Final Fantasy-Can somebody tell me what the heck was going on? (1 Viewer)

[Stacy Huff]

I just watched it with my girlfriend and buddy, and none of us get it. What's the deal? What happened? Where'd the phantoms go?
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"Are you a pothead, Focker?"

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Thi Them could explain it better, but I'll try.
Some year (I think 2035 or around there) a large asteroid hit the Earth in the middle east. Soon after, people just started to die. There were whole cities destroyed in just a day because the phantoms were killing people by pulling out their souls. Humans developed technology to keep the phantoms away, or even damage them. This was used to construct barrier cities where the phantoms were kept out and humans kept in.
Dr. Sid developed that technology, called bioetherics. Aki is his pupil.
General Hein's family was killed during a phantom attack. He hates them and wants revenge.
Aki and Gray knew eachother in an Army academy. She went into sciene, he into the DeepEyes squad. During an experiment, she was touched by a Phantom. They brought her into zero G to implement the "barrier" around the phantom to keep it from infecting the rest of her. She never talked to Gray again.
Aki and Dr. Sid went around finding 'spirits,' lifeforms that contained a certain energy wave pattern, that when assembled with other wave patterns, would create and energy wave that would destroy the Phantoms because it works opposite of their energy waves.
One day, while finding a spirit, Aki was caught in a bad situation. The DeepEyes assisted her and brought her back to the New York barrier city. That was the opening scene.
Enough with the back story, lets get to the actual thing.
Aki and Gray talk, they go to Arizona to get a spirit, Aki passes out because of the Phantom inside of her, they return to NY, Gray helps her get out of it, the Phantoms attack the city, everyone dies, they go to the asteroid to get the last spirit, Hein attacks the asteroid, Aki and Gray are stranded on it, Aki has a dream and finds out that the last spirit is the phantom inside of her, uses it with the other 7 spirits to create the energy wave, Gray sacrifices himself to spread the wave into the Phantom Gaia (which was awakened because it was in the asteroid when Hein shot at it), and then the Phantoms just go away.
Aki's dreams were the Phantom's way of communicating to her what happened to its planet. The idea of a chance at rebuilding its world made the Phantom sort of "give in" and become the last spirit, I think. The last dream was Aki being shown that the spirit was inside of her.
The thing with Gaia shooting out was showing that the alien gaia was returning to where it was from.
Oh yeah, and Aki is pregnant, but they don't say that.

 

[Kenneth]

Interesting, I had interpreted the end as Earth's spirit (the Gaia) absorbed the alien spirit (and all the ghosts associated with it). I wouldn't think that the alien spirit would go home because there is no home for it to go back to. To me the blue flying out signified the Gaia returning to the Earth and restoring all the damage done by the alien spirit. Also, because the LASER cannon had hit the Gaia I think the unity of the two planet spirits was necessary to restore the Gaia to full health.
On another point. When the alien spirits captured or consumed the human spirits, did the human spirits return to Gaia or did they become part of the alien spirit?
Kenneth

 

[Morgan Jolley]

I think the human spirits were destroyed.
I had interpreted the ending as the phantom Gaia leaving the planet. If you think about it, a planet is created by a Gaia, so maybe the alien gaia left the planet to go recreate it's world and recreate the phantoms.

 

[Neil Joseph]

I think the alien gaya was transformed by the Earth's gaya much like a caterpillar transform into a butterfly. It's identity is changed.
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[Jeff Kleist]

In the documentary they talk about it. When something dies, it returns to space, and the star from which it was born, so that its energy can go elsewhere
Jeff Kleist

 

[derek]

I finally watched the flick on Friday and do remember the Dr. stating something to the effect of all spirits will (need to) eventually return to their planet/gaia (presumably after death.) This made sense in that is why the phantom spirits were in 'limbo' after they died because their planet/gaia was destroyed and they were doomed to wander space. Somehow the merging with the earth gaia enabled the phantom gaia to be restored and the spirits to find/float to their resting place in space.
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Derek
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[teapot2001]

In Aki's final dream, she is close to death as shown by the greyness (in reality, the phantom inside of her has grown large and will kill her soon). The phantom bursts out of her chest plate and attacks her with its tentacles. One of those tentacles accidently goes through Aki's womb, her child, and that is what turns the phantom inside of Aki into the 8th spirit (in reality, the phantom grows and comes into contact with the child). Then the 8 spirits wave is formed and it flows down into the ground towards the alien Gaia, and the result shows a restored planet for the aliens (and the humans).
The 8 spirits is what purified the alien Gaia and enabled it to move on with its cycle. Read my theory of the meaning of the 8 spirits in one of the old Final Fantasy threads to understand possibly how the 8 spirits works on the alien Gaia. They were going to transmit the wave to the alien Gaia through the vehicle but that got blown up by the Zeus. Then Grey feels the wave on his hand and knows that he can act as a conductor for the wave between Aki and the alien Gaia.
Now someone is probably wondering how I or some of us know Aki has a child. Well, I believe it happened during the kissing scene in the spaceship. The Final Fantasy games have been known to imply things with little clues.
1. Right before kissing scene, there is a shot of a full moon above the Earth. The full moon can symbolize fertility.
2. After Aki and Grey are kissing and float away from the camera, the camera remains for a few seconds on the stars, which can symoblize new life.
3. Dr. Sid says that the phantom must transform into the 8th spirit when it comes in contact with a new life from Gaia.
4. When Dr. Sid is alone in the ship and is looking at the displays, there is one display that shows a phantom coming into contact with a new life from Gaia. This looks similar to a sperm coming in contact with an egg.
5. After the final dream, Aki asks, "With the hope of new life, has Gaia changed the phantom within?"
Knowing that Aki is pregnant makes the scene when Grey questions how Aki got the 8th spirit quite funny. Most of all, it makes the ending more powerful and conveys the life cycle theme of the story. Aki has mostly shown her love for Grey by distancing herself from him and keeping things to herself. By not telling Grey about their child (like she did with the phantom infection), it is Aki's way of expressing her love for him. Grey sacrificies his body for Aki and the world. He dies but a part of him will still live on in that child.
~T

 

[Elbert Lee]

I could just tell from the trailer that the movie was just going to be eye candy. The most interesting line from the trailer was "fire in the hull!", as if that hasn't been done before. Cut it down to 10 minutes and it'll pass as a video game intro. My impression was that this movie was going to be stale and uniteresting so I decided to wait for the DVD - it turned out exactly like I thought.
I also have to say that I'm quite confused as to the entire Final Fantasy theme. I remember trying one of the video games a few years back and it was a Japan anime guy running around with a sword. Then it was pure sci fi with different characters. Maybe the next FF game will be in medeival times.

 

[Morgan Jolley]

Elbert-
The next game (FFX) takes place in a very non-medieval world. The next game after that is online, so its somewhat medieval, and the game after that is dark, but nobody is sure if that's medieval or not. Based on what you said, you aren't a fan of the games, so I reccommend you stay away from them. (I assume you were talking about FF7, which actually wasn't all sci-fi. FF8 was more sci-fi, but not 100%)
Thi hit everything right on the nose.
In an interview with Ming-Na, she said that Aki was pregnant in the original ending, but they decided to not say it directly, but rather hint at it and let the viewers figure it out.