Requiem for a Dream

During the Fall, all characters fall into depression as there's no more heroin in Brooklyn. Marion, out of cash and in need for drugs, decides to become a prostitute to satisifie her addiction. Harry and Tyrone drive away togather to Florida, and on the way Tyrone notices Harry's horribly infected arm. They go to a hospital, but as Tyrone waits outside for Harry, the police walks in and they get arrested. Mrs. Goldfarb becomes addicted to speed, and subsequently looses her sanity for not receiving a letter from her favorite show. She arrives at the TV station, skinny, pale and in poor health, and kindly asks to be on TV in front of the shocked workers. They call the police, and they take her to the hospital, where she is bound in a vest and is forced to eat. In the meantime, Marion arrives at her dealer's house, and is promised to reveive a baggie of heroin as soon as she'll take a part in a violent, lesbian sexual act, in front of dozens of viewers. At that time, the wardens in prison notice Harry's infected arm and send him to the hospital. At Brooklyn, Mrs. Goldfarb's health doesn't allow her to eat, and she signs on a contract for using unconventional tools on her. In a dreadful, horrifying ending montage, Mrs. Goldfarb receives Electric Shock Therapy and agonizes in pain while doing so, Harry's arm is amputated, Marion engages in the lesbian sexual act and Tyrone is doing community jobs in prison. We then see Marion in her apartment, satisfied with her bag of heroin; two friends visit Mrs. Goldfarb at the hospital, and they later cry as they see her skinny as a stick and pale; Tyrone agonizes in his bed, having a hard time without in prison his drugs and remembering his loving, lost mother; and eventually, Harry lying alone in the hospital witout his left arm, dreaming about the lost woman in red on the docks and his shattered dreams as he fantasizes about him falling from a roof. In the touching finale, Mrs. Goldfarb imagines herself, beautiful then ever in her red dress, and her son Harry, engaged to Marion, on the TV show she loved so much, saying "I love you" to her son in front of millions of viewers...

Jem

Factual error: When Marion picks up the phone to call to score a hit, the number she should dial is 934 8777. However, listen to the pitches of the keys she dials. The pattern should sound like: EECDCCC. The pattern she dials is: DCDEDDD. She is clearly not dialing 934 8777. (01:16:25)

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Trivia: When Tyrone is making mashed potatoes, the prison guard standing behind him is played by the novelist Hubert Selby Jr., on whose novel the film is based.

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Question: [Spoilers] What exactly happens to Sarah Goldfarb at the end? Some people say she's in a catatonic state, but she seems to be functioning too well for that. Can someone please explain the situation she's in after the Electric Shock Therapy?

Answer: Sarah Goldfarb is not catatonic, but she appears lethargic and withdrawn after the ECT, and she has lost the vigour and excitement she had while taking the diet pills. The way she walks around suggests she has been given typical antipsychotics (eg thorazine, stelazine) to subdue her.

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