The Dark Promise of Marty Supreme’s Last Scene

This article contains spoilers for Marty Supreme.

In the final moments of Marty Supreme, Marty Mauser thinks that he has it all. Not only has he defeated his nemesis Koto Endo (Koto Kawaguchi) and made his way home from Japan, despite angering benefactor Milton Rockwell (Kevin O’Leary), but Marty arrives in NYC to find that his maybe-girlfriend Rachel (Odessa A’zion) has given birth to his son.

The last shots of the film thus depict Marty at his most emotionally raw. While Marty (Timothée Chalomet) has certainly been vulnerable in earlier parts of the movie, most notably when he drops his pants to allow Rockwell to spank him in public, all of that was in pursuit of a goal: to prove he’s the greatest ping pong player the world. Here, as Marty looks at his son, he breaks down in honest tears, true vulnerability that has nothing to do with winning or proving his greatness. And that’s exactly why the scene signals Marty’s ultimate defeat.

Marty Supremacy

With its kinetic scenes of table tennis matches and huge ’80s pop soundtrack, which mixes needle drops such as “I Have the Touch” by Peter Gabriel and a synth score by Daniel Lopatin, Marty Supreme can at times play more like a Rocky movie than the standard A24 fare. Director Josh Safdie, who shares a co-writing credit with Ronald Bronstein, borrows so openly from sports movie tropes that one could be forgiven for reading Marty Supreme as a triumphant story about an incredible talent who stops at nothing to achieve his dreams.

Indeed, Marty is a world-class tennis table player. The film takes time to establish his ability to best everyone, whether its former champion Béla Kletzki (Géza Röhrig) or the yokels he and his buddy Wally (Tyler, the Creator) hustle for cash. Moreover, Chalamet imbues Marty with such charisma that we understand how he and business partner Dion (Luke Manley) could get the latter’s father to invest in an orange ping pong ball promotion. We, like Marty, have near infinite confidence in his abilities to win.

However, many viewers do not share Marty’s sense of greatness. He may be a unique ping-pong talent, but the movie never forgets that it’s just ping-pong. His achievements all come in a game that few, particularly in 1952, hold in highly prestigious esteem Furthermore, the film presents Marty as a mewling, conniving jerk, thanks in part to Chalamet’s egoless commitment to the role. Marty will deceive, cajole, and betray anyone in pursuit of his goal, whether it be friend, family, or benefactor. The film’s acknowledgment of Marty’s terrible behavior informs the entire pivot of the final scene, in which he breaks down in tears while staring at his son.

Even Babies Want to Rule the World

The last scene of Marty Supreme takes place after his victory over Endo in Japan. Having forced an exhibition showcase into a real rematch between the Japanese champion that redeems his loss at the start of the film, Marty makes his way back to the U.S. where he goes to the hospital to find that Rachel has given birth. After checking in with the dazed mother, Marty goes to see his newborn son. As the nurse holds the infant up to the glass, Marty finally loses his cool. His driven facade shatters and holds his hands to his mouth, the only gesture toward maintaining composure as he allows the tears to fall from his face.

In between Marty’s breakdown, Safdie turns the camera toward the child, who goes on the inverse of Marty’s emotional journey. Where the baby cries as the nurse picks him up, another emotion takes over upon meeting the old man. In close-up, the baby gives his father what can only be described as a look of disgust. Against Marty’s warm display, the child sneers at his dad, as if already losing respect for the weakness his father shows. The scene closes as the thundering sounds of “Everybody Wants to Rule the World” by Tears for Fears plays.

The combination of music and expressions completely undercuts whatever epiphany Marty thinks he may have achieved. It’s true that his tears reveal a type of humanity that Marty has kept closed off to himself and others throughout the film; however, its that humanity in others which allowed Marty to use them in order to achieve his own ends.

Whether it’s the loyalty that Dion, Rachel, and Wally extend, the desire to avoid further conflict with a disdaining table tennis head (Pico Iyer), or the adoration that a gangster (Abel Ferrara) has for his dog, Marty sees the slightest hint of authentic connection as just another advantage to exploit. Just look at the way he treats his mother (Fran Drescher), who he consistently treats as, at best, the provider of shelter and, most often, as an imposition. Even the one act of kindness he shows is in fact a testament to his own greatness, chipping off a piece of the pyramid at an event and giving to his mother to bond over their Jewish identities, proclaiming “we built this.”

If Marty runs over everyone, including family, in pursuit of his goals, who is to say his child won’t do the same? Certainly the movie doesn’t suggest that such a turn around will happen. As the soundtrack tells us, everybody wants to rule the world, Marty Jr. included. And if this child sees any advantage that he can get by mistreating his pops, then he absolutely will.

Like Father, Like Son

According to Variety, the original ending of Marty Supreme involved “Everybody Wants to Rule the World,” but it occurred in a very different setting. This ending found Marty at a Tears for Fears concert in the 1980s where the sight of his granddaughter singing along with the hit prompts him to recall his past.

Even without that time shift in place, the film’s ending retains the theme. Marty Supreme is a movie about people who want to rule the world, including movie stars, fountain pen moguls, and ping-pong champions. The closer these people get to power, the more craven, thoughtless, and empty they become, including our hero Marty Mauser.

The film doesn’t need to go 30 years into the future to show us that the quest for power, no matter how insignificant, will continue. The same things he did will be done unto him because everyone, father and child, wants to rule the world.

Marty Supreme is now playing in theaters.