Mulholland Drive: Ending Explained

We explain the ending of one of the most confusing movies of all time — David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive (2001). Starring Naomi Watts and Laura Harring, the film features two Lynch-ian trademarks: the truth-revealing dream and the dark side of the everyday. As it turns out, dreams can be more important to us than reality.

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00:01
It was all a dream.
00:03
That’s the explanation we get in the last half hour of David Lynch’s Mulholland Drive,
00:09
revealing that the adventures of Hollywood newcomer Betty and mysterious amnesiac Rita
00:13
in the first two hours have all been the product of a washed-up actress’ imagination.
00:17
“I just came here from Deep River, Ontario, and now I’m in this dream place.”
00:25
Betty is really Diane Selwyn, a depressed failed performer and jilted lover.
00:30
In her dreams, Diane is processing her career disappointments and her choice to order a
00:34
hit on her former lover Camilla, the Rita-character, who left her for a director named Adam.
00:40
“Here’s to love!”
00:42
When Diane wakes up from her dream, she receives a key as a message that the hit has been completed.
00:47
And she finally commits suicide in a disturbed, psychotic state, unable to tell her dream
00:51
from her reality.
00:53
Initially commissioned as a TV pilot for ABC, the film is a showcase for two Lynch-ian trademarks:
00:59
strange dreams that hold the answers to our questions, and characters who discover the
01:03
dark side of the everyday.
01:06
Everything turning out to be a dream may sound too simple for this film, but it works so
01:09
well because the dream is a deeper, more revealing mirror of Diane as a person than her waking
01:15
life is.
01:16
It’s also pretty impressive that the fraction of the film that takes place in reality reveals
01:20
the origins of almost every symbol or other element of the dream.
01:25
So the ending of the film drives home Lynch’s message that dreams can be more vital in our
01:29
lives than the realities that have disappointed us.
01:32
It’s easy to miss, but one of the first scenes in the film seems to show Diane’s
01:37
head hitting the pillow, beginning the dream.
01:40
Later, once we catch a glimpse of Diane’s real life, it becomes clear that her dream
01:44
has been shaped by her preoccupations, fears, and desires.
01:48
The name “Betty” is taken from a waitress’ name tag at the diner where Diane orders the
01:52
hit.
01:53
The elderly couple who befriend Betty on the plane to Los Angeles may be her parents or
01:57
the judges of the jitterbug dancing Diane once did.
02:00
The cowboy who acts as the dream guide is a man Diane sees in passing at Camilla’s
02:04
engagement party.
02:05
“Time to wake up.”
02:07
And the blue key in Rita’s purse references the key the hitman leaves on Diane’s table
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to tell her that Camilla is dead.
02:14
“When it’s finished you’ll find this where I told you.”
02:16
These little clues show us how Diane’s mind has warped elements of her reality to produce
02:21
this dream.
02:22
But still it takes us some time to accept that the story we’ve been following for
02:26
most of the film isn’t real.
02:28
At first we’re inclined to doubt the second part of the film instead.
02:32
Just like Diane, we’re put off by the depressing reality of her life, and we want to believe
02:36
in the pretty dream of Betty and Rita.
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By telling the story in this order and getting us invested in the dream first, Lynch suggests
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that Diane’s dream isn’t less important than reality, and it may even be more profound
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and meaningful than real life.
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Diane’s dream has two opposing sides: wish fulfillment and worst nightmare.
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Betty is Diane’s idealization of herself.
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In the dream Diane’s given herself a fresh start as a bright-eyed and bushy-tailed actress,
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arriving in Hollywood with high hopes.
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“Of course, I’d rather be known as a great actress than a movie star.
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But, you know, sometimes people end up being both.
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So that is, I guess you’d say, sort of why I came here.”
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Whereas Diane is angry, jaded, and unsuccessful, Betty is perky, innocent, and shows star potential.
03:23
Diane has cast herself in her most-desired role: the up-and-coming starlet and Rita’s
03:28
lover and savior.
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“Come on, it’ll be just like in the movies! we’ll pretend to be someone else.”
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And in the dream, Betty has a clear mission in helping solve the mystery of Rita’s identity,
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while in real life Diane is awkward and unsure of her purpose.
03:43
“I’m sorry I was late.”
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The antagonists in Diane’s life become friendly faces in her dream.
