“Glorious” isn’t your everyday horror film. It is twisted and a visual blast while being funny yet horrifying to think about. Based on Todd Rigney’s short story “Found,” the film is surprisingly able to invoke a weird feeling of dread that has its roots in dark and solitary highway rest stops. More like a non-Marvel version of What If, “Glorious” supposes what will happen if you find a demi-god inside one of the stalls instead of a random person. No wonder there is a mention of Thor in it. It is cosmic but personal in an appalling way.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens In The ‘Glorious’ Film?
Wes (Ryan Kwanten) is having a hard time coping with his breakup. He is driving but does not know where the road will lead him. All out of his mind, he decides to halt at a roadside rest stop. There, his mind almost suffers a breakdown, and he spends the night burning all the clothes and pictures of his beloved and drinking to the fullest. He wakes up with a hangover the next day and goes inside the rest stop to wash his face. He then finds himself talking to a voice (J.K. Simmons) rather than a person in the stall right next to him for the sake of the company.
However, things start getting weird when the voice reveals itself as a cosmic demi-god, and Wes finds out that he is stuck inside the restroom with it. The voice tells him that he has been chosen to save the universe and all of life. However, the only way to do that is to satisfy the demi-god’s physical needs. Wes finds it all a joke being played on him, but the inexplicable events that follow suggest otherwise. When Gary, the caretaker of the rest stop, comes inside, thanks to Wes’s screams that he heard from outside, the demi-God decides to show Wes just how not funny any of it is. Gary is killed by the cosmic being; he is almost shredded to pieces. But all this is for the sake of the universe’s survival, of course. Wes is taken aback when he is told by the god that he has to sacrifice his liver (a part of it) to the glory hole. Will he do what’s necessary? The outcome is “Glorious”.
Micro And Macrocosm
“Glorious” is a film that combines the microcosm and the macrocosm in a bizarre manner without getting over-brimmed. At one point in the film, it seems that Wes didn’t really break up with Brenda. He killed her just like he killed many other girls before her. Does he take pleasure in killing women? Maybe. Perhaps this is why the voice tells him that it was fate that led him to the rest stop. It is his doings that have cost him this encounter with a demi-god.
“Glorious” is the way in which a force of the universe has been shrunk to the level where it can fit into a rest stop stall. “Glorious” is the way in which a human is brought into a position where he has to bargain with a god. “Glorious” is how the demi-god is, too, given human emotions like anger and sadness, and especially the desire to survive. And it is “glorious” how it took a human sacrifice to prevent the destruction of life itself.
The film effectively gains speed while keeping its plot points very clear. We get to know both the characters but cannot really take sides; we can only be an audience subjected to a conversation that concerns life from both a micro and a macro level. And what makes things more interesting is how Wes is able to freak the demi-god out when he ushers in the demi-god’s father, only showing the power he, and thus the human soul, holds. The demi-god isn’t authoritative anymore but rather requests him to do the needful. And we cannot really question the whole event of the demi-god asking Wes for an organ, although we can, even if a little bit, understand how Wes is feeling. After all, it’s not really that common to cut open your body and give away an organ for the sake of the universe. And it is beyond our comprehension that sacrificing an organ can save the universe. Both organ sacrifice and saving the universe are concepts that we aren’t accustomed to. At one moment, we feel like putting the blame on Wes for wasting time and not giving away the organ. And at the very next moment, we are taken aback by the truth of how painful it must be to cut open our bodies, even for the sake of the universe. This is what “Glorious” makes us think. We even consider the Death of the universe when asked to do something that might or might not kill us. If it had been one of us in Wes’s place, we know deep down that we, too, would have tried to find a way out, despite knowing that the fate of the whole universe was at stake. This is how the film bridges the microcosm and the macrocosm.
‘Glorious’ Ending Explained: Does Wes Save the Universe?
Wes tries to find an alternate way out but eventually realizes the gravity of the situation. He ultimately cuts himself open so that the demi-god can take his liver. But what makes the film’s ending perhaps unjust and thus appropriate is Wes’s Death. Wes was asked for his liver in return for the universe’s survival. But the demi-god never told him, let alone promised, that he would live. The demi-god merely tells him that a human can survive with 25% of the liver. This is no assurance that Wes will live. And he doesn’t either. However, there is another way to look at it. Sacrificing one’s life for something has historically been considered noble and heroic and, of late, superheroic. So, in a way, “Glorious” gives Wes the platform of a superhero, a bit like Tony Stark in Avengers: Endgame. The reason we use the phrase “a bit” is because Tony made his choice. He was certain that he would die. Here, Wes’s chances of survival were much higher. But unfortunately, he dies. The film ends with the same song that he was listening to in his car when he arrived at the roadside rest stop. This is a way to show how the world continues to exist, unaware of what it has survived and, more importantly, of Wes’s sacrifice.
Maybe he deserved his Death, or perhaps he didn’t. He will never remember his Death. Nobody does. As Ricky Gervais said, death is ” like being stupid. It’s only painful for others.” But it is doubtful how many people will be pained by Wes’s absence, which will only be if they find out that he is, in fact, dead.
See More: ‘Glorious’ Review: A Future Midnight Horror Classic That Is Pretty Gory
