I Can't Stop Thinking About The Marty Supreme Ending, And I Need To Talk About Why

SPOILERS are ahead for Marty Supreme!

When I first heard about Marty Supreme, I'm going to be honest: I didn’t get what it was, and I wasn’t sure I’d be particularly interested in watching it. But once it came out, and people started saying it isn’t the sports movie one might expect and included a career-high performance from Timothée Chalamet (who I think has consistently put out a banger every year), I felt like I had no choice but to check it out.

Now that I have, my thoughts on Josh Safdie’s anxiety-inducing ride aren’t far off from CinemaBlend’s own Marty Supreme 5 out of 5 star review, and I need to talk about one moment from the film that really sealed the deal for me: the ending.

How Marty Supreme Ends

Marty Supreme takes us on a heart-pounding journey with Marty Mauser as he aspires to be named the best table tennis player in the world. In the third act, Marty does everything he can to earn the cash to settle up with the International Table Tennis Association (ITTA) for his fraudulent expense claim and fly to Japan to have his rematch with the current world champion, Koto Endo. He makes it to his destination, but not without creating a lot of destruction in his path.

For one, he finds himself backed in a corner, having to agree to get spanked with a ping-pong paddle by Milton Rockwell in front of the businessman’s associates to be sent to Japan to rematch with Endo. And, he also causes a bloodbath at a small-town residence where he steals money off a dead man after leading him there with the hopes of getting his lost dog back (which Marty lost in the first place), alongside his very pregnant friend (whom he impregnated), getting hospitalized as a result.

He leaves her to recover to go to his big event in Japan, where Marty promised Milton he would intentionally lose at the event against Endo. But when he gets there, he learns that not only will he not have a chance to redeem himself at the next big table tennis competition by settling his expenses with the ITTA, but Rockwell has plans to further humiliate him by making him kiss a pig after his public loss. So, he calls for a real match and narrowly wins Endo. After burning bridges with his employer, he has to find a new way home, which is with a flight of U.S. Army soldiers. He rushes back to the hospital, where he meets his newborn son, with the final shot of the movie showing him bursting into tears as he’s introduced to the little guy.

The Ending Has Sparked A Debate About What It Means

Ever since I saw Marty Supreme, I can’t stop thinking about that last moment between Marty and his son, perhaps because I definitely wasn’t expecting it to end with him in a puddle of tears. I took the moment as a combination of a release of all the tension he’s held up for days to reach his goal (which let’s be honest, crashed and burned on him despite his win), along with him finally coming to terms with the responsibility in front of him of creating another human. After all the damage he causes to others and himself, I think it’s a moment where the repercussions of his actions actually sink in.

However, there are a lot of really interesting takes on what the ending means, which is only making me love the ending even more. Check out this one:

I love an ending that fuels a lot of discussion such as this one. Here’s one more take:

Because Marty Supreme never spells out what the ending means for the viewer, there’s not necessarily a right answer, no matter how you slice it. I do think you can collect the filmmaker’s intentions a bit more by the Tears For Fears “Everyone Wants To Rule The World” music drop – which in and of itself is a satire and criticism about the repercussions of the hunger for power and dominance.

Marty Ends Up Being A Lot More Relatable Than I Expected

To pull back from the discourse, and go back to my own feelings on the ending, throughout the film, I can understand where Marty is coming from, but I don’t like him. The way he treats other people, and how he goes about achieving his dream is completely narcissistic and maddening to watch unfold. Marty thinks the ends (his success) justifies the means, so he does anything to reach his goal, but everything goes wrong, doesn’t it?

Sure, he beats Endo Koto, but at the cost of his dignity. He doesn’t get a chance to become the official world champion after that, as he had hoped, and now he’s suddenly a father. While the rest of the movie would lead me to think “oh, he deserves it” by the end, the movie gives Marty a much-needed heartfelt moment. Because suddenly I could relate to Marty. The front dissipated, and I could understand wanting something so bad, and crying over the weight of responsibility he thrusts on himself throughout the film.

At the end of the day, he is just another person who wants to make it into the world. He’s not suddenly a completely sympathetic character, but if the movie wasn’t going to give him the release of a win, it had to be something like this – and Safdie crushed this finale. I don’t aspire to be like him, but the ending scene to me really drills down the message that he’s just this young, flawed kid trying to make it in the world… and now, he’s a dad.

There are a lot of ideas out there about what the end of Marty Supreme means, and whether it’s earned. I think it’s exactly the right way to end the movie because it shows that no matter how you slice it, you can’t “hack” life. Life is surprising, and confusing, and hard even if you know exactly what you want out of it – which in Marty’s case is to be a ping-pong champion.