I think Backrooms is going to age extremely well.
I can't wait to see what Parsons does next

Mary is definitely being held by ASYNC and Phil’s superiors, however I don’t think she was banished to the Backrooms in the last seconds of the film. I think that was just her still life version.

I don’t think she was sent back, that’s just a projection of her.

I think Clark having the training of an architect and considering himself an architect is genius. It feeds so well into him being interested in the dimensions and functionality of the backrooms.

Out of all the content creators tackling this, your explanation of Liminal Spaces is absolutely one of the best I've heard.

Hey Jared, been a fan of yours since the early wisecrack days. You’re one of my favorite content creators, and your viewpoint is always a breath of fresh air, in what seems like an increasingly vapid and automated world of movie criticism and analysis.  Thanks for giving us all the content.

20 Years Old Later I Finally Understand Kane Parsons

Jared constantly dropping bangers since Wisecrack

I’ve watched dozens of hours of Backrooms breakdowns and theories all summer. That I’d heard it all multiple times over by now.
NOPE. What an enlightening monologue to make connections so eloquently. New follower here

We are living in a social structure that was built for an age(1950's-1960's) that once existed but is now is gone or a least mostly faded, the result being the world no longer works and is quite dysfunctional. But despite all this the powers that be(politicians, bureaucrats, businessmen) don't want to fix things because they benefit from it, and thus have no interests in doing so. The end result is despite how bad things have gotten, those in charge act like everything fine and normal despite that it isn't and it clear, yet you go along with it despite how you feel out of self-interests. But this approach is not sustainable. I think that the reason why the Backrooms had such an impact. That being everything seems normal on the surface yet you feel its not. Much of what goes in society feels staged, acted or just plain fake because of it. Just look at your average corporate office building, people try to make themselves look more busy then they are despite there not much work to match it. All this makes the world feel very alienating and depressing, the backrooms really speaks to that. I don't think she was banished, I think it was just the backrooms just misremembering her. Her fate is left ambiguous.

I moved to central Ohio a few years ago and it’s like the whole state is a liminal place. In a way it literally is, since most people drive through, or fly over, Ohio on their way to somewhere else.

I also think Liminal can apply when you see a space in a context you wouldn't normally see it in. Like if you go to school or work at night and it's all dark, empty and lit up, it feels weird.

It's amazing to think that Aperture Science is probably as famous as Weyland-Yutani or Cyberdyne Systems.

5:45 Its interesting he made it when he was 19 because I feel like the area of life from 18 to like mid 20s really is just the limital part of your life. Youre an adult, legally speaking, but you dont own your own house, you arent really contributing meaningfully to society, its all just a big transitional period into real adult life. At least, that's how i feel right now.

i think the movie's also saying that we forge our neural pathways THROUGH trauma. mary is stuck in her liminal/transition space like clarke, but when she goes through the trauma of the actually escaping the backrooms, she cracks a bit of a smile at monster clarke as he reaches for her through the crack between walls. something in her shifted, and she's now able to look at her trauma right in the face and laugh

Uhh, when you say "banished to the backrooms forever" and cut to the misremembered version of her, you make it seem like that's her. I'm pretty sure she's just not allowed to leave that company's quarters/space/care. She's not forced to go live in the backrooms lol

Finally, a Backrooms analysis with something NEW to say. There’s been a massive echo chamber with this movie, all regurgitating the same points, but I knew with Jared we’d get something better :)

Another interesting difference between those two culture-defining films is the approach to the antagonist involved with the world-within-a-world.  In The Matrix, the Robots are actively and even violently resisted until change is brought about.  The Backrooms ends with the Big Ambiguous Company rendering the protagonist powerless, and continues with its business.

I would like to second what many other commenters are already saying -- that Mary's fate is left ambiguous, and not necessarily as depressing as being trapped in the backrooms (the still life was a recreation that suggests her trauma still echoes and is still 'remembered' within that dimension; that part of her is still held back by trauma, but not in a way that makes things hopeless for her). I ALSO HAVE MORE TO ADD, in that her ambiguous ending is ODDLY PERFECT for a movie built on liminal spaces...because Mary is herself stuck between doom and freedom. She occupies a liminal state of being and mind.! This only occurred to me because of your incredibly thoughtful video, so thank you

this movie has sooooo much to chew on. gets better everytime i think about it