Johnny Depp has played plenty of strange and unusual characters, like an eccentric pirate, but Dean Corso fills a certain niche. He’s a rare-book dealer who knows how to find valuable old books and isn’t above cheating a client if it means making a little extra money. One job puts him in contact with a wealthy collector who believes he’s found something truly special. But the book at the center of the deal comes with a dark history, and Corso soon discovers there’s more to it than meets the eye.
The Ninth Gate was released in 1999. And it’s the sort of movie that gets under your skin without relying on jump scares. There’s something wonderfully unsettling about its old bookstores, shadowy libraries, and people who seem to frequent them. And then there’s that ending. After all the strange clues and increasingly disastrous attempts to unlock the book’s secrets, Corso reaches a destination that answers some questions while leaving others wide open. The movie doesn’t stop to explain itself, and it certainly doesn’t give us a handy little scene telling us what happens next. More than two decades later, viewers are still debating what Corso’s final journey actually means.
Corso begins the film as a professional skeptic, or at least a professional opportunist. When wealthy collector Boris Balkan hires him to authenticate a rare book called The Nine Gates of the Kingdom of Shadows, Corso sees an assignment that could make him a tidy sum. Balkan believes the book contains instructions for summoning the ultimate evil, and he wants Corso to compare his copy with the other surviving editions. There are only three, and the engravings supposedly hold the key to unlocking the book’s power. Naturally, people start dying, because apparently collecting rare books wasn’t dangerous enough already. Much like his upcoming Ebenezer film, Depp seems made for these creepy stories. But check out the original trailer and get ready for a dose of the diabolical.
The further Corso gets into the investigation, the harder it becomes to dismiss everything as the ravings of wealthy occult enthusiasts. A mysterious woman played by Emmanuelle Seigner keeps appearing at suspiciously convenient moments, while Balkan becomes increasingly obsessed with completing the ritual. His big mistake is assuming that money, research, and an awful lot of confidence will get him exactly what he wants. When he finally attempts to use the book’s supposed power, things go spectacularly wrong. Corso, meanwhile, discovers that the final engraving in Balkan’s copy isn’t authentic. The real illustration points him toward a different conclusion, and the film’s final moments see him approaching a mysterious doorway before disappearing into its light. Roll credits. Thanks for coming, and good luck figuring that one out.
One of the more popular interpretations is that the mysterious Girl is Lucifer, or at least some supernatural figure making sure Corso reaches the right destination. She repeatedly turns up when he needs help, seems to know things she shouldn’t, and survives encounters that would ordinarily leave a person in a body bag. Then there’s the ninth engraving, which appears to connect her to the very mystery Corso has been chasing. If she’s been guiding him all along, Balkan’s failure starts to look less like bad luck and more like a fundamental misunderstanding of what the book requires. He approaches the whole thing like another exclusive club he can buy his way into. Corso gets there by following the clues, even if he doesn’t fully understand what he’s found.
But here’s the question that makes the ending so effective: is Corso actually winning? He walks toward the light, but the film never tells us what waits on the other side. Perhaps he’s finally completed the ritual and gained access to something beyond human understanding. Perhaps the Girl has been leading him toward a fate he can’t possibly comprehend. Or maybe the ending is deliberately withholding the one thing Corso has spent the entire movie trying to obtain: certainty. He started out thinking every mystery had a price and every rare book had a value. By the end, he’s dealing with something that doesn’t fit neatly into either category. The Ninth Gate gives Corso the destination he was chasing, then leaves us outside wondering whether we’d have followed him through that door. And get ready for Depp’s new “Vampire Wick” thriller on the way.
Personally, I think that’s a much more interesting place to leave him than simply declaring him the new king of the underworld. What do you think about this film’s ending? Tell us what you think happened or what you wish happened!
