While Adam Sandler is renowned for the rom-com genre (nothing will ever get better than The Wedding Singer tbh), he takes centre stage in a new Netflix sci-fi film, Spaceman. But what actually happens at the end, and is Hanuš real?
What happens in Spaceman on Netflix?
The official Netflix synopsis for Spaceman explains: “six months into a solitary research mission to the edge of the solar system, an astronaut, Jakub realises that the marriage he left behind might not be waiting for him when he returns to Earth. Desperate to fix things with his wife, Lenka, he is helped by a mysterious creature from the beginning of time he finds hiding in the bowels of his ship. Hanuš works with Jakub to make sense of what went wrong before it is too late.”
Adam Sandler plays fictional Czech astronaut Jakub Procházka while Carey Muligan plays his wife, Lenka. Hanuš is a giant spider who, although originally scared the astronaut, eventually has a lot of wisdom to impart.
The Spaceman ending explained – Do Jakub and Lenka get back together?
At the very end of the film, Jakub is discussing the fear he feels with the giant spider, who asks him if he can hear Lenka, while also suggesting he feels hope and wisdom for them. When the astronaut tells Hanuš that he can’t hear anything, the spider suggests he should listen to the silence, before Jakub thanks his companion for “everything.”
Hanuš then disintegrates into nothing, amid a vision of Jakub and Lenka reuniting back on Earth. She appears as a princess, wearing a crown and with red hair, before we see a picture of the pair (Jakub still in space, and Lenka on Earth), while they talk telepathically. In the final scene, Jakub calls Lenka and tells her, “If I had known then what I know now, I never would have left.”
Leka replies, “If I had known then what I know now, would I have kissed you?” when Jakub asks if she would have, she replies, “It was a really good kiss.”
Fans are hoping this means they’re going to give their marriage a proper go – though are definitely left with unanswered questions about what is actually real, and what’s a figment of the astronaut’s imagination.
Is Hanuš real?
Speaking to Radio Times director Johan Renck said there was no right or wrong answer about whether he was real. “Any art lies in the eye of the beholder… It’s always the beauty of guiding how much impressionism you’re allowing for.
“Because in one way in a film, you have to follow a path as a viewer, you know, you can’t get completely lost…. But at the same time, it’s all in the eye of the beholder… I’ve shown this film to friends, some people think that Hanuš is real, some people think that Hanuš is a figment of Jakub’s imagination and his inner monologue.”
Johan added that the Production Designer on the film thinks that Jakub is actually just sat at home in Prague, feeling depressed that his wife left him, and that it was all going on in his brain.
Ahh, the typical ‘It was all a dream’ conclusion.