For the most part, Hurry Up Tomorrow felt like an extended music video that centers around a strange encounter that helped the popular singer Abel Tesfaye, aka The Weeknd, confront his past, from which he had been running for a long time. Throughout the film, Abel, who played a fictional version of himself, had been trying to forget his ex-lover after she broke up with him over voicemail. In her absence, Abel had been writing all these songs about emptiness, heartbreak, and separation, feelings he had been struggling with in his personal life. These conflicting emotions and recurring nightmares wouldn’t let Abel sleep at night. He had been feeling a kind of stress that caused MTD (muscle tension dysphonia), and it all started to affect his singing and the tour he was on, because of which Abel’s manager and best friend, Lee, got quite worried for his friend. And while Abel was dealing with so many issues, a stranger, Anima, entered his life, only to force him to finally be honest with himself so he would stop hurting himself and everyone around him. So what was it exactly? Why was Abel so afraid of any kind of attachment? Why wasn’t he able to sleep? Well, allow me to take a detailed look at Hurry Up Tomorrow’s ending and try to answer all these questions for you.
Spoiler Alert
Abel’s Father Abandoned Him
Hurry Up Tomorrow’s ending didn’t reveal much about Abel’s childhood, though it made it quite clear that his father had abandoned him and his mother when Abel was quite young. You might remember a scene in the middle of the film when Abel was in the bathtub and suddenly imagined a shadowy figure walking towards him with sounds of a woman screaming in the background. Later, a similar scene took place in Abel’s head after he was hit by Anima. In both these scenes, Abel heard and saw a woman screaming and howling as if she was being assaulted by someone. I guess these were Abel’s childhood memories, which suggested that his old man used to hit his mother. And a young Abel just sat there, witnessing the harrowing incident that scared him for life. In the voicemail that Abel’s ex-lover had left for him, she’d said that his mom would be ashamed if she knew how he treated her. The film didn’t reveal what exactly Abel did to her, but it could be possible that he either raised his hand to her or tormented her emotionally. He had always been so distant emotionally that he never cared about anyone else but him.
It’s possible that Abel feared that he would end up like his old man, which was why he had been so afraid of getting attached to someone. For him, it had always been a one-night thing, and he would leave the girl the very next day. However, for the first time in his life, he allowed someone to enter his life, but he broke her heart too. Maybe he had been consciously trying not to hurt them like his father hurt his mother, but unfortunately, he just ended up doing the same thing. I also believe that his lover’s departure just refreshed his memories of his father’s abandonment. I mean it was always there at the back of his mind, but this particular incident triggered those traumas again, from which he failed to escape because he was too afraid to confront his fears.
Abel Used To Forget Things
After Abel’s lover left him, he tried contacting her a million times. He even dropped her a voicemail in which he mentioned he didn’t remember what exactly he said to her. He further added that he had a problem and he was working on it. At first, I thought he might just be high or drunk, which was why he forgot what happened between them. But then he did the same thing with Anima. At night, after he ran away from his concert, he tried to find some comfort in the new girl. He even told her to never leave him, but then the next morning, it was he who was running away from her. So, what was it? Was it the drugs that made Abel forget things? Was he suffering from some kind of mental illness that meant he couldn’t remember the incidents of the previous night? Or was it his insomnia due to which he failed to register new memories? Maybe it was all intentional. He would get cozy with someone and make her the queen of his world when he felt lonely and then abandon her, just like his father abandoned him, so he didn’t have any strings attached with anyone. Well, the film didn’t explain, but it did look to me like bro either had serious mental health issues or was suffering from acute narcissism.
Anima Had Issues Of Her Own
Just like a million other things, the film didn’t bother explaining what the deal was with Anima. Why did she drive a hundred miles to attend The Weeknd’s concert and get obsessed with helping Abel after the lad broke down on stage? Well, I’ll try my best to connect the dots. So, Anima’s story was quite similar to Abel’s. I mean, she didn’t know that, but she had a hunch. Her father left her when she was a kid. She barely remembered him, just like Abel didn’t know what his father looked like, which could be the reason why he imagined a shadowy figure instead of his father’s actual face. Back to Anima, her mother had to raise her alone, but the family was broken, which means it wasn’t an easy run. Anima had decided at a very early age that she would leave the house and forge her own path, and she did; however, wherever she went, she couldn’t escape those childhood memories. She was tormented by those feelings of abandonment that made her lonely. You see, this was the same deal with Abel. I guess the reason why Anima burned her family house down at the beginning of Hurry Up Tomorrow was because she believed cutting the thread to her past would make her feel less burdened. And that’s exactly how she wanted to help Abel: help him to confront those traumas so he could finally overcome them and move on in life.
Anima Likely Changed Abel
During Hurry Up Tomorrow’s ending, Abel once again tried to run away from his responsibilities and the promises he had made, which was when Anima realized that there was something really wrong with this guy. Maybe he did the same thing with every girl, meaning it was time to teach him a lesson so he wouldn’t repeat it again. She knocked him out, tied him to the hotel bed, and played his previous hits. Anima could spot the recurring themes in Abel’s songs and just wanted to know the story behind the pain he had been trying to hide in his music. But before Abel could tell her, his manager, Lee, tracked down his cell phone and started knocking on the door. Anima couldn’t just let Lee take Abel away and ruin her therapy session, and therefore told him to go away, but he refused to back down and came crashing in. The two had a scuffle, and Anima ended up killing Lee. As soon as Abel saw his friend lying dead in front of his eyes, he realized that this horrible day wouldn’t be over until he told her the truth.
As Anima started pouring gasoline all over the room, Abel realized that it was his last day on Earth. I guess he had some childhood memory attached to fire as well, because in one of the dream sequences we saw young Abel sitting near a bonfire. Well, at the risk of repeating myself, the film didn’t explain this either. So whatever the case might be, as soon as Abel realized that his end was near, he finally found a way to express the things that he had been struggling with for a long time. He sang a song explaining how his father’s absence left a void that he has been trying to fill. Yes, that was it. Anima got what she wanted and therefore let Abel loose. He walked out of the room as Anima lit the fire and burned down the entire room to get rid of Lee’s body and all the other evidence. We didn’t see her leaving the room, though it could be safe to assume that she did, as she wasn’t as suicidal as Abel. Meanwhile, Abel walked out of the room and magically ended up backstage, implying that the show must go on. He had lost a friend, but the tour wouldn’t stop. He has to perform no matter what.
I think Hurry Up Tomorrow’s ending did establish that Abel was quite shaken by this harrowing incident. However, the main question that still stands tall is, did it change him? To be on the safer side, one could assume it did; otherwise what was the point of the whole movie? But will he report Anima to the authorities? Will he try to seek justice for Lee? Or will he just go back to his life as if nothing happened? Well, your guess is as good as mine, because for the last time, the film didn’t bother explaining any of it.
