Megalopolis’s themes, meaning, ending, and real-life application of
The easiest way to understand Megalopolis’s general idea is that Cesar is a progressive, Cicero is a conservative, and Clodio is Trump. So you have the serious back and forth between two ideologically opposed figureheads (Cesar and Cicero) who really do care about society. And then a swindler-type who says all the right things but only believes in his own gain and would, quite willingly, wreck everything.
The film’s first hour is Coppola essentially showing the good and bad of Cesar and Cicero, and thus the good and bad of progressives and conservatives. Cesar has big goals to transform New Rome into Megalopolis but there are major associated costs. Mayor Cicero is focused on helping people now but by sacrificing the future. Cesar embraces a bohemian lifestyle while Cicero is more refined.
But as much as Megalopolis wants us to focus on its political fable, there is a deeper layer.
A battle of ages
We’re in an unprecedented time of health. Look at this table of average life expectancy by decade.
- 1860-1880: 39
- 1890: 44
- 1900: 48
- 1910: 51
- 1920: 53
- 1930: 58.7
- 1940: 62
- 1950: 67.2
- 1960: 69
- 1970: 70
- 1980: 73
- 1990: 75
- 2000: 76
- 2010: 78
- 2020: 78
100 years ago, people mostly lived to 53. Today, you don’t retire until you’re 65. That means older generations have more influence on modern society than ever. Korn Ferry, a consulting firm, analyzed the 1,000 largest U.S. companies, by revenue, and found the average ages of the executive suite, the C-Suite, to be 56 years old. The average CEO was 59.
In the 2020 American presidential election, 67% of the eligible voting population participated, about 154 million people. 40 million were 65 or older. 53 million were 45 to 65. So people ages 45 and up accounted for 60% of all votes. Of 18-24 year olds, only 13 million voted. 25-34 year olds, 24 million. And 35-44 year olds, 23 million.
Moreover, the average age in the House of Representatives (as of 2023) was 57.9. While the Senate was 65.3. For the 2024 presidential election, it was, at one point, an 81-year-old Joe Biden versus a 78-year-old Donald Trump.
Megalopolis isn’t simply about the politics of liberals and conservatives but the battle between older and younger generations. It’s been written about a lot, but Baby Boomers have not wanted to hand power over to the younger Gen Xers and Millennials. That’s what Coppola demonstrates with the dynamic between Cicero and Cesar. Cicero is older so more skeptical of Cesar’s values, technology, and vision of the future. And even when Julia, Cicero’s own daughter, becomes a major component of the Megalopolis project, Cicero still can’t yield.
Megalopolis‘s ending
This also explains Megalopolis’s ending. In art, baby’s almost always represent the future and here is no different. By naming the child “Sunny Hope”, Coppola’s essentially saying “This baby represents a better tomorrow.”
At the end, when Julia stops time, we would expect her and Cesar to still be able to move, because that’s how it had worked before. Except this time they freeze, too. It’s only Sunny who moves. That’s Coppola, once again, placing emphasis on the idea of the future generation inheriting this power. Cesar and Julia acquired it because it was “their time” so to speak. And they pass it to their daughter because it will be her time.
You can even view that final freezing of Cicero, his wife, Cesar, and Julia as a metaphor for death. Death is, ultimately, a cessation of action, a suspension of motion. Each generation ends up “frozen in time” so to speak. Part of history. Whether written, visual, or just in tales passed down within a family or culture. The stuff of myths and legends. That also explains why that final scene takes place just seconds before the New Year. We hear the crowd countdown: 5, 4, 3. Then time stops. All the adults are “caught” in the old year. While Sunny continues into the new year (metaphorically).
Some important dialogue moments
To put all of this in perspective, let’s go back to the conversation Julia has with her father on the train during the riots (that represent the January 6th Capitol attack).
- Cicero: May I hold her? I always would hold you like this.
- Julia: You’re holding the future. In your hands. Don’t you want a better world for her?
- C: Cesar is a reckless dreamer who will destroy the world sooner than he can build a better one. Can’t you and I be like we were before? Could we…can’t we, Julia, my little girl, my angel?
- J: Trust us. Trust me, Daddy.
