'Enemy' Film Analysis

‘Enemy’ And Other Names For Our Subconscious Compulsions

By Adrian Weber

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I highly recommend you view the film before reading this piece. Spoilers. Thank you.

‘Enemy’, which is directed by the great Denis VIlleneuve (Sicario, Blade Runner 2049) is about a man dealing with his feelings of entrapment, infidelity and guilt regarding his marriage with his pregnant wife. Taking place in a murky-golden Toronto, we shadow a man and his mind through the city - on a mission to confront his shortcomings to his wife as well as himself. In this piece we will explore the mind of our central character and attempt to pick apart the most confusing plot I’ve watched in my years of appreciating movies.

Before we start getting deep there are some things we have to establish. Anthony and Adam (both played brilliantly by Gyllenhaal) are the same person. Denis himself says “it’s (about) a man who decides to leave his mistress, to go back to his pregnant wife, and we see the story from his subconscious point of view.” While his real name is Anthony Claire, both Adam and Anthony share mental and physical attributes to the individual. His personality is split between the two, who on screen, feel like two seperate people. For the sake of comprehension I will refer to each persona by their given screen name (Adam or Anthony), just keep in mind they make up the same individual.

This film dawns with a voicemail of his mother thanking him for showing her his new apartment and that she is worried about him, “how can you live like that?” she asks. Then we see Anthony enter this very creepy, high-class gentlemen’s club where we witness men watching a woman masterbate and another about to squish a spider with her heels. We will dig more into this later.

We first meet Adam, the timid and nervous history teacher side to Anthony, mid lecture on the topic about control and dictatorships. This reflects on how he feels about his marriage to his pregnant wife. He believes his freedom will be abolished with the birth of his new child, and this forced responsibility to them makes him feel controlled. At school Adam is in a room with another faculty member and the faculty member recommends a movie to him. This interaction takes place in his head and that this is himself fighting his psychosis by attempting to get himself back on the right path to be a better man and husband to his wife. I also find the chances that someone would recommend one of the three films that he acts in too small to just be some sort of coincidence that propels the entire story forward. Especially a movie of this depth where every frame and word of dialogue has to count given a very compact run time of only ninety minutes.

Adam watches the movie that was recommended to him and and when he sees his doppelganger acting in the film he becomes obsessed with finding out more about him. He learns that the actor is actually locally based in Toronto and compares a photograph of himself (with someone torn out of it) to a profile of a Daniel Saint Claire on the internet, Anthony’s chosen pseudonym for his acting career. Adam finds his “doppelgangers” talent agency and when he arrives he’s mistaken for the actor version of himself and given an envelope reading “confidential.” We learn through the security guard that Anthony hasn’t been to the talent agency in six months. On the envelope Adam gets Anthony’s address and goes to scout him out. He passes two identical yet unique buildings which serve as one of many instances that ‘Enemy’ interweaves great visual symbolism throughout the film.

While scouting out Anthony’s apartment building, Adam goes to a payphone and attempts to call Anthony. Obviously he doesn’t answer, and his wife, Helen, answers instead. She doesn’t realize it yet, but this is her first on screen indication of her husband’s poor mental well being. Our first viewing of Anthony happens when he gets off the phone with his Adam personality and Helen suspects that it was a angry husband of another woman. Anthony insists it was the “same man” that called her earlier. Helen, at first seemingly unfairly, questions him “Are you seeing her? Are you seeing her again?” With this information said we can infer that Anthony has had loyalty issues in his past. That night Helen finds “Adam Bell History Teacher” scrawled on the paper Anthony was writing on while he was on the phone with Adam. She searches for a Adam Bell on the internet and finds that there is indeed a Adam Bell that teaches history in the school’s directory. I assume Anthony made this name up in order to feed his psychosis - he also previously made a fake name for his acting career (Daniel Saint Claire.)

Helen takes the initiative to go to the workplace of this Adam Bell and she finds him sitting on a bench outside. This scene is where the filmmakers, through Helen, tell us that Adam and Anthony are the same person. Helen’s reaction is one of slight fear and dismay - she’s realizing the extent to her husband’s mental illness. She is heartbroken to see her husband not recognize her in his split personality. If Adam was indeed a clone of Anthony, then her reaction would’ve been one of amazement and curiosity, but instead we get a dismal realization. 

While Adam and Helen awkwardly conversate on the benches we learn that Helen is six months pregnant. Remember, it's also been six months since Anthony has been to his talent agency. Take this as no coincidence. This means that Anthony did the reasonable thing and quit his unreliable/failed acting career and got a dutiful job as a history teacher to provide for his wife and soon to be birthed child. 

