‘Fountain of Youth’ stars explain the ending, address sequel odds

This article contains spoilers for Fountain of Youth.

What would you do if you could drink from the Fountain of Youth?

That question remains at the heart of Guy Ritchie’s aptly titled film, Fountain of Youth, which is now streaming on Apple TV+.

Treasure hunter Luke Purdue (John Krasinski) and his team attempt to locate the fountain at the behest (and budget) of billionaire Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson). Luke ropes his sister, Charlotte (Natalie Portman), and her son, Thomas (Benjamin Chivers), into their scheme. But in addition to the dangers of their search, they’re pursued by mysterious protector Esme (Eiza González).

The film follows the mission around the world from Thailand to London to Vienna to Cairo and the Great Pyramids. It is in Egypt that their hunt comes to an end, locating the fountain deep within one of the Pyramids.

As they approach the fountain, it becomes clear that Owen only wants its magical water for the power it will offer him, not its healing properties, as he told Luke. Luke drinks from the fountain at first, but when he sees what it will cost — his memories and life with his sister and nephew — he resists the allure of its power.

Meanwhile, Owen drinks from it and is seemingly absorbed into the fountain. “He went into some sort of a void where he had to make a big decision,” explains Gleeson. “Which was to fully take it, to fully commit to it, or to step back? He’s not one to step back. He keeps going forward. So, he dives in headfirst, and there’s a price to be paid for that. And it seems that he pays it.”

For Ritchie, it was more about the metaphor of the fountain’s costs and temptations. “There’s an idea that it wasn’t the first bite of the apple, but the reactive bite of the apple in the Garden of Eden that caused all the trouble,” he tells Entertainment Weekly. “It is all well and good if you can taste something, if you don’t then have to go back and inhale the stimulating elixir that the fountain offers. The principle of the fountain is that the reason it’s concealed is because the inevitable temptation of having to drink more than you should is a temptation which few can resist.”

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Krasinski elaborates on the fountain’s true meaning and why he believes Luke was able to resist it. “It’s a very human desire to always want something more than you already have,” he says. “Guy talked about that all the time and said, ‘What if the fountain of youth was inside you? What if it’s just a metaphor for the light inside you that you can either make brighter or dimmer? And what if you worked really hard to pull out all the things that made you joyful, rather than the things that you were wanting? What could you do to make people around you happier?’

“I thought that philosophical angle was really beautiful,” the actor continues, explaining that Luke’s bond with Charlotte is the key to his decision. “Charlotte showed me that the bond that we have is rarer than any artifact that I could have. Guy said, ‘It will be your sister that convinces you that you have the access to everything you could possibly want right here.’ And I thought that was pretty heavy.”

As for what happens to Owen, Krasinski believes that the billionaire is trapped within the fountain for eternity. “The fountain is everything that you could possibly want, but if you get everything you want, then you have to live there and you have to remain there,” he explains. “You can’t have both things. So, he’s being dissipated into whatever that is back under the ground.”

Portman sees it as something a bit more symbolic and haunting. “If you go back to being young, you lose your identity, which is built of everyone you love and all the experiences that you have, which are the evidence of age and experience,” she muses. “So that’s the trade-off that you make when you are trying to get youth. You are giving up all of the gifts of age. You lose yourself.”

However, Ritchie says we should interpret the ending to mean that the fountain is now permanently sealed. “Forever is quite a long time,” he says. “When mankind finds the ability to drink the fountain and resist the temptation to drown in it, so to speak, then it will reveal itself once more.”

While it probably will be quite some time before that happens, the film opens the door for a sequel. As the weary adventurers begin their journey home, Esme tells Luke that she’ll come after him if he gives her a reason to chase her. It’s a flirtatious retort, but it also suggests that her duties as a protector are far from over.

“It has very layered meanings in it,” says González. “It’s a perfect cliffhanger for the end of their relationship. What is she really trying to say here? Is it a relationship? Is it protectors? What’s next?”

From there, Charlotte and Luke trade quips about her getting to choose their next adventure, with nephew Thomas announcing that he has an idea. It certainly sounds like another installment could be on the way with that set-up.

The cast is enthusiastic about such a possibility. “If people wanted to see more, I would definitely be up for making more,” says Portman. “It was so joyful to make this.”

Adds González: “Why wouldn’t I? What a dream to be traveling the world with this amazing cast again. I do think that these types of movies need to be continued to be made for kids, to keep the innocence going, the passion of curiosity. You keep a family legacy. So, I’d jump right in.”

Not to mention the fact that González is dying to know more about the lore of the so-called “protectors,” the organization that Esme belongs to and is apparently headed by an elder played by Stanley Tucci.

“I asked Guy, ‘Are there other protectors?'” she says. “And he’s like, ‘Of course there has to be.’ Given that, it could be fun to have another sequel. We did go to one of the seven wonders of the world. There could be more. That’s the fun thing about adventure movies; it could keep going and going and going.”

Of course, whether it does or not is largely up to the film’s creator, and Ritchie has plenty of ideas for other objects this group could try to track down (though he’s mum on what those might be). “It was the most pleasurable film to make,” he says. “It was one of those films that you don’t really want to end. People had such a lovely time doing it that they’d love to go back for another bite. So, we’ll have to see how we do. We’d all love to go back.”