Fountain of Youth’s ending was all about the team finding the titular and mythological spring, and drinking from it. Owen Carver, a billionaire who was dying of liver cancer, had hired Luke Purdue to find the water body that had the power to cure him. Luke’s late father had been a treasure-hunter. So, he got in touch with his old mates, Patrick Murphy and Deb McCall, and began stealing a variety of paintings which held the directions to the aforementioned pool. This caught the attention of Esme, a protector of ancient artifacts who worked for the Elder, and Interpol’s Jamal Abbas. But that didn’t stop Luke from roping in not just his estranged sister, Charlotte Purdue (who also happened to be a history expert), but her young son, Thomas, as well. Yeah, the addition of Thomas might seem sketchy, but it was his musical skills that helped Luke and the rest figure out that the Pyramids of Giza were where they needed to go to complete their mission. Reaching the location wasn’t exactly the hard part though, taking the leap of faith and actually drinking from the fountain of youth was. Did Owen Carver get what he wanted? Let’s find out.
Spoiler Alert
Owen Carver Probably Died
Way before Owen brought a little army along with him to Egypt, under the guise of protecting Luke’s friends and family while they searched for the fountain of youth, it was kinda obvious that the billionaire was bluffing. I mean, no one suffering from liver cancer can throw hands like John Wick. When he surrounded the pyramids with armed gunmen, so as to keep Abbas, Esme, and their respective teams at bay, desecrated the sacred tombs just to get to the spring, and kept downplaying Luke and Charlotte’s advice, it was clear his intentions weren’t particularly noble. And by the time he revealed that he didn’t actually have cancer and, as predicted by Charlotte, he probably intended to bottle the water from the fountain and sell it at sky-high prices, it wasn’t really all that surprising. What was interesting though, was that, after funding this whole journey and breaking and bending every rule known to mankind to defy the laws of nature, Owen didn’t have the courage to take the first sip of that all-powerful water. He wanted Luke to do it. When Luke hesitated, Owen shot him in the arm. Fearing that Owen would take aim at Charlotte and Thomas next, Luke stepped into the pool and, as soon as the blood from his wound touched the water, it healed him, protecting him for further injury (because Owen was carelessly shooting at him to check the water’s abilities), and also gave him the opportunity to attain eternal life. Luke rejected the offer and walked away.
Owen stepped in, and as soon as he swallowed the water, he briefly turned into his younger self, but then the life force was drained out of his body until there was nothing left. But did he actually die? Well, I don’t know for sure. The golden rule of entertainment is that, until and unless you see a dead body, you can’t say if that character is dead. Sure, we saw the fountain consuming Owen in a swirling tornado of water and electricity, but did we see his corpse? Nope. Because before Owen’s death could be confirmed, Esme had activated the pyramid’s lockdown mechanism, so as to keep the power of the fountain out of human hands, which prompted everyone to leave. If you are wondering whether or not Owen’s right-hand man, Praeger, is dead, I can confidently confirm that he is a goner. He is as dead as that guy who fell from the Titanic (in the movie; I don’t know if it happened in real life) and hit the propeller on his way to the ocean. Except in this case, there wasn’t any water body to break his fall; there was just the floor. Owen though? The jury is still out on that.
Luke Purdue’s Learning Lesson
The Elder pretty much gave us an explainer for what the fountain of youth does to the person who drinks from it. It’s kind of like the situation with the Holy Grail in Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade, where if you drink from the wrong cup, you’re going to die. Except, in this case, the extraction of life force came into play. Since Luke loved Charlotte and Thomas more than himself, if he drank from the fountain, then their “youth” would be transferred to him, thereby making him younger and killing both Charlotte and Thomas. Owen loved himself more than anybody else; so, he’d extract his power from himself until there was nothing left in his body and soul. I think the process also factored in how much power one wanted. As in, if the drinker desired immense power, then the extraction of life force would be immediate; whereas if they wanted just a bit of power, the extraction would be more gradual. Anyway, the bottomline was that, despite being tempted to end his family, Luke decided to not consume the water from the titular fountain. Owen succumbed to the fountain’s allure, which turned him into a ghoul, and that forced Esme to activate the tomb’s shutdown sequence and trap the fountain’s powers in the pyramid. But Luke making that choice wasn’t exactly a spur of the moment situation, it was something he was thinking about for a long time.
