Did Moonee Die In The Florida Project? Her Fate Answered Finally!

No, in “The Florida Project,” Moonee does not die in "The Florida Project. The film ends with Moonee and her friend Jancey running away after the Florida Department of Children and Families arrives to take Moonee into foster care. They escape to Disney World, leaving their old world behind. However, it’s left ambiguous whether Moonee and Jancey actually left the motel and made new lives for themselves. This ending emphasizes Moonee’s sense of wonder and imagination, which is a key theme of the movie.

Towards the end of the film, the Florida Department of Children and Families arrives to take Moonee into foster care. In response, Moonee and her friend Jancey run away. They escape to Disney World, leaving their old world behind. However, it’s left ambiguous whether Moonee and Jancey actually left the motel and made new lives for themselves. This ending emphasizes Moonee’s sense of wonder and imagination, which is a key theme of the movie.

Despite the uncertainty of their future, the film ends on a note of hope and resilience. The audience is left to decide whether the children’s trip to Walt Disney World is real or their imagination. But seeing as the rest of the film is firmly rooted in real life, it’s hard to interpret the ending as anything but a desperate child’s escape into her imagination to avoid the sudden, soul-crushing reality of her circumstances.

The ending of “The Florida Project” is a poignant and powerful culmination of the film’s exploration of poverty, childhood innocence, and societal neglect. During the ending, The Florida Project's protagonist, Moonee, manages to escape the DCF workers and makes it to Jancey's motel in tears. They escape to Disney World, leaving their old world behind. However, it’s left ambiguous whether Moonee and Jancey actually left the motel and made new lives for themselves. This ending emphasizes Moonee’s sense of wonder and imagination, which is a key theme of the movie.

The film’s ending serves as a catalyst for conversations about social responsibility and the need for systemic change to break the cycle of poverty. It urges viewers to look beyond the surface and recognize the humanity in individuals facing adversity. Despite the uncertainty of their future, the film ends on a note of hope and resilience.

As abrupt as it may look, the ending to The Florida Project makes thematic sense. It’s a beautiful film that shows the bright, inventive side of a bad situation, which, even for a child, can only do so much in times of hardship. The film expertly immerses its audience into Moonee’s experiences through slice-of-life vignettes within a grander overarching plot.

In a movie that explores motherhood, poverty, and childhood innocence with a frank, realistic style, it would be bizarre for Sean Baker to end the film with such a sensational piece of fantasy. Moonee’s reality has only ever been based in the Magic Castle Motel, where her upbringing has been full of freedom and vibrancy, with a mother who may struggle but deeply cares for her. So, when the magic of her reality breaks in the final sequence, Baker prefers to treat the audience with the semblance of a happy ending rather than showing a tearful Moonee in the back of a police car.

“The Florida Project” is a critically acclaimed film directed by Sean Baker that provides a glimpse into the lives of children living in poverty near Disney World. The film follows Moonee, a precocious six-year-old girl who lives with her unemployed single mother, Halley, in a budget motel in Kissimmee, Florida.

Despite their struggle to make ends meet and stave off homelessness, Moonee and her friends find joy in their surroundings. The film juxtaposes the children’s joyful adventures with the local residents’ less glamorous day-to-day lives. It also contrasts the children’s vibrant world with the surreal environment dominated by the nearby Walt Disney World.

“All the news stories focused on the juxtaposition we ended up focusing on — children growing up in budget motels just outside the place we consider the happiest and the most magical place on earth for children,” the director, Sean Baker, explains.

Halley, who survives largely on welfare, has little respect for people, especially those who cross her. This attitude is passed down to Moonee, who curses and gives the finger like her mother. Despite Halley’s rebellious nature, she deeply cares for Moonee.

Sean Baker, the director of “The Florida Project,” chose the film’s ending to emphasize Moonee’s sense of wonder and imagination. The ending, where Moonee and her friend Jancey run away to Disney World, reflects the theme of finding happiness and agency in difficult circumstances.

Baker explained that the ending might not be real, but perhaps it’s the audience’s moment to use Moonee’s sense of imagination and wonderment to make the best of what might not be a happy ending. He also mentioned that sometimes rules have to be broken to make a film.

The final scene was shot very clandestinely. Baker drew from his Tangerine techniques for The Florida Project’s final frames. At the end of the summer 2016 shoot, he headed to Disney World with Bergoch, cinematographer Alexis Zabe, acting coach Samantha Quan, the two children and their guardians. “You can’t even call what we had a crew,” laughs Baker. “We were like a family group taking a vacation.”

The scene has an elevated finish from the rest of the movie (shot in 35mm film) because it’s captured on an iPhone for “obvious logistical purposes” and specifically for that device’s inherent effect. This stylistic switch is as much a part of the director’s content-dictated aesthetic as the limpid compositions and singing colors that infuse this movie about low-rent lives with such visual richness.