Cicero keeps infantilizing Julia. But she begs her father to trust her, to stop viewing her as just his little girl and Cesar as some dumb, incapable kid. By doubting Cesar, her husband, Cicero’s doubting his own daughter and the choice she made in not only marrying Cesar but working with him on Megalopolis.
And, of course, we get Cesar’s big speech soon after.
Cesar: Man, what is that? What do we know of him? His gods. Liberty. Love. Kindness. Mind. Death. Destiny. Destiny. I’m not concerned with my place in history. What I am concerned about is time, consciousness, and courage. But what is time? Except a curve, past and future around us. What is consciousness? Except a burst of the soul from inside! And what is courage but the beginning of a vital conversation. We’re in need of a great debate about the future! We want every person in the world to take part in that debate. Tear down debt. Tear down the world of ready-made slums that those families that run the world shove you into. You were born with the option to be what you want to be. And must. Let it not be said that we reduced ourselves to be brutes and mindless beasts of burden. The human being shall rightly be called a great miracle. And a living creature for all to admire. We are such stuff as dreams are made of! Our Mother Earth gave us the genius to see a future so beautiful that we can’t let it be for naught. The gates of Megalopolis are open! Go now, and know our world is changed forever.
This speech is a bit of a payoff to the earlier surreal scene when Cesar drives through the city to “visit” the bed of his deceased wife. We see women of the night, police assaulting people, then a statue of Justice falls over. Julia narrates: Surrounded by injustice, so much suffering. We see homeless people fighting for possessions. Two more statues representing societal values collapse. It’s a world where people are reduced. A slum created by debt and unequal opportunity. The present has become a nightmare. And traditional methods, Boomer methods, the ways of yesterday won’t solve the problems of today. Which is why Cicero hasn’t made progress.
It’s only by pulling answers from the future into the present that we resolve such dilemmas. And that’s been true throughout history. Advancements in science, engineering, technology, and the like are what have allowed humanity to thrive. That’s the reason why people today live to 78 and people 100 years ago barely reached 50. Breakthrough. But if you have a society that doesn’t prioritize discovery or dreaming or growth, then its bound to stagnate and reverse course.
In Cicero, Coppola creates a character who wants to limit conversation. And in Colodio, we get someone who is only concerned with rhetorical discussion. Cesar is more of the “hero we need” figure in that he isn’t concerned with his personal glory but in simply galvanizing the whole. It shouldn’t be his voice leading the way, but he’ll raise his voice if need be, then pass the torch when he can, but he believes society benefits the most when the population participates rather than withers on the vine. So you have a perspective that’s overly cautious. One that’s overly selfish. And another that’s openly hopeful.
That brings us back to the opening narration from Fundi: Our American Republic is not that different from Old Rome. Can we preserve our past and all its wondrous heritage, or will we too fall victim, like Old Rome, to the insatiable appetite for power of a few men?
There is a difference between preserving the past and being enslaved by it. And that’s why the film ends with an updated Pledge of Allegiance. I pledge allegiance to our human family, and to all the species that we protect. One Earth, indivisible, with long life, education, and justice for all. -2024
Coppola’s making a plea for our common humanity to win out over politics. To prioritize humanity over nation, race, ethnicity, religion, etc.. We’re all part of the human family. Whatever superficial things would divide us pale to the nucleic bonds that unite us. And we should consider ourselves custodians of this world. Not its owners. But guardians of life on Earth. If we come together this way, indivisible, then we will all enjoy health, knowledge, and fairness.
Wouldn’t that be a great place to live? There’s nothing saying we can’t have that. All it takes is a shift. In participation, in leadership, in priorities, in who we consider “one of us”. Megalopolis is an old man’s plea to the better angels of our nature, put into the world not for Coppola’s own personal gain but simply for the fact that he hopes that it can, in some way, whether small or large, help awaken a new spirit of engagement, opportunity, and discovery that will benefit those of us who will be here tomorrow.
We’ll conclude this section with Cesar’s speech after the satellite falls. The reporter asks “Mr. Catilina, you said that as we jump into the future, we should do so unafraid. But what if, when we do jump into the future, there is something to be afraid of?”
