enemy is one of the most confusing films i have ever seen upon first viewing i had a definite grasp on the central story i was easily able to decipher its hidden messages it was the added elements of spiders keys and surreal imagery that had me boggled it's now been over two months since i initially viewed the film and i feel at this point i've come to an accurate knowledge of its meanings so as i've done in the past let's get nerdy about enemy and talk in depth about its deep rooted symbolism and metaphors as a
warning this review contains heavy spoilers so if you haven't seen the film yet i'd suggest watching my spoiler free review beforehand when i analyzed only god forgives i mentioned that certain elements of that film were open to interpretation i'd like to start this review out by stating a fact there is without a doubt correct and incorrect interpretations of enemy i've read many attempts at analyzing this film and some have proved wildly inaccurate no spiders are not taking over the world as some have stated no jake gyllenhaal does not have an identical twin as some have
believed they are in fact the same person i'll back up all of these comments with statements from the filmmakers as well as my own personal interpretation let's start with a quote from denis the director himself so we're just getting everyone to explain their interpretation of the story basically i think that this movie is a documentary about my subconscious or a documentary about jake's skill in our self-conscious i think that the best way to describe it would be it's a dunyaka movie on acid or or a documentary about jake gyllenhaal's subconscious it's a man who decided
to uh to leave his leave his mistress to go back to his pregnant wife and we see the story from his subconscious point of view from the mouth of the man who made the film this is a battle that's raging inside jake's mind but what could lead him to wage such a disturbing subconscious war with himself and what the hell are those spiders all about there are two versions of jake in this film history teacher jake and actor jake to avoid confusion this is how i will refer to them it's easy to tell the difference
between the two history teacher jake is neurotic and messy his appearance always unkempt actor jake wears expensive clothing his hair always looks good and he wears a wedding ring the film opens with a voiceover from jake's mother she sounds concerned about the condition of his new apartment it's clear she's saying this on a voicemail we then get an insert of sarah gadden's character nude and pregnant then the words chaos is order yet undeciphered appear on screen a quote from the book which this film is based we immediately see actor jake holding a key entering a
seedy sex club of some sort as men stand in silence watching women masturbate and other such things actor jake watches a woman present a large spider on a platter and she moves her high heel slowly above it about to squash it next we see history teacher jake his first words in his lecture to his class are control it's all about control he then begins to discuss dictatorships and how they censor any means of individual expression and then he says and it's important to remember this that this is a pattern that repeats itself throughout history this
repeating pattern is mentioned quite often in the movie later on history teacher jake says it was hegel who said that all the great greatest world events happened twice and then karl marx added the first time it was a tragedy the second time to farce continuing in the vein of spider imagery the wires above toronto appear like a spider web he walks home and passes a mural of a man giving a roman fascist symbol defiance against rule dictatorships and fear of commitment are all themes that enemy has woven through it sometimes it's clear through dialogue other
times through imagery the next few scenes make it clear that his life is immensely repetitious he gives lectures that just come off as memorized he has sex with his girlfriend played by melanie laurent his apartment is literally empty all he seems to have is a bed and a computer soon a co-worker recommends a film to him seemingly out of the blue without any real build up to this conversation history teacher jake decides to rent this film at a local video store take note of the song playing in the store it's called the cheater it's lyrics
telling the story of a man who has no business being with women because he can't control his urges to sleep around after watching the film and then attempting to force himself on his unwilling girlfriend he dreams about the film he just saw in the recesses of his mind he sees someone who looks exactly like him in the film he wakes and skims through the movie finding the shot it's very clear that the actor portraying the bellboy looks just like him and he becomes obsessed with meeting this man he compares a noticeably torn photo of himself
to the actor probably a post-breakup photo with the woman he took the photo with torn out he begins doing research about the actor finding the other films he had a part in when he goes to rent the other films take note of the poster attack of the 50-foot woman this leads him to the talent agency of actor jake where he has a conversation with the security guard who recognizes him saying man you haven't been around here for ages yeah i don't know how long it's been six months i'd say six months or more he's given
