Clean Ending Explained – Was Clean’s Past Revealed?

Clean Ending Explained
Clean Ending Explained

Directed by Paul Solet and written by Adrien Brody, Clean is an American crime drama movie released in 2021 and distributed by IFC Films. It stars Adrien Brody, in the lead role with the supporting cast that consists of Glenn Fleshler, Richie Merritt, Chandler DuPont, Mykelti Williamson, and RZA.

Clean has a rollercoaster of a ride. It could’ve become one of the best-written movies of the last year, but the latter portion of the movie just couldn’t keep up with its brilliant writing. Nevertheless, Paul Solet has done a pretty decent job in bringing out the best from the script with some quality acting from the actors. Let’s discuss the Clean ending explained and break down its final moments.

Clean Ending Explained
Clean Ending Explained

Clean Plot

The protagonist Clean is a guy who has no clear understanding of his presence or his past. Working as a garbage man, he is looking for some answers and repents for the sins he has committed in the past. Clean certainly has some sort of disoriented past and it involves lots of violence.

He probably was a man who was involved in something considered a sin in society. That’s why he has clogged memories. He believes that clogged memories can be cleaned but it’s not possible to clean clogged memories. You can’t just let them go and they will keep haunting you.

Clean finally gets a chance to pay for his sins after he comes in contact with his neighbor Dianda who just resembles his daughter. One day, she gets involved with some hoodlums who harass her. Clean comes to save her and ends up beating the guys. However, the trouble doesn’t end here.

Turns out, one of the guys he beat severely was the son of the famous drug lord Michael. He reports it to his father and Clean gets involved with the Mafia. With this newfound connection, we finally get to see shadows lifting from the past of Clean.

Clean’s Fragmented Past

One of the things that the movie doesn’t tell is the accurate past of Clean. It’s all vague and the audience is always kept guessing right through the end. It’s the same thing with his daughter whose fragmented memories appear from time to time in the movie.

This has made the film even more out of the loop as there’s nothing conclusive for the viewers to look forward to. If they don’t have enough understanding about the character’s background, it becomes difficult to get behind them. And that’s the same story with Clean.

Clean Ending Explained
Clean Ending Explained

Clean Ending Explained – Was Clean’s Past Revealed?

The protagonist Clean decided to take the John Wick route with an intense focus on the violence aspect. It did succeed in some of the aspects but failed to deliver the final punch. There wasn’t much focus on the depth of the protagonist and the characters around him and all it was failed potential.

This was the story of a dad who believed that he was a failure as a father and to repent for his shortcomings, he decides to protect the girl that resembles his daughter. What follows after that is a sequence of violence and pretty much John Wick’s style of flashy scenario.

There’s nothing really to take away from the film as it didn’t focus much on the characters. In the end, it just became another mindless action film like we have thousands of them.

What are your thoughts on Clean? Let us know in the comments. For more such updates, make sure to follow us on social media.

Clean Official Trailer

Faisal
An engineering student who's still not sure what to do in his life. For the time being I'm watching anime :)