in the comments section below.
