The beloved and acclaimed author Cormac McCarthy passed away on June 13th 2023, and he wrote many popular novels, including No Country For Old Men and All The Pretty Horses. One of his most memorable works was the 2006 novel The Road, which got a movie adaptation in 2009. The film tells a heartbreaking story of a father and son walking around a world that looks incredibly bleak after an apocalypse has taken place.
With great performances from the two main actors who carry the entire movie, The Road is not only a flawless adaptation but also a compelling and captivating story about family and hope. What happens in The Road and what is the ending like?
What Is The Road About?
The Road is about Viggo Mortensen's character, Man, and his son Boy, played by Kodi Smit-McPhee, trying to stay alive in a post-apocalyptic world. Readers of Cormac McCarthy's The Road never find out what happened to kill animals and plants, and the same is true of the movie adaptation. But, while this could be a glaring plot hole in another story, it's hard to mind all that much. The Road is a raw and emotional story about a father and his child going up against the elements, and that's what matters here.
Just like the relevant and popular The Last Of Us game and TV adaptation, The Road features two main characters banding together and doing their best to stay hopeful despite all the evidence that they shouldn't think positively about the future.
It quickly comes out that the main character lost his wife when they welcomed their son into the world. She became angry with him when he shot someone who threatened them. They only had three bullets left. She felt that he was making sure that she wouldn't take her own life and abandoned her family. Because of this tough and sad decision, The Road is a great movie about fathers and sons. It's smart not to reveal the names of the main characters. This makes them feel more relatable. And since the movie doesn't share many details of what the characters were like before the apocalypse, this allows the audience to put themselves in the boy and the man's shoes.
Some Stephen King books don't have movie adaptations, and fans have mixed feelings about many of these films. However, the film adaptation of The Road by Cormac McCarthy is considered to be solid. It received positive reviews and is very moving.
How Does The Road End?
The Road ending is heartbreaking. The boy and his father find a town and seem to hope that they can be safe here. The dad uses his flare gun to shoot a man who has just shot him in the leg. But sadly, the father can tell that he's going to pass away. This scene is just as scary as horror movies about fathers and sons and speaks to the emotional depth of Cormac McCarthy's writing.
The boy mourns the loss of his only parent. When a man comes by, he explains that he is kind and trustworthy and that he and his family can start taking care of the boy. Audiences definitely hope that things will be okay for the boy, who has been through so much and lost both of his parents.
Is The Ending Different In The Road Book?
The ending of The Road by Cormac McCarthy is the exact same as the movie. In both cases, the boy finds himself alone after his father dies, and he has to figure out how to move on without him. Just like in post-apocalyptic video games inspired by movies, the setting of The Road is striking and unforgettable. Not a moment goes by in The Road book and movie when the father and the boy's situation doesn't seem incredibly dire and bleak.
According to CBC, Cormac McCarthy didn't like to be interviewed much, and he only ever did one TV interview in his life: with Oprah Winfrey in 2007. He said that when he and his son went to El Paso, Texas, he came up with the idea for The Road. He thought about what the land could be once several decades had passed and started jotting a few things down. He described The Road as "a pretty simple, straightforward story."
The Road is one of the best post-apocalyptics movies of the 21st century and the book is celebrated among many. Cormac McCarthy remained humble throughout his career. Joe Penhall, who wrote the screenplay for The Road, wrote an article for The Guardian and explained what it was like when Cormac McCarthy watched the movie. McCarthy said "It's very good" and "very powerful." He also said it was "a film like no other film I've seen . . . but we should probably eat something before we get too carried away."