Lost Highway Ending Explained: The Total Failure of Masculinity

Furthermore, "Lost Highway" argues that to be emasculated is to be seen. Once can only stay cool if it stays mysterious, a bit in the shadows. Throughout "Lost Highway", Fred/Pete find themselves in front of the camera. Either he is on the tapes at the opening of the film, or he is filmed outdoors by the Mystery Man (Robert Blake). The idea of ​​being recorded every moment of every day is not necessarily anxiety-provoking in 2022, but in 1997 it was the height of paranoia. Not to become a boring Freudian, but the Riddler, holding the camera, could symbolize Fred/Pete's superego. Once he finds out he's being watched, Fred can no longer pretend to be someone else. He is a sad man who missed his marriage.

Fred's only choice is to get in the car and drive forever on the lost highway, with the police hot on his heels. Like a grindhouse Sisyphus, he's eternally doomed to chase away his fears and insecurities, never resting, never being able to let them go. Fred is in hell. Or maybe crazy. Either way, it's not a good ending for Fred.

Lynch has been married four times since 1968, with one marriage – to longtime collaborator Mary Sweeney – lasting less than a year. "Lost Highway" is a bold and glorious aesthetic exercise - it's easily Lynch's finest film - but can also reveal the insecurities the filmmaker had about marriages and their failure.

The late 1990s was, if movies are to be any indicator, also a time of big accounts. America's institutions of the old post-war world were examined and demolished in films like "Fight Club", "Pleasantville" and "American Beauty". "Lost Highway" is Lynch's version of this calculation.