Let’s see what happened at the end of 2017 The Florida Project.
The critically acclaimed film, which also stars Willem Dafoe, follows a group of young kids who live at the Magic Castle motel (and some neighboring establishments) on the tourist strip of Kissimmee, Florida, right next to Walt Disney World.
Despite Moonee, Scooty, Dicky and Chauncey being close to such a happy place, life is anything but. However, the group tries their best to find something to do, even if it disturbs other locals in the area.
Florida Project Termination Explained
Throughout the film, the audience is allowed to be a fly on the wall, watching life in this small, spoiled slice of life in Kissimmee, Florida.
Moonee is one of the main characters and Hailey’s young daughter. Although Hailey used to work at a strip club, things take a turn for the worse when she is fired and forced to illegally procure products from tourists to make money.
In the end, she resorts to prostitution in her room at a motel, with her daughter hiding in the bathroom. Although the audience is not explicitly shown these moments, they begin to catch on – as do characters like Willem Dafoe’s Bobby and Mela Murder’s Ashley.
After an intense physical altercation with her ex-boyfriend, Hailey finds herself face-to-face with the Florida Department of Children and Families (DCF).
While the organization’s first visit doesn’t result in anything significant but a clear warning, their second visit proves more problematic. They have security footage and other evidence pointing to her prostitution, giving them the power to take Moonee away from her mother while they investigate further.
After saying goodbye to her friend Scooty, Moonee begins to realize that DCF is taking her in with a new family. So he runs away from it.
He escapes from the not-so-Magic castle and goes to his only friend, Jancey, at the motel next door.
In the final scene of the movie, Moonee and Jancey seem to run away from all their problems and go straight to a happier place: Walt Disney World, specifically the Magic Kingdom, where they visit Sleeping Beauty’s castle.
The importance of Moonee’s trip to Disney in the Florida project
The film deliberately leaves everything open-ended, never returning to tell the audience what happened to Moone or her mother. In doing so, it also leaves it up to viewers to decide whether the children’s impromptu trip to Walt Disney World is real or a figment of their imagination.
But with the rest of the film firmly rooted in real life, it’s hard to interpret the ending as anything other than a child’s desperate escape into his imagination to escape the sudden, soul-crushing reality of his circumstances.
After all, two kids couldn’t waltz to Disney. Also, the Kissimmee Tourist Center (roughly around where the movie takes place) is about seven miles down the road to the Magic Kingdom—a long walk that kids can successfully complete without getting caught by DCF and the police.
That, and the distinct change in style when they drop, is quite the telltale sign.
It’s clear that the whole movie was heavily about how growing up Magic Castle Moonee, despite being next door to Disney World, is far from a happy and perfect life. His last escape to Disney with his friend (real or not) helps drive that home.
The next thing that probably happened is Chancey’s mom finds out what might be going on and Moonee gets to stay with her friend a little longer before being released to services.
As for Hailey, things probably won’t go well for her. The audience probably saw the family cataclysmically broken up for good.
The Florida Project now streaming on Netflix.
