SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
During a series of adrenaline-fueled one-night gigs, itinerant punk-metal drummer Ruben (Riz Ahmed) begins to experience intermittent hearing loss. When a specialist tells him his condition will rapidly worsen, he thinks his music career — and with it, his life — is over. His bandmate and girlfriend Lou (Olivia Cooke) checks the recovering heroin addict into a secluded sober house for the deaf in hopes it will prevent relapse and help him learn to adapt to his new situation. But after being welcomed into a community that accepts him just as he is, Ruben has to choose between his equilibrium and the drive to reclaim the life he once knew. Utilizing startling, innovative sound design techniques, director Darius Marder takes audiences inside Ruben’s experience to vividly recreate his journey into a rarely examined world.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Sound of Metal Video Summary
Sound of Metal Plot Summary and Synopsis
Ruben is a drummer and one half of the metal duo ‘Blackgammon’, along with the singer, his girlfriend, Lou. They live in an RV while driving across the country to perform gigs. When Ruben begins to suddenly lose his hearing, he goes to a pharmacy seeking a diagnosis. The pharmacist refers him to a doctor, who performs a hearing test and finds that Ruben can only make out 20-30 percent of words he hears, and his hearing will deteriorate rapidly; moreover, although cochlear implants may benefit him, their high cost is not covered by insurance. The doctor suggests that Ruben eliminate all exposure to loud noises and later undergo further testing, but Ruben continues to perform.
Lou learns of Ruben’s condition and wants to stop performing for his safety, but he wants to continue. Lou is also concerned about his sobriety, as he is a recovering drug addict. They call his narcotics anonymous sponsor, Hector, who finds a rural shelter for deaf recovering addicts that accepts Ruben, run by a man named Joe, a recovering alcoholic who lost his hearing in the Vietnam War. Ruben leaves with Lou because they will not let her live there with him and he wants only the implants. Lou, anxious for his well-being, leaves and persuades Ruben to return to the shelter.
Ruben begins to meet the other members of the shelter as he attends meetings and settles into his new life. He is introduced to Diane, a teacher, and the children in her class, and begins to learn American Sign Language. Joe tasks Ruben with writing endlessly and sitting peacefully in an effort to make him comfortable with the silence, and confides to him that he himself will do the same, simultaneously. Ruben joins Diane’s class and starts to connect with the children and the rest of the community. He gives the children and Diane basic drumming lessons.
So far, Ruben’s stay has been sponsored by a church. Joe offers him a more permanent way of staying on, as an employee of the community, and tells him to think about it. Ruben periodically uses the computer to see what Lou is up to, discovering her to be experimenting with her own music in Paris. He gets his friend Jenn to sell his drums and other music equipment then sells his RV, using the money for cochlear implant surgery. Ruben asks Joe to loan him money to buy back his RV while he awaits activation of the implant. Joe refuses, as the community is founded on the belief that deafness is not a handicap. Joe then politely asks Ruben to leave for the same reason.
Once activated, the implants allow Ruben to hear but cause irritating distortion that disrupts his attempts to regain his old way of life. Ruben flies to meet Lou at her wealthy father Richard’s house in Belgium, where she has settled into a new lifestyle. Richard welcomes him and allows him to stay there. Richard confides in Ruben that while he did not originally like Ruben, he recognizes that Ruben has made Lou happy. At a gathering, Lou and her father perform a duet, though Ruben’s implants prevent him from fully enjoying it. Ruben and Lou discuss the possibility of playing music and touring again. Ruben notices this makes Lou anxious and tells her all is well and that she saved his life. She tells him that he saved hers too.
The Ending
The next morning, Ruben wakes up, takes his things, and leaves while Lou is still sleeping. Bothered yet again by the distortion, he sits down outdoors and removes his implants’ processors, and continues to sit, now in silence.
Sound of Metal Ending Explained
Ruben is reluctant to change his ways of living, but his sudden condition makes him rethink everything. Eventually, he accepts the inevitable changes in his life.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).