Did you know that there were actually two endings for this film? I prefer the one where Cusack lived.
Are you referring to
1408?
If so, I actually did not know that -- but in the theatrical cut, doesn't it assume he lives?
I always had issues with this film -- as much as I adore it -- in terms of what it's suggesting throughout and what we're actually watching (I wanted to read King's short story it's based on but didn't get around to it). What actually happened when he wakes up the first time in the hospital and then goes to the post office, where it begins to transform back into the room...was that real? Was he never truly out of the room, or was the whole thing a dream during his surfing accident?
I never bought the dream theory because at the end, we see him sitting and listening to the recording of Katy's voice, which Lilly hears too.
But what's weird is that the hospital thing happens twice -- the second time, he's in a hospital in L.A. (the first time was New York), so what were these moments about? The way I always understood it, the second hospital wakeup sequence was finally real, because right after we see them in the NYC apartment packing up, Cusack's character obviously still recovering from the burned hotel room he was in.
And that's another thing -- if Lilly and Mike were separated and Mike lived in L.A., why was there a NYC apartment full of his stuff at the very end, as if they were still living together?