03:50
Betty’s idealism and the retro visuals in the dream force us to share in this excitement
03:55
and nostalgia.
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But Lynch shows us that, like Diane’s dream, Hollywood as we envision it is a fantasy.
04:01
“There’s jokes about everybody in LA writing scripts, and everybody’s got a resume and
04:07
a photo.”
04:08
“It’s just an actress’ photo resume.
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Everybody’s got one.”
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“So there’s a yearning to get the chance, not necessarily for fame, but to express yourself.”
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Diane’s re-imagining herself and Camilla as Betty and Rita reflects the way that everyone
04:22
in Hollywood reinvents themselves,confusing what is real with fantasy.
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Rita even takes her name from a Rita Hayworth movie poster.
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The dream itself is perfectly cinematic, in contrast to reality.
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Meanwhile, innocuous, arbitrary parts of Diane’s life become nightmarish in the dream, like
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the homeless man who appears as a terrifying monster.
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This reflects Diane’s conviction that everything in her life is awful.
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Although Betty is clearly talented, the Hollywood of Diane’s dream is corrupt and sinister,
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because Diane believes that the system is rigged against her.
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The dream scene where Adam is strong-armed into casting an unknown actress in his film
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–
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“This is the girl.”
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– parallels the one in which Diane orders the hit.
05:02
“This is the girl.”
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The comparison shows that in Diane’s subconscious, the Hollywood casting process is a violent
05:09
conspiracy,.
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And perhaps the real original crime wasn’t killing Camilla, but the way that this town
05:14
has mistreated her and driven her to this.
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Even the depiction of the city lights seems threatening.
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In reality, Camilla has found the personal and professional success that Diane wants,
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and Diane can’t reconcile her jealousy with the love she still feels for her ex.
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“I wanted the lead so bad.
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Anyway, Camilla got the part.”
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So in the dream, Diane makes Rita into a victim, showing her inability to accept her former
05:45
girlfriend as someone with agency, who simply doesn’t want to be with her romantically.
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Dream Rita falls prey to the same Hollywood conspiracy that Diane believes stopped her
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career.
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Rita’s amnesia allows Diane to recreate her lover as she wants her to be: vulnerable
06:00
and dependent, trusting no one but Betty.
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“I don’t know who I am.”
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Diane’s wish for Camilla to have no life or desires outside of their relationship,
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manifests in Rita putting on a blonde wig near the end of the dream.
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“You look like someone else.”
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But putting on the wig could also symbolize Diane’s growing awareness in her dream of
06:20
her guilt in ordering the hit.
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“D. Selwyn.
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It’s the only one.
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I’m gonna call.”
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“It’s strange to be calling yourself.”
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“Maybe it’s not me.”
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“I remembered something.”
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As much as Rita is a stand-in for Camilla, she also sometimes represents Diane herself.
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“Diane Selwyn.
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Maybe that’s my name!”
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Like Diane, Rita blocks out unpleasant memories.
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The beginning scene in which Rita’s driven down Mulholland Drive mirrors Diane’s trip
07:01
to Camilla’s party.
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“We don’t stop here.”
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“We don’t stop here.”
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We don’t know where the hitman actually killed Camilla, but we know that Mulholland
07:08
Drive is where the worst thing happens to Diane in real life.
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“Mulholland Drive.”
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“That’s where I was going.
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Mulholland Drive.”
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“Maybe that’s where the accident was.”
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The moment when Rita is about to be shot symbolizes Diane’s imminent arrival at the party, where
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she’ll hear the most terrible news she can imagine: Camilla and Adam are engaged.
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“It’s 6980 Mulholland Drive.”
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The blood on Rita’s head at the beginning of the film –
07:43
“Oh, we should call a doctor.”
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– could even be a reference to the end of the film, when Diane commits suicide.
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To some extent, Diane is also all of the other people in her dream as well, reflecting the
07:53
universal truth that everyone in our dreams is a representation of us.
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We interpret the world by projecting ourselves onto others.
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Because Diane is unsettled and unhappy, she imagines the people she has encountered as
08:05
having big problems of their own.
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She exaggerates Adam’s conflict with his ex-wife, which we know worked out in his favor.
08:14
“So I got the pool, and she got the pool man.
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I couldn’t believe it.
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I wanted to buy that judge a Rolls-Royce.”
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And she assigns made-up problems to strangers.