Anthony comes home to Helen after a run and while he scours the fridge looking for blueberries, Helen cannot look or answer to him. She has to leave the room and she is shown sobbing on the couch - realizing how lost her husband has become in his own head. She desperately tries to get a reasonable explanation from him, “what’s happening?” she asks, his reply of “I really don’t know what you’re talking about.” tells the audience his unawareness of his mental state. She then insists that “I think you know” reinforcing the notion to us that Helen knows the two versions of Anthony Claire are one. 

Adam’s dream/vision of the spider-lady walking through a dim hallway is a foreshadowed event in which later in the film Adam follows a sensually dressed woman through a hotel hallway. While scenes and events move along in the film, he still carries those sinful temptations throughout. 

In the hotel meeting scene between Anthony and Adam (which is actually just Anthony talking to himself) we discover they have matching scars on their torso. However, the most vital part of this scene is where Adam returns the envelope reading “confidential” to Anthony. This comes up again later. 

Anthony stalks Mary, the mistress,  on his bike through Toronto, and while on the bus Anthony checks her out and has to turn away. This is yet another scene where Anthony is trying to rid his mind of his vices. Following this scene, Anthony is sitting in at home in contemplation, while Helen is lying on the couch. I believe that between the scene where Helen is bawling on the couch and now, could have been played out entirely in Anthony’s head that same night of Helen’s breakdown. 

Some of the biggest plot bombshells happen in the scene where Adam has a meal with his mother. With the quote from Adam’s mother, “The last thing you need is to be meeting strange men in hotel rooms. You have enough trouble sticking with one woman don’t you?”, we can once again affirm the connection between Adam and Anthony being the same person because earlier we learned, through Helen’s dialogue, of Anthony’s past infidelity. So with his mother saying this we can make that association. We get another confirmed link between Adam and Anthony during the same scene when she offers him blueberries and Adam replies that he doesn’t like blueberries to which she replies “of course you do.” Earlier, Anthony came back from a run and is craving blueberries, which ties perfectly into what his mother is inferring. However, the biggest bombshell occurs when his mother tells him “you have a respectful job, you have a nice apartment” - she is referring to his respectful job as a teacher. Then she adds, “I think you should quit that fantasy being a third-rate movie actor.” For me, this scene completely embedded my believability in Adam and Anthony being of one body. The persona of Adam is present, but his mom is talking to Anthony - whom we know has infidelity issues, loves blueberries, and is a third rate movie actor. 

We then get a magnificently creepy shot of an enormous spider towering over the Toronto landscape. As puzzling as the spider scenes were on the first viewing, I couldn’t help but only to be captivated by all of them. This scene is representing Anthony’s mother as the spider and how she is a large constant being in his life. She towers his mindspace, with Toronto symbolizing Anthony’s mind. Throughout the film she attempts to call her son numerous times and she’s one he goes to for advice and shares a meal with her in the previous scene. Just because she is symbolized here as a spider, this doesn’t mean she is a negative presence. She supports him fully and by her persistence in trying to console him we see that she deeply cares for her son. 

“This is what’s gonna happen. You’re gonna give me your clothes and your car. I’m gonna take your girlfriend on a little romantic getaway. And tomorrow I’m gonna bring her home. And I’m gonna come back here... bring back all your things, and I’m gonna disappear from your life forever. And then I’ll be gone.” this is the soliloquy Anthony delivers and later demands of Adam when he confronts him at Adam’s apartment. When Anthony leaves Adam’s apartment to go on the romantic getaway with Mary, what remains sitting in the chair is a very nervous and confused Adam (now essentially real Anthony). Here it’s all about getting past his history with his adultery to be mentally present and be back with Helen. 

The music becomes almost like a high octane blockbuster chase scene, a race between a loving, yet perceived as limited, marriage with with Helen, and his lust of temporary physical interactions. Adam, who from now on I’ll refer to as “Real Anthony”, takes a cab home after he puts his mental cleanse plan into action. He walks into his apartment building uneasily - almost like it’s new to him. While in the elevator the doorman (who is the same man who follows Anthony into the sex club at the beginning of the movie) tells Real Anthony that he didn’t receive a new key to the club and pleads that he “needs to go back” and Real Anthony replies (foreshadowing) “I mean.. I’ll see what I can do.”

Real Anthony enters his apartment cautiously and changes his clothes, continuing his transformation back to himself. He browses and finds the complete non-ripped photo of him and his wife embracing happily. This is the complete/non-torn version of the photo Adam had earlier to compare his face to Daniel Saint Claire’s. When Anthony’s conscious is with himself the photo is whole and he remembers his wife, when it is with Adam the photo is ripped and she is unrecognizable to him (the payphone call, the school.) 

