Whenever I come back, the air on Railroad is making the same sounds,
And the shop fronts on Holly are dirty words (asterisks in for the vowels)
We peered through the windows, new bottoms on barstools but the people remain the same.
With prices inflating, as if saved from the gallows.

There's a bellow of buzzers and the people stop working and they're all so excited.

Passing through unconscious states, when I awoke, I was on the highway.

With your hands on my shoulders, a meaningless movement, a movie script ending.
And the patrons are leaving, now we all know the words were true
In the sappiest songs (yes, yes)

I'll put them to bed, but they won't sleep, they're just shuffling the sheets,
They toss and turn (you can't begin to get it back)

Passing through unconscious states, when I awoke, I was on the onset of a later stage:
The headlights are beacons on the highway.



Lyrics submitted by jephque

Track duration: 04:19

"A Movie Script Ending" as written by Benjamin Gibbard

Lyrics © EMI Music Publishing

Lyrics powered by LyricFind


A Movie Script Ending song meanings
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  • 0
    General Comment:The First song of Death Cab's I listened to over and over and over. Feels like the start of Autumn for me.

    Just saw them at The Moody Theater, Austin, TX, USA on May 4, 2012.

    They play w/ the Magik*Magik Orchestra. Seeing and hearing them with a live string section was truly perfect. Beautiful.

    When they played this song I freaked out.
    Flag NativeIndieon May 05, 2012   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:When putting the song and the video together it seems as though two people are in a long distance relationship. The girl is crying at the beginning...and the song talks about when I come back...like she has to come back to reality because her love has to go back. Then the video shows them together and the song talks about being in an unconscious state as though it doesn't seem real when they are together because there isn't enough time together. Each time there is a sad moment it seems it is brought up because they have to part from each other.
    Flag popcornbreathon May 23, 2011   Link
  • 0
    General Comment: I think this song is about like leaving your high school sweet heart behind or something along the lines of that. She wants to stay in the same town the grew up in and visit the same streets and same places but he wants to see more places. He comes back to visit her and sees everything is still the same, and he still has feelings for her. Yet he knows they can never get things back to how they were at there best. And this is what he thinks after visiting her when he's on his way back home, or maybe just him driving on the highway and having a flash back. He listens to the sappy songs and he gets them now and he thinks back to that innocent youth and first loves but now he's on the highway to his later life... adult hood. Any input??
    Flag cheekz1120on January 12, 2011   Link
  • +1
    General Comment:I think given the time that this song was written by gibbard I could give a good guess... He said the photo album was their most rushed and time sensitive record and the days of touring and being on the road blurred together. I think this song describes returning to bellingham where life is still at a standstill and hasn't changed other than a few minor details, and to him it seems so picturesque (like a movie script ending) when he returned in the process because his life was in a constant motion. The chorus just describes the blurred memory of the constant touring.
    Flag districtseton June 28, 2010   Link
  • 0
    My Interpretation:I believe it is about a man (?) who is unconsciously (dreaming/sleeping) going back to his home town. He realizes that after all the years he has been away, "the people remain the same," with people working all day waiting for the buzzer to go off. (The buzzer signaling the time you finish working for lunch break or end of the day.) The "unconscious states" has a double meaning. 1. The man is going through different images and dreams and memories and 2. He is driving on the highway through different places where everyone is sleeping, though he isn't truly sleeping. He flashes back to the time the patrons leave, stopping the financial help they need. While he is leaving, the man's wife (girlfriend maybe) places her hand on his shoulder. It is meaningless-it won't get the money back. But it's supposed to mean something, it's the movie script ending! Now he has kids, and he realizes that those sappy love songs are true. As he tucks them in, they can't sleep, and the man wishes he could go back to when life was different. He dreams that he is on the stage, at the beginning- but much later in life. He continues his drive on the highway of life.
    Flag psychopompicdreamson April 15, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Maybe it's about feeling the need to keep on moving? He goes back to visit his hometown, but he's never satisfied and he wants to leave. The town isn't like it used to be. He doesn't realize what he's doing until he's back on the road.
    Flag aynon March 12, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:This song is definetely about a trip back to Bellingham, as proven by the street names. I kind of figured so, however, by the first line in the chorus, "Passing through unconsious states". Depending on which route you take, you'll more than likely to pass through states like Montana, Wyoming, or Idaho, which are some of the lesser populated states and could therefore be regarded as "Unconsious states", for the fact that nothing really goes on there.

    This song also reminds me of a similar trip I took back to an old hometown a few years ago. Though I stayed in-state, I passed through some of the lesser populated counties to get to my old hometown (passing through unconsious states). Everything looked the same as it was when I left, kind of like what Ben is saying when he says "The air on Railroad is making the same sound". There were small changes, like a new supermarket and a new baseball field, but the people and it's surroundings didn't change a bit. "New bottoms on barstools, the people remain the same."

    In my experience, I'm making a point never to go back because of some issues with family down there. "A Movie Script Ending" is the perfect title for this, in my opinion, and may very well relate to Ben in his trip back. I felt it was good to have gone back when I did to realize that my old hometown hasn't changed for the most part, and will stay, more than likely, preserved as it did when I grew up there. A sort of assurance, if you will, that how it is pictured in my mind will forever be how it is in real life - a perfect ending, a "Movie Scipt Ending".
    Flag kch15on March 07, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Good song. About the little moments you have with people, maybe, the moments you remember and hold onto, no matter what changes.
    Flag xmakesherflyxon February 27, 2010   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:To me, this song is about moving on. That's where the highway metaphor comes from, and it ties into the video too. Their relationship looked functional from the outside and neither of them wanted to leave, because it was safe. But behind closed doors, i.e. in bathrooms and parking garages, the girl was in shambles.
    I might just be thinking this way because of the relationship of mine that just ended, but it makes sense in my mind. It is about moving on when you don't want to. And you want to convince yourself that you don't have to, but in the end there's no getting out of it.
    Flag JenelleGloriaon December 13, 2009   Link
  • 0
    General Comment:Maybe he is talking about going back to his hometown that he left a long time ago. Everything he remembers about it is still the same..same people same routine. Hes comparing his life to the life he would be living had he never left. bittersweet maybe?? He feels caught up in everything and everything is passing him by so quickly, like life is a highway, he does it without much counscious. But this is suppost to be his "movie script ending".
    Flag lifesong117on November 11, 2009   Link

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