Explaining the Existential Ending of "Barbie

[I'm sure I'm not the only one who has been eagerly following Margot Robbie's looks on her press tour or rewatching clips from "I'm Just Ken." Directed by Greta Gerwig and produced by and starring Robbie as the titular doll, this summer's biggest blockbuster is the first live-action Barbie movie, bringing this cultural icon to life along with its stacked history and endless contradictions. It's also a hilarious romp that includes full-body comedy and even a custom-made musical number, all in a cute pink package that's sure to please even the most skeptical of Barbie kids.

But back to the plot, a lot happens in this film. Gerwig examines a variety of themes, from the social pressures that all women face to the intergenerational love between mothers and daughters, and packs enough content to upset audiences even before they reach the conclusion of Barbie's existential crisis. Below is a breakdown of the situation everyone finds themselves in at the end of "Barbie" and the life-changing decisions made by the titular doll.

After Barbie and her friends succeed in wresting control of Barbie Land back from the Kens, regaining the government while the men go to battle, and later reconciling in a musical brawl, the women decide that Barbie Land needs to be changed. Fantasyland may be a feminist utopia, but the "extra" Kens are left as second-class citizens, while the Barbies get all the political power, glory, and dream homes. (In fact, the main character Ken's (Ryan Gosling) actions are born out of surprise at a world where he can have a purpose, rather than just waiting for the stereotypical Barbie (Robbie) to notice him.

So the new Barbie Land after Kendome will be different. President Barbie (Issa Rae) will set things in motion so that the Kens can have a more important role in society. (The Kens can't get into the Supreme Court, but a district court judge is a start.) Other than the main duo, the Kens and Barbie seem happy in the aftermath. Barbie takes time to comfort Ken, who is clearly distressed, even though he is dealing with serious emotions of his own.

See, Ken really didn't want to be in charge of everything. When he discovers that the horse doesn't play as big a role in the patriarchy as he thought it did, he admits that the job is hard and he has lost his shine. But without his help, he risks falling back to where he started, in Barbie's shadow. Even if Ken has been the literal worst for most of the film, there are even great moments when Gloria reminds Barbie of all his sins, such as turning Barbie's Dream House into a mojo dojo whatever it is. She politely shuts down the possibility of them ending up together and tells him that he is his own person, in a sweet remix of the character poster's "He's just Ken" catchphrase.

Ken and Barbie's final conversation essentially concludes Ken's story, but Ken is left with a sartorial signal that they can work things out down the road. When he says goodbye to Barbie in the final scene in Barbie-land, Ken has replaced his sarcastic fur coat with a tie-dye hoodie printed with a comforting message: "I'm Keno."

Now comes the central dilemma of the film. Barbie goes to the real world in search of a girl who is playing with a pair of dolls of her own. The connection to the mysterious girl's troubles is a key factor in the film, as it gives the stereotypical Barbie imperfect features such as cellulite and uncontrollable thoughts of death. She initially thinks her partner is Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt), an unsympathetic teenager. Sasha makes Barbie realize the historical influence of dolls and how their unrealistic standards have had a negative impact on girls' self-esteem. However, it turns out that Barbie's tether is Sasha's mother Gloria (America Ferrera), and she grew up playing with this doll. Saddened that Sasha had become a moody middle-schooler, Gloria rescued Sasha's childhood doll from the Goodwill pile and worked at Mattel, drawing concepts like "helpless dead thoughts Barbie" in her spare time.

Gloria eagerly takes on the role of Barbie's getaway driver and guide to human emotions, and Sasha soon becomes discouraged. But as mother and daughter spend time in Barbie-land, they begin to understand each other. Sasha sees the positive side of Barbie's feminism, and Gloria admits that times have changed from the hours spent playing with Barbie as a child. (A fun Easter egg: in a montage showing how the weird Barbie became weird, we see "Gloria" written on the wall of a little girl playing furiously with a doll.) Gloria and Sasha bonded while helping to reclaim Barbie-land, and their newfound closeness at the end of the film was one of my favorite arc conclusions.

Gloria also gets to leave her mark on the real world Barbies. While the Barbies tell the CEO of Mattel that Barbie Land needs to change, Gloria pitches the regular Barbies on the principle that people should be free to grow up with their own goals without being told to live up to some universal standard, even though the CEO initially said no, When an executive (Jamie Demetrio of Fleabag) confirmed that the doll would generate a lot of money, he quickly approved. It's a nice ending to the film that subverts the classic "Barbie" standard, especially since we don't see the regular Barbie actually hitting store shelves or arriving in Barbie Land.

After the Kenses get equal rights and the CEO of Mattel is relieved, Sasha asks, "What happens to Barbie?"

he calls out. (It's not a perfect landing moment, and the film solidifies my stance that Ken's appearance could have been cut by about five minutes.) Barbie is still perplexed. The new Barbie-land sounds great, but she no longer feels she fits into the world. She has been irrevocably changed by the knowledge of the real world and real emotions. She is no longer the stereotypical Barbie, but she doesn't feel like a normal Barbie either. So, in a very Wizard of Oz moment, the Barbie look-alike Glinda appears: Ruth Handler (played by Lea Perlman).

The ghost of Barbie's creator, encountered when the doll escapes from the Mattel building, brings her creation into a blank heavenly void. Barbie confides to her literal creator her worries about where she is going and admits that she is no longer Barbie. She is no longer a blank slate of feminine perfection, and her definition of beauty has evolved. She grapples with the concepts of aging and death and finds both an all-encompassing horror and a beauty within. (This was demonstrated in a brilliant scene between Barbie and an elderly woman sitting on a bench, played by Oscar-winning costume designer Anne Ross.) Barbie tells Ruth that she wants to evolve, and Ruth asks if she wants to take on everything that comes with being human. It would be easier to return to Barbie-land, where she could live forever as an idea. But Barbie no longer wants to exist as an idea; it wants to live as a human being. [8] [9] The ability to access humanity turns out to already reside in Barbie (again, The Wizard of Oz). Ruth tells her to feel, and we see a montage of girls and women of several ages, made with actual footage Gerwig gathered from Robbie and the film's cast and crew). As the transformation ends, the film flashes to Barbie sitting in the backseat of a car, wearing a more subtle ensemble (tan blazer, jeans, bubblegum pink Birkenstocks). She is accompanied by Gloria, Sasha, and Gloria's duo apple-loving husband, who wish her good luck before heading to the Century City skyscraper. It looks like Barbie is ready for a job interview, but that's before she arrives at the reception desk and announces, "I'm here to see a gynecologist."

"Barbie" ends with a laugh-out-loud subversion in which the characters we are conditioned to see as badass career women (think of the impressive work Barbie and her friends do throughout the film) instead dive into learning about their newly acquired sexual organs. The film concludes. This is the perfect moment for Barbie to take her first steps as a woman, concluding a film about what it means to be a woman and the empowering experience of deciding what kind of woman (or man) you want to be, even if you have always been defined as something else. This is Gerwig's vision of Barbie's legacy, a delightful conclusion to an engrossing film.

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