a package meant to go to actor jake which allows him to find his address and phone number when he tries to call the woman on the other line recognizes his voice thinking that history teacher jake is really actor jake playing a joke after a series of awkward calls history teacher jake finally reaches actor jake and tries to convince him that they need to meet it's now that we meet actor jake and we see what his life is like he's healthy he wears nice clothes he loves blueberries and his wife is unfairly suspicious of him questioning
him about the phone call that he just had and accusing him of lying to her when she asks are you seeing her again he explodes at her saying it was a man it's clear that actor jake although cleaner and more well-off is dealing with fear of commitment and also feels as if his freedom has been removed by his pregnant wife it's also clear that he has been unfaithful in the past since she used the word again as if it has happened before this would explain why in the opening scene he was visiting a sex club
he is afraid of the responsibility of starting a family and being in a committed relationship this is extremely important to understanding the meaning of the film including the spiders next history teacher jake and actor jake agree to meet at a hotel they both feel the need to see each other as if they have some uncommon connection actor jake's wife soon appears at history teacher jake's school and her look upon seeing him as one of extreme sadness and pain then history teacher jake asks her a question which reveals even more how many months are you six
that's nice i find it very interesting that actor jake hasn't been to his talent agency in six months and his wife is also six months pregnant this adds to the idea of actor jake having extreme commitment issues most likely brought on by fear of being controlled or dictated by a woman and child when history teacher jake gets up she attempts to call him and the filmmaker makes it very obvious that actor jake answers after he disappears from frame leaving the possibility that they are the same person out there this is clearly not a fantasy or
delusion going on inside the mind of his wife but it is a psychological disorder of sorts for the two jakes later when she's home actor jake returns supposedly from a run complaining that they are out of his favorite organic blueberries she lays on the couch sad and afraid saying how the man she saw at the school looked exactly like him what's happening she says and when he says he doesn't know what she's talking about she replies i think you know i feel that she is slowly discovering that her husband's mind has split she wants him
to come to terms with it and accept this fact which is why she appears so emotionally bothered by it i mean logically if you found out that your spouse had someone out there who looked identical would you be so emotional about it crying and everything it'd be weird for sure but it's clear to me what she's really concerned about is that they are literally the same person and she's hurt and scared by the fact that she's driven him to this state this is when we get our next spider vision a woman with a spider head
passes by him as he walks he has this dream after his wife is questioning him about his real motives and tries to get him to explain everything to her history teacher jake is now walking down the hall of the hotel he's agreed to meet actor jake in we see two shots of a sexily dressed woman walking past him similar to how the woman with the spider head passed him in his dream next the two meet comparing themselves noticing they both have an identical scar history teacher jake gets spooked and leaves but not before giving actor
jake the package the talent agency gave him the next two shots focus on the characters dealing with the stress of this situation and eventually actor jake begins to follow history teacher jake noticing melanie laurent and following her as well how would actor jake know exactly where to find history teacher jake these questions aren't necessary since the large majority of this film takes place in the subconscious of the lead character's mind as he battles to accept his actual reality while on the train actor jake has a moment in which he gawks at melanie from head to
toe but he quickly turns around trying to deal with the temptation as a man he has obvious issues with being faithful this scene ends with one shot of actor jake relaxed in his chair appearing in deep thought his wife asleep next to him did this entire scene take place in his mind was he roaming the recesses of his mind trying to learn about this other version of himself next history teacher jake visits his mother explaining the situation to her it's clear it's history teacher jake since he's not wearing his wedding ring his mother says the
last thing you need is to be meeting strange men in hotel rooms you have enough trouble sticking with one woman don't you this adds to my earlier assumption that jake has been unfaithful in the past his mother offers him some blueberries but he says he doesn't like them of course you do she says it's clear that history teacher jake is repressing memories of his actual self attempting to escape the person he is due to fear of commitment and the desire to be unfaithful she says he has a nice apartment a respectable job and that he
