Spoiler alert! We're discussing important plot points and the ending of the true-life wrestling drama “The Iron Claw” (in theaters now). So beware if you haven’t seen it yet.
“The Iron Claw” tells the tragic story of the Von Erich pro wrestling family in emotionally stirring fashion, but writer/director Sean Durkin gives the grappling brothers a bittersweet, somewhat otherworldly happy ending.
Based on a true story, the movie centers on Kevin Von Erich (played by Zac Efron) and his struggles to survive the sad circumstances that befall his Texas clan in the 1980s and ‘90s. First he loses his brother David (Harris Dickinson), who dies from a ruptured intestine while wrestling in Japan, and later siblings Mike (Stanley Simons) and Kerry (Jeremy Allen White) die by suicide.
While “Iron Claw” is realistic in its narrative, there are moments where Durkin tends toward the metaphysical. In one scene, the ghost of David sits on the steps in the family house as mom Doris (Maura Tierney) watches Kerry win the heavyweight championship on TV – she looks back, feeling a presence behind her, but no one’s there.
Near the end of the film, following Kerry’s death, Kevin looks outside as he sits next to his brother’s body. Kerry walks from the family ranch house and does a happy jump with both of his legs intact – he'd lost his right foot in a motorcycle accident. He drifts in a boat toward a dock where his late brothers await him. In a heavenly clearing, he has a heartfelt group hug with David and Mike – “World champion of the afterlife, huh?” Kerry quips to David – and then sees young Jack Jr., the firstborn brother who was accidentally electrocuted and drowned at age 6 in 1959. “Nice to meet you,” says Kerry, picking up the boy and sharing another group embrace.
“The mythical nature of wrestling and this family, it's unreal,” Durkin says. “Having something heightened in this world felt right.”
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When Dickinson read the script for the first time, he says he was “always wondering” how the stair scene would be done, “but I think Sean did it in such a delicate way that I was very trusting.” With the more spiritual elements of the film, “he was really trying to show and give respect to the tragedy that these guys went through,” the actor says. “Ultimately, it is about the resilience of human spirit and the love of brothers.”
Durkin wanted to give the Von Erichs “their reunion” and “it felt right to give Kerry his final image,” he says. “What he imagined was going to happen was that he was going to walk again, and it was going to be with his brothers. That was the right journey for them.”
It was also important to the director that the Von Erichs, raised by father Fritz (Holt McCallany) in an environment of toxic masculinity, share a “tender” moment “not weighed down by the ideas of like, if men are going to hug, they better hug this way with a quick pat on the back. It was gentle. They touched each other's faces. It was just a different way of communicating that I felt was much more pure.”
When reading the scene for the first time, White recalls “feeling like I could breathe again. There's just tragedy after tragedy, and there was tightness in my chest throughout reading the script. Then where was this sense of relief because I saw these brothers get something they really deserved, especially the moment with Jack.”
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Kevin’s final scene is a more grounded one but just as emotionally affecting: He sits on the ground watching his two boys play football in the yard just like the Von Erichs did as kids, and tears flow down his face. They ask if he’s all right, and Kevin responds, “I’m sorry, boys. You shouldn’t see me like this. A man doesn’t cry.” But his sons tell him it’s OK, everybody cries – a lesson Kevin's dad never taught him.
“I used to be a brother, and now I’m not a brother anymore,” Kevin tells them when his children ask why he’s sad. “We’ll be your brothers, Dad,” they both say before Kevin gets up and plays with them.
Efron says the scene came near the end of production, after he built bonds with and said goodbye to his fellow actors, plus navigated Kevin’s heartbreaking character arc. “It all really did hit home, man. I didn't really have to do much prep for that scene. It just kind of took over. I lost it. I thought for sure Sean was going to be like, ‘All right, bring it in. Keep it together, bro. It's too much.’ But it felt honest in that moment.”
Durkin wanted Efron to keep the emotion bottled up as much as possible before letting go in cathartic fashion. “He was just all filled up with water at that point,” the director says. “It was like seven takes of five minutes of crying. It was endless. He just could keep going. (But) it was very, very beautiful.”
If you or someone you know needs support for mental health, suicidal thoughts or substance abuse call, text or chat:
988 Suicide & Crisis Lifeline: 988 and 988lifeline.org
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