I wonder what exactly went behind conceiving a movie like The Abandon and then actually making it! If we only go by the idea of it, the sci-fi thriller, directed by Jason Sutterlund, can’t be termed bad, per se—even if it borrows from tons of other things, mainly from Cube (1997) and Buried (2010), both much superior films. But the issue here is that this one, despite having an interesting story, feels like a slog. Ninety-seven minutes feels like an eternity. There are only two things that can be blamed here: the writing is bland as hell, and lead actor Jonathan Rosenthal is no Jake Gyllenhaal, Tom Hardy, or even Ryan Reynolds (he did pull off Buried, easily his career-best performance); no offense. What’s even worse is that the payoff in the end is unsatisfying. I’m all for an ambiguous ending, but this one feels like nothing but a gimmick. However, I’m still going to make an attempt to make some sense out of the whole thing and reduce the level of your (legitimate) frustration.
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens in the Movie?
US military personnel Miles Willis, stationed somewhere in Iraq, has been shot on the battlefield and is heavily bleeding out. With his fellow soldiers already dead, Miles crawls to a safe corner and waits for his death. Right at this moment, he notices a strong, bright light and suddenly faints. When he wakes up, Miles finds himself in this room, which has nothing other than four walls, along with a ceiling and floor. Everything looks depressing and gray, and Miles has no idea what happened. His obvious first thought is that he has been kidnapped by the enemy, so he tries screaming “Assalam Walekum” (he says it wrong, which is quite hilarious) to get their attention. But nothing happens. Soon he discovers some cryptic writing on one of the walls. It reads “Abandon” at first, then an “all hope” suddenly arrives magically. Miles is understandably confused, but by now we realize this has to do with some science-fiction hoopla. The rest of The Abandon follows Miles as he tries to figure out what happened, and a possible way out of the situation—and most of it is painfully boring.
Who Is Damsey?
I would say the inclusion of Damsey is what makes you keep watching The Abandon till the end, even though the character’s appearance is only through voice, except the one scene during the climax. Anyway, before going into that, let’s just address Miles’ situation inside the strange room, which keeps worsening with each passing minute. If the grim message on the wall wasn’t enough, the room abruptly starts spinning, tossing Miles around like a ball. Every time it’s happening, his belongings, including the all important SAT phone, get stuck on the ceiling. The temperature also keeps changing from burning hot to freezing cold, which makes Miles wonder if he’s dead and he’s in hell (would have been a cooler twist than the actual story, I’m just saying)!
I’m not sure if the director was intentionally trying to make his audience feel as frustrated as Miles by repeating the same thing again and again, but the narrative gets a much-needed boost when our guy receives this call on his SAT phone. It’s a woman named Damsey, and soon he realizes that, just like him, the woman is also stuck inside a room like his with zero information. That’s a good enough reason to bond, which does happen, and the two keep talking on the phone in order to figure out a solution. Meanwhile, Miles also receives a call on another phone where a man pretty much tells him to give up. That’s followed by confusion and miscommunication between Miles and Damsey, but that gets cleared soon. It becomes very clear that both of them are just unfortunate enough to be in the room (I’m tempted to say the movie instead, but nonetheless). Their respective rooms keep doing the strange things while all this is going on.
What Is Really Going On?
Since there’s not much to talk about with the climax, I’m just going to give you my theory here. The moment it gets revealed that Damsey is from the year 2020 and Miles is from 1991, you realize there’s some time and space hotchpotch being cooked here. What I believe is that the enemy in this movie is some kind of alien race who are somehow afraid of humans—particularly the ones who are mathematical geniuses. The Abandon eventually lets us know that both Miles and Damsey are gifted mathematicians (even though Miles came off as a really dumb person initially, just saying). We also get to know that she is a teacher who has studied topology. The main agenda of the aliens is kidnapping all these brilliant people from different time periods and putting them inside these strange rooms. However, there’s a way out after all. They’ve got to solve a really hard mathematical equation (sorry I can’t explain what it is, and I suggest you check out Reddit, all the best).
Do Miles and Damsey Get Out?
Did we really need all the daddy issues and abusive fiancé backstories? I mean, I understand that’s just an attempt to make these two characters something more than cardboard and also to add something to the damp squib of a narrative, but it really doesn’t help. What does help the two of our protagonists is finding the answer to that extremely hard math problem—and it happens to be the number “1”. There’s obviously a deeper meaning here: one means unity, and they need to work together in order to get out and definitely not listen to the man who keeps asking them to stop fighting.
In The Abandon‘s ending when the walls of their room close in on them, Miles and Damsey try to hold them off with all they have. All of a sudden, they end up in this space, filled with glass structures. The two of them see each other for the first time. However, before even starting a conversation, things change again, and Miles finds himself back in our world. But it seems like he’s in the United States, and you can tell it’s not 1991 given you see a random person with a smart phone in hand. From the look of it, it appears to be a military base, and something big is appearing in the sky. The Abandon cuts off with Miles looking at it, leaving us speculating. My guess is there’s a spaceship in the sky, and Miles has somehow managed to arrive in the future. He’s probably the key for the humans to survive against the threat. Or maybe I’m just trying to reach some kind of conclusion here, as the director failed to do so!
