# Pleasantville - didn't get the ending... (Unboxed Spoilers) **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [September 27, 2004, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pleasantville-didnt-get-the-ending-unboxed-spoilers/266307 "2004-09-27T15:11:14Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pleasantville-didnt-get-the-ending-unboxed-spoilers/266307/1 "2004-09-27T15:11:14Z")
I saw _Pleasantville_ for the first time the other day - it has been screened on UK terrestrial TV before and I’d been meaning to catch it for a while, but just missed it until now. I quite enjoyed it as a piece of entertainment and an allegory, but the very last scene left me puzzled - Betty is sitting on a park bench with George (who now appears to have come to terms with the changes in his life), the camera pans to Betty, then back and George is gone, replaced by Jeff. WTF is supposed to have happened there? did George walk away and Jeff sat down, or did George turn into Jeff, and if so, why? ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 3:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pleasantville-didnt-get-the-ending-unboxed-spoilers/266307/2 "2004-09-27T15:12:29Z")
Sorry, I mean _Bill_, not Jeff - Jeff Daniels is the actor’s IRL name. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 4:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pleasantville-didnt-get-the-ending-unboxed-spoilers/266307/3 "2004-09-27T16:05:19Z")
I think it was meant to show that nothing had been decided and that there was no right decision that could be made. When you leave the grey world of certainty, you get color, but you also get situations where there is no right choice possible. You have to put up with the pain if you want the color. ---
**Author:** ![Gamaliel](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b487fb/32.png) [@Gamaliel](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gamaliel)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 5:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pleasantville-didnt-get-the-ending-unboxed-spoilers/266307/4 "2004-09-27T17:55:31Z")
You are taking the scene too literally. It’s supposed to represent the choices these characters have to make and not a particular tag-team conversation. ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 27, 2004, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pleasantville-didnt-get-the-ending-unboxed-spoilers/266307/5 "2004-09-27T20:46:17Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > I think it was meant to show that nothing had been decided and that there was no right decision that could be made. When you leave the grey world of certainty, you get color, but you also get situations where there is no right choice possible. You have to put up with the pain if you want the color. I took it precisely the opposite way: something _had_ been decided. Betty is leaving George for Bill. It is the “right” decision: for Betty and Bill. The unfortunate side effect of Pleasantville now being a “real” world is that there are no longer any “right” decisions that are right for everybody. Sometimes the right decision hurts almost as much as the wrong one. And, like **Gamaliel** said, the scene isn’t to be taken as a literal chain of events, but as a symbolic wrapping up of those three character’s stories. If you’ve got the DVD, check out the extras: there’s a video for the song that plays over that scene, directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Great song, great video. ---
**Author:** ![Sir\_Prize](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d2c977/32.png) [@Sir\_Prize](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sir_Prize)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 1:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pleasantville-didnt-get-the-ending-unboxed-spoilers/266307/6 "2004-09-28T01:20:29Z")
I think George is still sitting there. In my memory, the camera pans right to George, back to Betty then left to Jeff. They are all still on the bench. I have seen that scene on two occasions. Did I get it totally wrong twice? ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [September 28, 2004, 7:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pleasantville-didnt-get-the-ending-unboxed-spoilers/266307/7 "2004-09-28T07:58:32Z")
> [@Sir Prize](#): > > I think George is still sitting there. In my memory, the camera pans right to George, back to Betty then left to Jeff. They are all still on the bench. > > I have seen that scene on two occasions. Did I get it totally wrong twice? Yep, you did. I didn’t want to rely on my memory for various pharmacological reasons, so I popped in the DVD. The scene starts with George and Betty sitting on a park bench. George is next to the armrest, and is in the center of the screen, Betty is to his left (screen right). The far right end of the bench isn’t visible. George asks, “So what’s going to happen now?” Betty replies, “I don’t know. Do you know what’s going to happen now?” Cut to a close up of George’s face, so neither Betty nor the bench is visible. He says, “No, I don’t,” with a laugh, and turns to look at Betty. The camera pans right to Betty, who is looking back at George and laughing with him. She looks toward the camera, then looks back to the left again. The camera pans back left, but instead of George, it’s Bill, who says “I guess I don’t, either.” Credits roll. ---
**Author:** ![anne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/ccd318/32.png) [@anne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anne)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pleasantville-didnt-get-the-ending-unboxed-spoilers/266307/8 "2026-10-27T16:06:29Z")
Just watched the movie and now replying to a 12-year-old thread. Apparently there are two different versions of ending. I did not get to watch your ending on Amazon Prime Video, but I saw the same ending as user Miller saw, which was more ambiguous than the ending with all three characters sitting on the bench simultaneously. I googled this confusing ending and found a reddit discussion where multiple users commented and confirmed the two different endings [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/moviequestions/comments/11oezn5/the_bench_scene_at_the_end_of_pleasantville_1998/) [Reddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/moviequestions/comments/11oezn5/the_bench_scene_at_the_end_of_pleasantville_1998/) ---
**Author:** ![Roderick\_Femm](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/roderick_femm/32/14875_2.png) [@Roderick\_Femm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Roderick_Femm)\ **Post date:** [October 27, 2026, 5:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/pleasantville-didnt-get-the-ending-unboxed-spoilers/266307/9 "2026-10-27T17:02:48Z")
Oh no, not that. It’s Big all over again.