Nightmare Alley’s Ending Is Set Up By Pete
One particular moment in Nightmare Alley sees Bradley Cooper’s character, Stanton «Stan» Carlisle, receive a speech from Pete, and it’s a scene that sets up the ending of the film perfectly. The film was directed by Guillermo del Toro, who usually makes horror movies — though Nightmare Alley is certainly sinister in its own right. Though Stan ignores Pete's advice, it foreshadows much of the narrative’s dark direction and proves to be at the heart of the film’s message.
Nightmare Alley sees drifter Stan land a job at a carnival, where he meets some weird and wonderful people who change his life forever. Stan soon begins working with the clairvoyant act «Madame Zeena,» along with her husband, Pete. In the act, they use coded language and cold reading tricks, the methods of which Pete keeps recorded in a secret book. Stan learns much of the dark craft of psychokinesis from this act and looks to become a professional mentalist himself.
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Upon attempting to steal this book from Pete, Pete gives Stan this lecture very soon before he dies (which contains some of the best quotes in Nightmare Alley):
“Stan, this book – it can be misused. You understand? It’s why I stopped… doing the act. I got shuteye! When a man believes his own lies, starts believing that he has the power, he’s got shuteye! Cus now he believes it’s all true. And people get hurt — good, God-fearing people. And then you lie. You lie! And when the lies end, there it is. The face of God staring at you, straight. No matter where you turn. No man can outrun God, Stan.”
Indeed, after his failed attempted career as a mentalist, Stan is unable to outrun this fate. By the end of the film, he is a
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