should quit his fantasy of being an actor now there's a lot of interesting things there the movie opens with her saying in a voicemail that she doesn't like his apartment but now she's saying it's nice she's saying he has a respectable job since she says he has a respectable job but that he should quit his acting fantasy this leads me to believe his acting job has gone nowhere those three films he was in led to nothing so that would mean he's actually a history teacher right this would lead me to believe that earlier when his
wife says she went to his work that she was in fact starting to realize the magnitude of her husband's psychosis and was desperately trying to connect with him to try and help by going along with his illness acting like she didn't know that he is a teacher in real life after this scene we see a giant spider roaming toronto this has also left many perplexed what does this huge creature signify i will explain this at the end when i get in depth about the spiders soon actor jake is practicing something he will say to history
teacher jake asking himself in the mirror over and over if he had sex with his wife once he actually confronts history teacher jake history teacher jake can't even bring himself to say that he didn't sleep with actor jake's wife an argument ensues and a deal is made actor jay gets to take history teacher jake's girlfriend out on a date and then he says he will disappear from his life forever then they will be even i believe he's intentionally starting a war with his subconscious in an attempt to eliminate the negative parts so he can be
with his wife in reality and remain faithful and be even as one person again history teacher decides to go to actor jake's wife now as this inward battle occurs in his mind i believe the real life jake is the one who has now gone back home to his wife as the narcissistic unfaithful actor jake is taking out the girlfriend in his mind he gets the doorman to let him into his apartment the doorman just so happens to be a man who was in the sex club in the opening scene he mentions to history teacher jake
that he wants to go back to the sex club again he mentions the lock to the sex club has changed and that new keys have been sent out history teacher jake seems unsure of what he's referring to but goes along with the conversation anyway history teacher jake even walks too far past his apartment door before the doorman lets him in he appears to be discovering things in his apartment for the first time as he attempts to resemble actor jake waiting in his bedroom seeing the blueberries in the fridge this is when history teacher jake notices
the photograph it is identical to the torn one he had in his possession earlier except this one isn't torn and shows his wife next to him when she arrives home he nervously attempts to act like he belongs during this we see actor jake attempting to get lucky with melanie in some hotel somewhere history teacher jake gets in bed with his wife nervous about taking his clothes off she looks at him longingly places his hand on her pregnant belly then embraces him asking if he had a good day at school this takes him off guard and
she tells him to forget it going to sleep this also supports my earlier assumption that she knows he actually is a history teacher which would explain why his mother said he had a respectable job i just feel like she was trying to help him by going along with his psychosis actor jake and melanie are having sex and she gets extremely upset when she notices the sun tanned mark of a removed wedding ring on his finger interestingly history teacher jake wakes up in bed with his wife at this exact moment suddenly melanie wants nothing to do
with actor jake and she storms away actor jake begins driving her home this is interspliced with scenes of history teacher jake pacing back and forth and eventually crying his wife comes to comfort him their hands interlocking he says through tears that he's sorry during this actor jake and melanie begin arguing in the car his wife tells him she wants him to stay and they begin to make love as actor jake and melanie's argument gets worse with her insulting him by saying he's not a man this makes actor jake snap leading to a terrible car crash
we zoom in on the window of the car revealing the cracked glass resembling a spider web i feel that in this moment jake has successfully used his subconscious war to eliminate the negative self from himself his wife wants him to stay which tells us that they've been having a lot of problems with their marriage and she wants him to finally stay there and not be unfaithful to her anymore the next morning we hear a radio broadcast about an accident but who i will now refer to simply as jake turns it off before any details are
mentioned his wife is in the shower and he's trying on a suit when he finds the package we've been shown this package constantly throughout this film he finally opens it finding a key he stares at it with a look of temptation his wife says his mother called he continues to stare at the key and asks his wife if she has something to do tonight because he has to go out then what some have called the scariest ending to a film they've ever seen happens helen alexa [Music] now the majority of audiences after initially screaming said