Now, the details about the Golden Mask of the sun god Inti, what Luke and Charlotte’s dad did with it, and what happened when Luke probably stole it are vague. Hence, I’m gonna speculate. Yes, Luke and Charlotte did accompany their dad to Ecuador to find that mask, but while Luke thought that he didn’t find it, Charlotte knew that he did find it, but he chose to not take it because the price he would’ve had to pay wouldn’t have been worth it. That ambiguity went on to define both Luke and Charlotte, with Charlotte understanding the importance of letting things be where they were and Luke feeling the exact opposite. Based on that, I think, when Luke grew up, he went back to Ecuador for the mask, and he did take it. However, that ended up costing him dearly. I’m not very sure if him taking that mask was the reason Luke and Charlotte’s dad died, or if we saw the mask draining the life force of someone who was with Luke when he stole it. I feel it’s the former, which is why he kept convincing himself that a relic that gave everyone infinite youth was of utmost importance; he wanted to undo the act of stealing someone’s life force to gain a precious mask. Maybe he discarded the mask later, but by then the damage was already done, and it’s been haunting him throughout the journey that we see in this movie. Therefore, when he realized he was about to repeat the same mistake he had made all those years ago, he chose otherwise, because eternal youth was not as fruitful as having your loved ones around you.
Sequel Theories
In Fountain of Youth’s ending, Luke, Charlotte, Thomas, Esme, and Abbas managed to make their way out of the pyramid. Meanwhile, Murphy and McCall survived the gunfight between Owen’s men, the Interpol, the Egyptian police, and the protectors of ancient artifacts who were working under Esme. Esme essentially told Luke that she was impressed by the latter’s ability to not be manipulated by something as powerful as the fountain, and said she’d be willing to recruit him into her team if Luke wanted to protect items of great value instead of stealing them. But if he tried to perform another heist, she’d have to kill him. I don’t think Esme wants to kill Luke. They have this “Will they, won’t they?” vibe going on, and if sequels to this movie are greenlit (which is highly doubtful), we’ll probably see Esme pursuing Luke wherever he goes until Luke either chooses to side with Esme or Esme becomes a part of Luke’s crew. I have a feeling that the Elder will turn out to be villainous. He’ll likely disallow the heroes from using some relic to avert the end of the world, and that’ll prompt Esme to see that the protectors’ dogmatic ways can be detrimental to humanity. That’s when she’ll switch sides and join hands with Luke, thereby paving the way for Esme and Luke’s love story.
Speaking of people who’ll probably join Luke on his adventures, I think Abbas is going to retire from his law enforcement duties and go treasure-hunting because that’s more exciting. At least that’s what I got from his decision to not arrest Luke right after the latter aided in the desecration of a sacred place. Maybe Abbas also saw the goodness in Luke’s heart and decided to give him a pass. Now, what’s in store for the Purdues, Murphy, and McCall? Well, it looks like Charlotte doesn’t want to be tied down to a job at a museum, and she wants to find lost artifacts with Luke. And there’s no way Luke is saying “no” to that prospect. Thomas seems to be excited by that because his first foray into the world of treasure-hunting has been a hoot, especially since he got to use his musical skills to unlock said treasure. However, I have a feeling that with Owen gone, Harold will make a return into Charlotte and Thomas’ lives, and create some complications. Who knows? Maybe he’s going to turn out to be one of the biggest antagonists of the franchise. With all that said, if the movie chooses not to go down the sequel route, and treat this as a standalone adventure, that’s fine by me as well. Anyway, those are my thoughts on the ending of Fountain of Youth. If you have any thoughts on the same, feel free to share them in the comments section below.
