Why The Teens Were Exploding

For a story about a horrific subject like teenagers exploding for no reason, Spontaneous ends on a cautiously optimistic note. Although it never answers any pressing questions, the dark comedy guides its heroine Mara (Katherine Langford) away from a terrifying situation that few of her friends escaped from. Based on the book of the same name by Aaron Starmer, Spontaneous‘s movie follows highschool seniors Mara and Dylan (Charlie Plummer). As their young love begins to blossom, a terrifying occurrence begins to take place: members of the senior class begin to spontaneously combust with absolutely no explanation at all.

Mara and Dylan have to fight to make it out of Spontaneous‘ ending alive in a situation that is completely out of their control. Despite the fact that Spontaneous‘s teenage characters are exploding around them, Dylan and Mara manage to fall in love. Tragically, near Spontaneous‘s ending, Dylan combusts right before Mara’s eyes. Mara spirals after Dylan’s sudden death and pushes her friends and family away. After a meaningful conversation with Dylan’s mom at the end of Spontaneous, however, Mara sets off after graduation to live the life that Dylan would have wanted for her.

Why Students Exploded In Spontaneous

The Cause Of The Spontaneous Combustions Is Never Revealed

In the Spontaneous movie, the phenomenon of the exploding students takes the nation by storm. One student explodes at the beginning of the Katherine Langford-led movie, and an increasing number of spontaneous combustions follow. Before Spontaneous ends, things get to the point that federal agents swarm the town and isolate the students in order to keep the rest of the school safe from a potentially contagious disease.

Despite the fact that agents believe they have found a solution to the problem, a domino effect of mass combustions takes place during Spontaneous‘s climax, further devastating the town. As stated in Mara’s monologue during Spontaneous‘s ending, the combustions stop just as suddenly as they started. Ultimately, no one ever figured out what caused Spontaneous‘ teens to explode in the horror-comedy film.

While the lack of answers at Spontaneous‘s end may make for a frustrating viewing experience, the truth of the matter is that the reason behind the combustions actually doesn’t matter. The Spontaneous movie explained that it’s more about the lesson learned from those random explosions than the arbitrary reason they happened. The book adaptation takes a drastic approach to the idea that tomorrow isn’t guaranteed, and underscores why it’s important to live with that concept in mind before it’s too late. The surviving students in Spontaneous‘ ending are sure to take that message with them after the events of the catastrophic film.

Spontaneous’ Snooze Button Explained

The Government’s Drug Wasn’t All That Effective

Once the combustions grow out of control ahead of Spontaneous‘ end, the authorities intervene in the hopes of saving the surviving students. Agent Rosetti (Vacation Friends actress Yvonne Orji) and the government quarantine the remaining students and begin drug trials to suppress the explosions. Students are subjected to a series of failed tests until one seems to finally do the trick. The drug is nicknamed “the Snooze Button” as it delays students from exploding.

Unfortunately, the first batch of Spontaneous‘ Snooze Button drug is defective and leads to about a dozen students exploding within a matter of minutes. Mara reveals in her final monologue that the government claims the drug is truly effective, but they just got the first batch manufactured. Since the explosions suddenly stop for no reason as Spontaneous ends, it’s hard to say whether it was the drug really did the trick. Yet that just reinforces Spontaneous‘s meaning of seizing the day. The Snooze Button may or may not have helped the remaining students survive after the popular horror movie’s ending, so they need to take Spontaneous‘ meaning to heart and continue to live each day like it’s their last.

What Happened To Mara And Dylan?

True Love Couldn’t Prevent Spontaneous Combustion

Both Mara and Dylan survived the initial round of explosions in Spontaneous, giving them the opportunity to fall deeper in love with one another. They confided in each other about their plans after high school and Dylan even told Mara he loved her, living up to Spontaneous‘ meaning to say what you feel before it’s too late. Sadly, Dylan soon became a victim in the final wave of spontaneous combustion before Spontaneous‘s ending.