the same three words what the [ __ ] it took me quite some time before i finally felt like i had a grasp of the story but i can confidently say that i do so what does all this mean well let's start with the spiders spiders in the film represent women at least in the way that jake views them he has a deep fear of commitment his wife is pregnant he's been unfaithful in the past as it was made clear when his wife asks if he's seeing her again and when his mother joke that he
has had enough trouble staying with just one woman spiders in the real world catch prey in their webs they entangle what they are about to devour often times when mating the female spider actually kills the male afterwards and sometimes even before they begin to mate the film is in a way saying that jake's character feels he's lost his freedom he feels trapped within the web of his marriage and the weighty responsibility of having a child as well as remaining faithful the constant reference to dictatorship and being unwillingly ruled has to do with jake feeling that
way about his marriage and eventual family in the opening of the film the narcissistic unfaithful actor jake gets into the private sex club with his key and watches a woman about to squash a spider through his unfaithfulness he longs to squash his wife so to speak or their love at least so he goes somewhere where that doesn't exist where him and other men can watch their sexual fantasies be acted out due to his fear of committing to his wife his dream of the nude woman with a spider head supports that women are the spiders as
well and directly after that a woman who looked very sexy he was dressed almost like a stripper past him and he felt the sudden urge to go and look at that woman and i feel like that also supports the fact that he's just very unfaithful and he wants to be with a lot of women so how about that giant spider roaming toronto this scene took place directly after he met with his mother i believe this spider represents his mother here's something interesting this is a monument known as the mother spider guess where it's located ontario
canada where the film takes place they look kind of similar don't they so how about that final spider why did his wife turn into a huge freaking spider why did the spider react in fear and why was his look one of almost exceptive disappointment as if he has just come to terms with what his life is like when jake opened the package taking out the new key he realizes it's the key to the sex club he gets a look of temptation on his face and immediately decides he has to go there telling his wife he
has to go out tonight suddenly his wife is no longer answering him as she calls to her and when she is revealed to be a spider she backs up in fear of getting squashed jake was able to successfully eliminate the unfaithful narcissistic portion of himself but at the first sign of temptation he goes back to his adulterous ways this is why she reacts in fear jake is a spider killer he can't control his urges and can't commit to a healthy relationship or to the eventual family he will have which he views as almost like a
dictatorship which is something he is defiant to the attack of the 50-foot woman poster the song the cheater playing in the store his torn photo of him and his wife all support that version of himself was haunted by fear of women his unfaithfulness and his attempts to ruin his marriage so why the look of accepted disappointment remember earlier in the film when history teacher jake said this and it's important to remember this that this is a pattern that repeats itself throughout history i believe jake has realized he's restarting the same pattern he's repeating his same
mistakes almost instantly upon moving on from them at the first sign of temptation interestingly the film ends with him missing a call from his mother and begins with his receiving a voicemail from her also remember this it was hegel who said that all the great greatest world events happened twice and then karl marx added the first time it was a tragedy the second time to farce i believe after having finally gotten over his adultery and moving on from that initial tragedy he now realizes this repeating process is just going to be a joke eventually a
farce an unavoidable negative of his life he's just going to have to deal with think about it as humans when we constantly deal with a problem of some kind that doesn't go away eventually we begin to accept it and sometimes we even look for the humor in it so lastly what does the film's title mean who is the enemy he is the enemy is himself his desires his fears his inability to have a normal relationship and these things will eventually lead to the destruction of his sanity his marriage and possibly even his life i'm an
optimist though so i like to think that he works things out often fictional movie worlds somewhere enemy in my opinion is a masterpiece of cinema a film that actually requires serious thought i love it and i am so glad to have finally come to what i feel is an accurate understanding of it thanks so much for watching guys and i hope this has helped you understand the film a little more as always if you like this you can click right here and get stuck manized [Music]