Catilina: Well, there’s nothing to be afraid of if you love, or have loved, it’s an unstoppable force, it’s unbreakable. It has no limits. It’s within us, it’s around us, and it’s stretched through time. It’s nothing you can touch, yet it guides every decision that we make. But we do have the obligation to each other to ask questions of one another. What can we do? Is this society, is this way we’re living, the only one available to us? And when we ask these questions, when there’s a dialogue about them, that basically is a utopia. Ralph Waldo Emerson said that the end of the human race will be that we will eventually die of civilization. But trend is not destiny. Together, we’ll discover new paths which lead to the unknown world ahead of us.
What about Platinum, Crassus, and all the Vesta stuff?
Just like Cesar and Cicero represent ideologies, so do Platinum and Crassus. It really is as simple as “Platinum was a reporter so represents a kind of journalism” and “Crassus owns a bank so represents the economy/capitalism”. Megalopolis essentially uses Wow as an indictment of media that prioritized profit over journalistic responsibility. Worse yet, media that would play kingmaker.
The film also imagines a world where business leaders prioritize their legacy and the good they could do over their profits, which is why Crassus decides to donate everything to Megalopolis.
And then Vesta seemed to me to be about the entertainment industry. She’s a pop star with a gimmick that capitalizes on the moral ideals of religious conservatives. When Julia exposes that gimmick to clear Cesar’s name after Clodio’s attempted character assassination, Vesta quickly pivots to a new identity—an aggressive rocker.
And what was the whole deal with Cesar’s wife?
Essentially, Cesar was young, pompous, and a bad husband. His first wife, Sunny, found out she was pregnant with twins. Came home to tell Caesar but saw evidence he had been cheating. After they fought, she, overwhelmed by negativity, drove her car off a bridge.
Apparently Cesar was already well-known and at odds with Cicero, who was the district attorney or prosecutor for the DA. He brought a homicide case against Cesar, hoping to ruin his nemesis. Please correct me if I’m wrong here, but the facts wouldn’t have been enough for an indictment. So Cicero had Sunny’s body labeled a Jane Doe so she’d be lost in the system. He could then create a narrative about the missing body and blame Cesar for it. And instead of the car accident, float the story of a lethal insulin injection that clearly showed intent.
Specifics aside, Cesar felt guilty. And because we know the movie thinks of children as a metaphor for the future, Cesar also believed he had cost himself the future. Which is why he was so spiritually and existentially stuck. It’s not until Julia enters his life that he’s fully inspired again. And then once she’s pregnant, Cesar suddenly has his future restored and becomes adamant about making Megalopolis a reality.
Because Megalopolis cares about time and the tension between past, present, and future, the Sunny subplot is a way to have an anchor to the past that the protagonist has to overcome. When he’s recovering from the assassination attempt, he has that dream that’s his catharsis. He imagines, or hears, Sunny say “Be with her.” Which is the closure he needs to commit fully to his present with Julia and their future together.
What was the source of Megalon?
All we really get is that line during Cesar’s fever dream. Quote: I saw her drive over the bridge and into the icy water. And in that madness, it came to me. I discovered the principle of megalon, trying to save her life. And then we see the visual of the twins in Sunny’s body, under water. And Cesar holding his own cut out heart in his hand.
It’s so vague that I feel like it’s hard to give an informed answer. Clearly it’s something that comes from glimpsing death and reflecting on life. Something gained through grief. Honestly, megalon feels like a metaphor for art. When an artist experiences tragedy, they often transform their pain into something for the world to consume. And as trivial as art can seem in the grand scheme of things—it’s not food or shelter—it’s a transformative power. That would also explain why the first time Julia experiences Cesar’s vision of Megalopolis, it’s just a crude, cardboard city, something a child would build, but when she closes her eyes and walks through it, suddenly her imagination fills with the potential of what it could be. That sounds like art to me. And architects are artists.
Did Cesar actually die and the last part of the movie is a dream?
I saw some people speculating about this. No. Twists like that can be cool. But it would serve no purpose here. And the film doesn’t even begin to hint at that as a possibility. Yes, the last 30 minutes is pretty dreamlike and almost too good to be true, but Megalopolis is a fable. And fables are often quite dreamlike and end in these pat, perfect ways, because that’s how they impart the lessons they want to impart.
What was the deal with the Soviet satellite?
Kind of anti-climactic? We get the 9/11 imagery and this idea of our past coming back to haunt us and irresponsible use of technology and weapons. But the movie really flies past the calamity of it all. Plot-wise, the destruction caused by the satellite creates the space needed for Cesar to build Megalopolis.
