Summary

• Flashback explores a world of past and future visions, leaving viewers questioning reality and multiple interpretations.
• Fred's journey navigates through memories, trauma, and alternate lives, ultimately finding resolution and appreciation.
• The film's complex structure blends past and present, highlighting themes of regret, growth, and understanding personal paths.

The Flashback movie explained a world where a person could see into the past and future, but the ending left many people confused. The film, written and directed by Christopher MacBride, stars Dylan O’Brien (The Maze Runner) as Fred Fitzell. After starting a new job and preparing to get married, a chance encounter with someone from his past causes Fred to Cindy Williams (Maika Monroe), an old classmate who vanished before final exams.

With his high school friends, he pieces together what happened to Cindy. Fred re the night when he, Cindy, and two other friends, took the pure version of Merc, a drug that allows s to escape reality and experience alternative lives. Things get more complicated when Fred finds Cindy living in the now-abandoned building where they ingested pure Merc, and the movie cuts between the past and present and possible futures. Its complex structure leaves it open to more than one reading.

The Real Timeline In Flashback Explained

What Is The Actual Order Of Events?

The main timeline in Flashback is the one viewers are presented with at the very beginning: Approaching the age of 30 and questioning his life choices while also reeling from his mother’s diagnosis, Dylan O'Brien's Fred begins to imagine what his life would be like if he went down a different path. There is a strong case to be made that the thriller unfolds in a largely linear fashion, with deviations occurring only when Fred is looking back at his past or experiencing the effects of Merc.

This is suggested early in the film, as the first flashback to Fred’s high school years happens when the character dozes off in his car and awakes, startled, sometime later. Another hint is given in a later scene. Fred is in bed with his fiancée Karen (Hannah Gross) and apologizes that his mind has wandered off. This serves as a clue that the prior scene, with Fred as a teenager, is simply the result of Fred being lost in his memories.

Perhaps the strongest evidence that s this reading occurs toward the end of MacBride’s feature. When asked to deliver an important presentation at work that he’s unprepared for, Fred rapidly loses his cool. He begins to yell at others in the room, having to be restrained by security. However, just as it looks like Fred will be forcibly thrown out of the meeting, the camera cuts to Fred at his desk. Although he’s late for the meeting, it hasn’t started yet.

Some of the scenes in Flashback are merely Fred’s imagination of how things could happen.

His boss, Evelyn (Amanda Brugel), looks at him, wondering why he’s just standing around. This is yet another indication that some of the scenes in Flashback are merely Fred’s imagination of how things could happen, rather than being a distinct timeline. It is worth noting the past Fred looks back on isn’t static. He replays moments from high school, changing them depending on his feelings. This could be Fred’s shifting perspective, rather than evidence of the younger Fred being the main protagonist.

The Invasive Life-Form Explained

What Was The Scarred Man Talking About?

The key component to understanding Flashback is when the teenage Fred ingests pure Merc for the first time and learns of its purpose. He is told about an "invasive life-form" by the Scarred Man (Connor Smith), who says to Fred:

“Numbers. Language. Color. Shape. All a misinterpretation of the information around you. A misinterpretation imposed on you by an invasive life-form that is trying to control your consciousness. The substance you ingested temporarily counteracts the influence of the invasive life-form that is trying to force you to perceive information in the same manner as itself: in a linear fashion. To perceive choices as having inescapable outcomes. Outcomes it has dictated to you, thereby controlling all of your choices and, in effect, eliminating them. It achieves this goal by influencing you to perceive the most elaborate of all misinterpretations. Time.”

Taken literally, this could point to simulation theory or even the existence of aliens that control humanity. But, in Flashback, the meaning is more personal: it points to Fred’s mother. From the opening scene, it’s teased that the main character experiences a traumatic incident during his childhood. It’s suggested that this incident prevented Fred from being more adventurous and following his true ions. Throughout the movie, it’s unclear what this incident is or what it signifies.

Fred thinks about the incident constantly, manifesting in a hazy but frightening image of an open mouth. The lack of clarity in the image might indicate Fred suppressed the memory, or that he doesn’t see it for what it is. The image haunts him all the same. Fred sees the open mouth and fragments of that childhood trauma in stressful situations. This includes when his boss confronts him or his teacher calls him out. He sees it when police follow him into the abandoned building where Cindy lives.

Fred sees it whenever other life forms try to control his choices rather than allowing him to create his path. For Fred, it all goes back to that foundational moment in his childhood, buried deep. Any time he’s confronted, whenever he feels restrained, he returns to it.

That open mouth, that frightening image he’s conjured in his mind, belongs to his mom.

