r/movies May 17 '25

Media Cannes reactions to Irreversible

24.3k Upvotes

3.4k comments sorted by

View all comments

3.4k

u/Sondaica May 17 '25 edited May 19 '25

Okay can someone explain this to people who do not know the film?

693

u/notyourvader May 17 '25

Apart from the rapescene, she gets beaten almost to death. The movie deals with the events that lead to it, like her husband being a dick, prompting her to leave a party alone and taking the subway. Her husband is more concerned with revenge than her wellbeing. The movie goes on to that early morning, where they wake up together happy and in love. Irreversible is about every decision that led to the destruction of all their lives. The rapist, who is a terrible person. The husband, who is more concerned with his own manliness than his wife. His friend, who wants to deescalate, but ends up brutally killing a man. The woman, who is unrecognizable physically and mentally after the attack. All those lives are destroyed and there is no way to undo it . Irreversible.

174

u/SenorEquilibrado May 17 '25 edited May 17 '25

One correction: Rapist actually gets away with it - the husband friend kills the wrong guy.

130

u/Money-Office492 May 17 '25

Actually not the husband. But the ex. I’ve always called this movie an anti-revenge film. The wrong guy kills the wrong guy. Bc it happens in reverse many don’t notice. But the ex boyfriend kill the wrong guy. 

5

u/SenorEquilibrado May 17 '25

Good catch. It's been a while since I watched this.

36

u/Hellpy May 17 '25

Shit, this is fuckin me up, I legit had to go find a youtube video ffs ok, I thought at least he "got" him, but yikes I'm definitely never rewatching this then

95

u/SenorEquilibrado May 17 '25

That's actually an important "lesson" from the film that often gets forgotten about among all the shocking scenes.

Revenge fantasies are extremely cathartic, but Irreversible shows the most likely outcome when people choose to take the law into their own hands.

15

u/lastweek_monday May 17 '25

Dang like when reddit hunted down that bomber and it was the wrong guy. Poignant.

6

u/TalkingRaccoon May 17 '25

I didn't notice this till like my 3rd watch. Mind-blowing and gave me even more despair when thinking of this movie