-The Fountain is one of the most beautiful movies you will ever see, and I just watched it for the third time, trying to make sense of it all, and here is my take on it. If you haven't seen the movie, you're not going to understand any of this. I pretty much went with the explanation shown by the links below. I am assuming that the modern day story line is the true story, the conquistador storyline was from the book written by Izzy, and space storyline was Tommy finishing the story as Izzy requested. What confuses me is that the Tom from the future appears momentarily in the conquistador storyline, then changes back to Tomas again. Tomas then metamorphosize into plants. Assuming the futuristic Tom and Tomas are both in The Fountain as mentioned above, is the futuristic Tom and Tomas the same person? But how is that possible since Tomas metamorphosized into plants?
-My explanation as of right now is that futuristic Tom and Tomas is the same person in character, but two different persons physically. Tomas is the first father, but so is the future Tom. I think there is a theme of everything coming together, specifically in a full circle, therefore requiring some sort of bend in time. The future Tom is the first father who sacrifices himself to create earth, and Tomas is reincarnated in the past to search for the Tree of Life, and dies from drinking the sap of the Tree of Life. In essence, the story ends where it began, during the 1500's. The end is the beginning, as this is a repeated theme in the film. Of course this is all a reflection of the contemporary Tom and his struggle with death, but there are two realities within the modern story, which was the choice for Tom to work and the choice to follow Izzy out the door. As Tom realizes the inevitability of death, he decides to follow Izzy, a sign of revelation and as a reaction, to seize the day. I wouldn't be surprised if there are still inconsistencies, but I think it's coherent for the most part.
-An alternative explanation (3rd link) is that the future Tom storyline is true and a continuation of the contemporary Tom. The conquistador storyline is still written by Izzy. The problem is once again the future Tom appearing in the Tomas storyline. To that, I'd offer the same explanation as above. Everything about the alternative storyline is coherent, except future Tom's appearance in the 16th Century. If the future Tom is true, how can he appear in a fictional story? That is unless Tomas was also real, but if that was true, present Tom's writing of the book would lose significant value.
-As to the theme of the movie and what it all means, I think it is more than about making peace with death as I previously thought. As mentioned above it has to do with coming full circle and the paradox of life and death. From death comes life, as the birth of stars come from the death of stars. From life comes death as shown by death from the Tree of Life- and back to life again through flowers. Tomas and future Tom are opposites in the sense that Tomas died pursuing life, and did not make peace with death, but died despite it. Future Tom made peace with death, and was born again with the stars. To live is to die and to die is to live. Finally, the pursuit of immortality is an illusion, but the revelation is that to choose death, to make peace with death, is to live forever through others and the only way to truly live.