Helen comes home to a nervous husband and gets ready for bed. Real Anthony is considerate to her and constantly asks her if she needs anything. This is the first time we witness Anthony being sensitive to his wife. Helen analyzes him and tells him to come to bed. Anthony timidly gets undressed and comes to bed beside Helen. She puts her head on him and asks “Did you have a good day at school?” Real Anthony reacts confused and she tells him to “forget it.” This was Helen testing her husband’s sanity. She wanted to see if her husband was back with her mentally. We know that he’s not and the camera captures a closeup of his anxious eye, showing us he is still in the mind battle with himself. 

We then cut to that exact mind battle of (old) Anthony and Mary in the hotel room. While having sex Mary jumps off of him in fear when she realizes he is not the “same man.” At the same time we cut back to Real Anthony waking up suddenly. This is his real life reaction to what is happening in his head as he attempts to dispose of his past moral crimes. As Old Anthony fights with Mary over the origin of his sun-tanned ring finger, revealing to Mary that he is a married man, Real Anthony faces the hard truth that he has let his fear of control harm his wife emotionally. Restless, Real Anthony leaves the bedroom in distraught and sadly sits down. Old Anthony and Mary continue to fight as he drives her home. Helen comes out of the bedroom to find her husband crying, they embrace then authentically and desperately tells her “I’m sorry.” - referring to just how bad of a husband he has been to her while she’s been pregnant. Helen’s response is one of genuine forgiveness towards Anthony and tells him “I want you to stay.” As Real Anthony and Helen start making love, Old Anthony (his guilt, temptation, faithfulness) and his mistress Mary (a past recollection of his mistress) argue furiously and as a result get into a major car accident which destroys the vehicle and leaves them presumably dead. The camera pushes towards the smashed vehicle to a cracked window which uncoincidentally looks exactly like a spider web. 

The next morning we hear a accident being reported on the radio similar to the one which we witnessed happen in Anthony’s head. This is most likely an intentional curveball thrown in by the director or Real Anthony solidifying and satisficing his mental battle he seemingly won with himself. Real Anthony gets dressed then pats himself and finds the envelope with the key to the secret sex club. This is the first time Real Anthony has seen the key and he seems to know exactly what it is for as as he looks down at it in contemplation. Helen tells him his mother called, and when Anthony hears his wife he is quick to hide the key from her. Anthony walks out of the bedroom, pulls out the key and stares at it in tribulation. Then tragically asks “Helen, did you plan on doing something tonight? Cause I think I have to go out.” She doesn’t answer him. Anthony calls out to her again then walks back to the bedroom to find that his wife has turned into a giant spider. The spider cowers toward the back wall and Anthony gazes at it in reluctant revelation. The end.

I will admit after my first viewing I was frustratingly confused at this film, but after multiple viewings and research I think I can collectively organize my thoughts. So at the beginning of the film Anthony witnesses the sex worker squish a spider with her heel. Okay? Well, with this in mind when Helen turns into the spider, the spider sees Anthony and cowers away from him in fear. The spider aka Helen, is afraid to get “squished” by Anthony through his constant temptation to commit adultery and his other unsupportive characteristics. 

Regarding Anthony’s very strange reaction to seeing his wife as a spider, this can be explained. When Adam was lecturing to his students he said “It was Hagel who said that all the great..greatest world events happen twice, and then Karl Marx added: the first time it was a tragedy, the second time it was a farce.” The first time Anthony falls victim to his vices is tragic. He stops emotionally supporting his wife through her pregnancy and starts an affair with another woman. Most the film was strictly about Anthony getting over this tragic event to get back with Helen. The second time, when he tells Helen he has “to go out”, he realizes it right away as he looks at the spider cowering away from him. With a face of dismal awakening he looks at the spider and sighs with disappointment. It’s a farce. It’s pathetic. It’s “a pattern that repeats itself throughout history.” 

For some, no matter how much they would like to change, cannot overcome their most detrimental characteristics. Some just have to live with themselves knowing that these flaws will haunt them and those they are close to for a lifetime. Maybe the lesson is to stop making excuses and accept the fact your selfish aspirations incite another’s emotional destruction. We can give in to these feelings like Anthony, who did go to the sex club later that night with the doorman whom we saw in the elevator with Adam earlier. The beginning where Anthony and the doorman (doorman has to follow Anthony because he doesn’t have a key) go to the sex club is actually the true end to this story. Anthony will grow older and keep returning to the club like the other older men who encircled the masterbating woman. These men also were most likely faced with the same tragic enlightenment as Anthony, however they too could not defeat their lechery. An unfortunate reality for some, motivation to love unconditionally for most. 

‘Enemy’ is a story of all too common calamity in relationships in which the devastation reaches beyond oneself. Our greatest enemy comes from within ourselves and like Denis said, “Sometimes you have compulsions that you can’t control coming from the subconscious… they are the dictator inside ourselves.”