As Dylan exploded right before Mara’s eyes, she was initially inconsolable, with her grief leaving her unable to leave her bed for days, and turn to alcohol as a coping mechanism. Mara essentially became a functioning addict before the end of Spontaneous, stealing alcohol in order to numb the pain. Making it worse is that the combustions became known as the “Covington Curse.” As Mara was the only person present for multiple explosions, she and her classmates became convinced she may have been the curse herself.

Still grieving Dylan’s death while under the assumption that she may have caused it, Mara’s pain only increased before having a major realization at Spontaneous‘ ending. Dylan’s sudden death reminded Mara that nearly all of her friends were gone, making her feel more alone than ever. Lost in her understandable grief and depression, Mara began to doubt her own life before being reminded of Spontaneous‘ meaning and the importance of living.

After running into Dylan’s mom (Star Trek: Discovery actress Chelah Horsdal) at his grave, the two had a meaningful conversation about how much they missed Dylan, which allowed Mara to recognize how grateful she was to be alive. Once Mara let herself feel everything she had been pushing down, she finally began to heal and better herself towards Spontaneous‘s ending. This realization put her on the path to climbing out of her despair and trying to live again, just as she had when Dylan was alive.

Differences Between The Spontaneous Book And Movie

Does The Spontaneous Novel Explain Why Characters Explode?

Spontaneous is based on a young adult book by Aaron Starmer, and the premise is exactly the same. When adapting a book into a movie, there are bound to be things that get lost in translation. It’s simply unavoidable to lose some character moments, change events, and even write out characters altogether to create a cohesive plot that’s fit for the screen. Like the movie, the Spontaneous novel also doesn’t provide a concrete explanation behind why students are randomly exploding — but a real explanation isn’t the point.

When it comes to the plot of the Spontaneous movie, it also sticks pretty close to the storyline that’s presented in the novel. All the major events chronicled in the Spontaneous book make it into the 2020 horror comedy. All the iconic moments from the book, from Katelyn Ogden exploding in calc to the government attempting to involve themselves in teenagers’ lives, make it to the big screen. Katherine Langford’s interpretation of Mara Carlyle is also spot on when it comes to her novel counterpart.

Various scenes had to be cut from the book to keep the film down to an hour and a half runtime. So, while no characters or major plot points are missing, there are still some elements that don’t make it in. For example, many of Mara’s sarcastic diatribes were cut for time, and the President of the United States reaches out to the students and tries to calm them down in the book. Ultimately, certain things needed excluding for time’s sake. However, all the important factors that made the Spontaneous novel enjoyable also made it into the movie.

How The Spontaneous Ending Was Received

Most Critics Felt The Finale Perfectly Cemented The Core Themes Of Spontaneous

2020’s Spontaneous was an undeniable hit with critics, even if it didn’t win over audiences quite as unanimously. The horror comedy currently sits with a near-perfect critical score of 96% on Rotten Tomatoes, compared with a much more middling 68% audience ranking. When it comes to the plot of Spontaneous, many critics specifically praised the fact that the movie didn’t reveal the cause of the sudden spontaneous combustions (which, conversley, was a mystery many general viewers would have rather had answered). Writing for rogerebert.com, critic Matt Zoller Seitz singles out the ambiguity as a key selling point:

To its credit, Duffield’s adaptation [of the Spontaneous novel] never diminishes the eeriness of its premise by giving you a tedious scientific or supernatural explanation for the exploding teens and a roadmap to help them solve the problem and reset life to “normal.” Something is very wrong here, and not only do the characters not know exactly what “it” is, they have to live in the not-knowing.

Matt Zoller Seitz’ review also goes on to praise the Spontanous ending too, highlighting how it helps to cement the movies general themes. Seitz, just like many other critics, sees the ending of Spontaneous as important because it reinforces that the emotional core isn’t what happened to Mara or the rest of the students, but how it affected the survivors:

The final 15 minutes are a knockout because they embrace the fact that yes, in fact, this all actually happened, and even though nobody can explain it yet, these kids are going to be living with the emotional aftermath for the rest of their lives, and the adults that were supposed to comfort them were helpless, too.