Why all the comparisons to Rome?
Rome was a seemingly invincible and established civilization that lasted for centuries and seemed like it would be the center of the world forever. And then it fell. It’s one of the most well-documented examples of a civilization failing. Coppola makes the comparison as a warning. America isn’t guaranteed. That’s why the characters are named after famous Roman figures and we get the statues that recall Roman art and values. And why it isn’t New York City but New Rome.
Chris quick review of Megalopolis
I’m actually kind of mad at how many critics I saw say Megalopolis didn’t have a story and was just a series of disjointed montages. Seriously, if someone who calls themselves a professional critic can’t follow the story of Megalopolis, then they should retire and start a new career. It’s a very basic Shakespearean drama with obvious parallels to modern American politics. We get plenty of dialogue that explains exactly what Coppola wanted to say with the movie.
For the average viewer, I understand why Megalopolis could be a bizarre, surreal experience that leaves their head spinning. It is much different than your normal movie. And very different from the Coppola films most people know—The Godfather and Apocalypse Now.
So, like many other viewers and critics alike, I completely understand why someone would love Megalopolis and why they would hate it. Personally, I’m torn. It makes me think about the last novel from Gabriel García Márquez. Marquez wrote One-Hundred Years of Solitude, one of the greatest books of all-time. That came out in 1967. His last, fully complete prose work was in 2004, a novella called Memories of My Melancholy Whores. The title itself is pretty insane. And then you read it and it’s just…. Márquez was 77 at the time. So on the one hand, it’s awesome he’s writing anything. On the other hand, I didn’t enjoy it. I didn’t find any of the ingredients that had made Solitude so impressive. So I was torn between context and text.
It’s the same with Megalopolis. The context of it is amazing. Coppola, in his 80s, using the money from the winery he sold, makes this culminating piece, the capstone of his career. I’ll cheer for that no matter what. It’s the same with Ridley Scott. Was Napoleon my favorite movie ever? No. But will I forever be fascinated by what Scott wanted to say by making it in his 80s? Absolutely.
But the text? Eh. You watch The Godfather and Apocalypse Now and they’re two of the greatest examples of filmmaking. And then Megalopolis…isn’t? That’s a pretty unfair bar, to be fair. But it’s one Coppola himself set. So that comparison will always happen, whether it’s fair or not.
The opening scene where Cesar is on the roof of the Chrysler Building and almost falls but yells for time to stop was just not my vibe. It felt cheesy more than impressive. There’s that shot where the camera swings around so the Chrysler and Driver are on the left side of the screen and on the right side we get the open sky and cityscape. I understand why someone might think that’s a cool shot. I just…don’t. The CGI for the Chrysler was a little uncanny valley for me. And Driver’s just kind of there. And the buildings from the rest of the city are all kind of nondescript and low, rather than feeling like Midtown Manhattan. It wants me to feel grandeur but I don’t.
Then how Driver dangles a foot, leans forward, then yells stop…just kind of cheesy to me. Ending that huge visual with a long closeup on his face as he contemplates what just happened…eh. I like the ideas but never clicked with the actual execution. But that’s also not a recent phenomenon. I didn’t like Tetro either, for similar reasons. I kept waiting for it to be something it wasn’t.
I do think there’s a lot of positives to Megalopolis. And the uniqueness of it alone will be enough for some people to champion it. Even if my vision for it differs, it’s a movie with vision, and that’s a great thing.
Cast
- Cesar Catilina – Adam Driver
- Julia Cicero – Nathalie Emmanuel
- Mayor Frank Cicero – Giancarlo Esposito
- Teresa Cicero – Kathryn Hunter
- Jason Zanderz – Jason Schwartzman
- Nush Berman – Dustin Hoffman
- Wow Platinum – Aubrey Plaza
- Hamilton Crassus III – Jon Voight
- Clodio Pulcher – Shia LaBeouf
- Fundi Romaine – Laurence Fishburne
- Constance Crassus Catillina – Talia Shire
- Vesta Sweetwater – Grace Vanderwaal
- Clodia Pulcher – Chloe Fineman
- Report – Romy Mars
- Written by – Francis Ford Coppola
- Directed by -Francis Ford Coppola