Towards the end of Flashback, Fred visits his mother in the hospital. It comes into focus when he sees her moving her mouth and parting her lips. That open mouth, that frightening image he’s conjured in his mind, belongs to his mom. When he was a baby, Fred wandered off. It’s suggested he hurt himself by crawling away and falling. Fred re his mother yelling once she found him, scared that he could have been seriously injured.

The memory of his mother yelling stuck with Fred. It’s stopped him from living the life he might’ve wanted and taking chances. Or, as the Scarred Man might put it, it has limited his choices. For other characters, for other people, the invasive life-form could mean many things. In the case of Fred Fitzell, it hits close to home. That memory, and the anxiety that stems from it, is the invasive life form that constantly infiltrates his thoughts.

Flashback Ending Explained

What Does The Ending Mean?

After he imagines himself losing control in the boardroom, Fred skips his meeting to live with Cindy in the abandoned building. While it’s unclear how long he stays with her, the two ingest Merc together. Under the influence of the drug, Fred imagines he’s a skilled painter and lives with Cindy in a spacious home. In another, he’s exploring the desert with Cindy. Despite the ability of Merc to transport him into idealistic futures, Fred still feels the pull of his past.

This crystallizes when a random object breaks. It reminds Fred of when, as a child, he broke a small statue that meant a lot to his mother. He then goes to visit his mom in the hospital, which is when he recalls the traumatic memory of falling and his mother yelling at him. The memory proves overwhelming for Fred. He turns to leave but stops when his mother says his name. She recognizes him, she re who he is, which catches Fred off-guard.

Like much of what unfolds in Flashback, Fred doesn’t verbalize his feelings, as tears run down his face, as he holds his mother’s hand, it's a transformative moment of connection. Fred now understands his mother meant to protect him and wanted what was best. Rather than thinking of his mother yelling at him, or the times he rebelled against her and caused her pain, Fred thinks of happier memories - a montage of Fred’s mother, smiling and laughing. Fred’s perspective on their relationship changes.

In the aftermath of the breakthrough that Fred goes through, he realizes that he can’t continue to explore alternate lives with Cindy while under the influence of Merc. He returns to his job, and he gets back together with Karen. But he also finds a way to say goodbye to Cindy. Throughout the film, one key scene repeats itself in notably different ways. In the first iteration, in what’s likely the true version of what occurred, teenage Fred and Cindy glance at each other from across the hallway.

Though he wants to, Fred doesn’t say anything to her. In the second iteration, Fred approaches Cindy, and they excitedly run off together. In the final version, Fred looks at Cindy, exchanging knowing smiles. In his memories, Fred will always think of Cindy with gratitude. But he recognizes that he can’t follow her path any longer. It’s worth noting, again, that the second and third iterations of the scene are likely Fred altering his memories, depending on how he feels at the moment.

In Flashback’s final scene, Fred’s mother quietly es away while he’s visiting her. Viewers are treated to one final flashback, returning to Fred as a baby. In this memory, Fred contemplates wandering from his mother’s supervision. But she warns him against doing so. Fred crawls back into his mother’s arms in what is a joyful recollection. This juxtaposes, in the present, with Fred curling up in his mother’s arms. Fred has made peace with his past, replacing a traumatic memory with a more blissful one.

The Real Meaning of Flashback

What Flashback Really Means

Flashback's use of Mrs. Fitzell’s illness is a setup to explore many themes, primarily the feeling of being adrift and harboring regrets in adulthood. Fred begins the film dissatisfied with his life and questioning his choices. He wonders how he might’ve turned out if he pursued his high school crush. However, rather than tell a simple story of a young man who feels unhappy, Fred gets the chance to experience the alternative lives he could have lived with Cindy, as a painter and an explorer, thanks to the effects of Merc.

In the end, he decides to return to his own life. Flashback seems to posit that, while it's important to ruminate on the paths not taken, it doesn’t mean the current path is incorrect. Fred ends the movie in the same place he started it. He has a steady job and a loving romantic relationship. He’s just learned to appreciate those things more.

The film’s previous title leaves a hint. Originally titled The Education of Fredrick Fitzell, it could be said that "Education" relates to Fred learning from his past. Unfulfilled by painful childhood memories, he comes away with a better understanding of his present. The movie’s inciting incident, particularly the loss of a parent, speaks to a universal truth: Faced with difficult circumstances, it’s common for someone to grapple with their hopes and dreams and the complicated memories they’d rather not acknowledge.

This is essentially the journey Fred goes on. It is a journey similar to Donnie Darko and The Butterfly Effect, in which the protagonist experiences extraordinary circumstances that fundamentally alter their understanding. In this sense, Flashback is a continuation of a strong sci-fi subgenre. And just like those other titles in the subgenre, it should continue to inspire multiple interpretations.