However, it should be noted that the praise from critics for Spontaneous wasn’t universal. There were several reviews that felt the 2020 horror comedy didn’t quite hit the mark. The ending of Spontaneous, however, didn’t tend to factor into these. Where the negative reviews from critics are concerned, the chief complaint was that the rom-com tone of Spontaneous outweighed its horror elements, subverting expectations in a way that wasn’t positive. Writing for Screen Waffle, reviewer BILLIE explains this perspective well:

For me, the idea of the premise outweighed the execution. If you’re going to make a film that deals with extreme and complex issues, why not make it more extreme and complex? The best horror comedies are the ones that strike the perfect balance, or they just become a watery version of neither one nor the other. Ultimately, [Spontaneous] does feel underdeveloped for a black comedy, horror-fantasy film, but perhaps as a coming-of-age, romantic comedy it might tick all the boxes.

The Real Meaning Of The Spontaneous Ending

The Final Moments Deliver A Message Of Optimism In The Face Of Tragedy

Once the combustions stop with no explanation at the end of Spontaneous, Mara decides to move on. She takes Dylan’s old car and hits the road, but what happens after Spontaneous‘s ending isn’t quite clear. Mara delivers a monologue that ultimately has a note of hope, declaring that after the tragic events at their school, her future is her own, even in her heartbreak. As Spontaneous ends, she imagines a life in which she can spend her days with her best friend, find success in a future career, falls in love, and get married.

Ultimately, Katherine Langford’s Mara made the active decision to be happy and optimistic about her future, while always keeping the memory of Dylan with her. She allowed herself to grieve the loss of Dylan, but by Spontaneous’s ending, realized she needs to continue to live life with the same optimism she had while he was still alive

The Spontaneous movie faithfully explained and portrayed its overall message: Mara’s realization of life’s preciousness, which is why she makes a point to reconcile with Tess (Altered Carbon‘s Hayley Law). And while the idea of living like there’s no tomorrow is a well-known concept, Spontaneous takes this idea to an extreme by presenting the real threat of teenagers’ lives cut unexpectedly short before they have even begun to truly live. The students who survived by Spontaneous‘ ending got to see firsthand just how precious life is.

Thematically, Spontaneous‘ meaning could also be seen as an allegorical story about the emotional intensity of the teenage years and how things like breakups can feel utterly devastating and life-ending during high school. Eventually, like Mara at Spontaneous‘s end, life moves on. It’s also important that there is no explanation at Spontaneous‘ ending for why some students were combusted and others survived.

The movie doesn’t explain the cause of the tragedy that befalls Mara and her classmates, which falls in line with Spontaneous‘s meaning: sometimes, awful things happen to good people and there’s no reason for it. The end of Spontaneous reminds viewers that one can either learn to accept the tragedies of life and work to move past them after grieving, or they can dwell in the past forever and allow tragedy to break them.

While Mara’s final monologue is a little too on the nose in overexplaining the pop culture references in Spontaneous, she still summarizes this idea quite succinctly. Spontaneous‘s ending encourages its audience to live every day as if they could literally spontaneously combust at any moment. Living with no wasted time opens up a world of possibilities, just as Mara sees for herself at the end of Spontaneous.

Spontaneous is a dark comedy film directed by Brian Duffield. Starring Katherine Langford and Charlie Plummer, the film centers on high school students who face an unexpected crisis when their classmates begin to spontaneously combust. As chaos ensues, the protagonists grapple with the fragility of life and the urgency of their feelings.

Director

Brian Duffield

Release Date

October 2, 2020

Cast

Payton Lepinski , Katherine Langford , Yvonne Orji , Chelah Horsdal , Dolores Drake , Kaitlyn Bernard , Charlie Plummer , Piper Perabo , Laine MacNeil , Rob Huebel , Hayley Law

Runtime

97 minutes