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“So you came to see if he’s out there.”
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“To get rid of this God-awful feeling.”
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In the dream, Adam has lost control of his movie, in the same way Diane has lost control
08:40
of her life.
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“It’s no longer your film.”
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The only true villains in the dream are the men trying to kill Rita, the same men who
08:48
in reality drove Diane to the engagement party and are therefore guilty of delivering her
08:53
toward her inevitable doom.
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And Diane being everyone in her dream doesn’t just apply to the minor characters and the
09:00
protagonists, but also to the villain.
09:02
The culprit that she and Rita are looking for is also, ironically, her.
09:10
“Hello?”
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Diane must wake up before Betty solves the mystery of Rita’s identity because she is
09:16
the person who ordered the hit, and she can’t face this.
09:19
The dream is full of evidence of the ordered hit, but Diane has erased herself from the
09:23
narrative because she won’t accept her own guilt.
09:26
The entire dream is built around this denial at its heart.
09:29
The very beginning of the dream comes from what she knows is going to happen: a hitman
09:33
is preparing to kill Rita/Camilla.
09:36
In the dream, Rita escapes the hit and finds refuge with Betty.
09:40
But deep down Diane can’t reconcile this happy narrative with her knowledge that the
09:44
real Camilla won’t escape death and Diane is responsible.
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Betty’s presence in the story represents Diane’s fantasy of starting over with Camilla.
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But when the waitress in the dream serves the couple, Rita’s look of confused recognition
09:56
reflects Diane’s fear that Camilla will find out what she’s done.
10:01
The dream nears its end when Betty and Rita visit Club Silencio, where the man on stage
10:05
informs the audience that the musical performance is a fantasy.
10:08
“No hay banda and yet…we hear a band.
10:15
If we want to hear a clarinet, listen.”
10:24
Both women sob at a Spanish performance of the song “Crying” that is performed as
10:28
if it is real but is actually recorded.
10:30
So these references to fantasy and the recording indicate Diane’s growing recognition that
10:36
she is in a dream state.
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“It is an illusion.”
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Betty then finds a blue box in her purse that fits the blue key found in Rita’s purse.
10:48
When Rita puts the key into the box, the dream ends — whisking Rita away in the process.
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Like Diane, we viewers are frustrated by this abrupt ending just as we think we’re about
10:58
to grasp the larger meaning.
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In the same way the party scene ends just before the engagement announcement — “Do
11:04
you want to tell them?” — which we never get to see.
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The key is the key to the dream, but all it does is wake Diane up, because it reminds
11:11
her that she’s killed her ex-lover.
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The revelation that the box is empty symbolizes Diane’s inability to accept reality — because
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once she actually sees reality, her dream is over.
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Putting this key into the box, and the fact that both objects come from the women’s
11:26
purses, could also have sexual connotations, expressing Diane’s desire for Camilla to
11:30
fill her void.
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But primarily the empty box represents Diane’s futile quest to make sense of her life.
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There’s no good explanation for her misery, just as the key that the hitman leaves to
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signal the deed is done opens nothing.
11:45
“What’s it open?”
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Betty and Rita’s discovery of Diane’s dead body is a premonition of her own death,
11:55
as if Diane already knows, when she begins dreaming, that she’s going to commit suicide.
12:00
Back in reality, the trigger of Diane’s suicide is again an exaggerated vision of
12:05
something that comes from her actual life.
12:07
Her fear of people laughing at her takes on a life of its own as the old couple from the
12:12
beginning of the film become aggressors in her mind.
12:14
So her final end shows that the boundaries between dream and reality have become truly
12:19
fluid, as her psychosis makes it impossible for her to tell what’s real from what’s
12:24
imaginary.
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Together with Diane, we find it jarring and painful to give up the false, nostalgic Hollywood
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for the unattractive truth.
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Lynch makes us want to follow the dream Betty, not the very real Diane, to underscore his
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message that dreams can be realer than reality.
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They tell us more about who we are deep inside our psyches.
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If we’re living in denial like Diane is, dreams are the place where our buried hopes
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and fears surface.
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The final scene of Mulholland Drive shows Betty and Rita together again, and we feel
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a sense of loss for what was only a fantasy to begin with.
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But Lynch shows us that, even if something is imagined or manufactured, like Mulholland
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Drive the movie itself, our feelings for the fantasy are real.
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“Silencio.”