Sumith Prasad
Directed by Noah Baumbach, Netflix’s drama film ‘White Noise’ revolves around Jack and Babette Gladney, a couple who lead a mundane life together in the suburb of Blacksmith. The Gladneys’ lives change when a chemical explosion startles the region. Although the family tries to evacuate, Jack gets exposed to the toxicity of the same, which makes him fear death immensely. Meanwhile, he notices the strange behavior of his wife Babette, who has been consuming a secret and non-registered pill named Dylar. When Jack confronts her about the same, Babette talks about the toxic presence of Mr. Grey in her life, only for the husband to set out to kill him. So, is the mysterious Mr. Grey dead or alive? Let’s find out! SPOILERS AHEAD.
Is Mr. Grey Dead or Alive?
When Jack confronts Babette about Dylar, she reveals her fear of death, which has been affecting her life for a considerable time. She adds that she then got in touch with Mr. Grey, who had been developing Dylar as a medication to treat the fear. Babette joined Mr. Grey’s research to get the pills, which ended up aggravating the former’s fear of death instead of eradicating it. When the aggravated fear led her to Mr. Grey for more pills, he demanded to have sex with her in return for the medication. When Jack comes to know about the same, he gets enormously jealous, which leads him to reach out to Mr. Grey.
After finding the contact number of Mr. Grey, Jack calls him under the pretense of a customer who wants to buy Dylar. The professor comes to know that Mr. Grey stays in a nearby motel and arrives at the place with the small gun his fellow professor Murray Siskind has given him. Jack then shoots Mr. Grey twice with the same gun with all the courage that’s left in him. However, Jack isn’t an experienced killer. He is just a college professor who had never used a gun in his lifetime or even tried to hurt someone considerably. He doesn’t even realize that random shots with such a small gun wouldn’t be enough to kill a man like Mr. Grey.
At the end of ‘White Noise,’ Mr. Grey is alive. After Jack has shot him, Babette arrives at the scene realizing that her jealous husband will do something stupid about Mr. Grey. Babette’s arrival makes Jack realize what exactly he did to the creator of Dylar. The couple takes Mr. Grey to an emergency clinic to rescue him from death. The doctor at the clinic informs the couple that Mr. Grey will be fine, indicating that he has overcome the danger of succumbing to the bullet wounds.
Although Jack has all the reasons to leave Mr. Grey bleed to death at the motel, he saves him with Babette because he doesn’t want to be a killer. The college professor must have also feared that he would get caught by the police, which justifies his efforts to save Mr. Grey. Babette, using her experience as someone who has been using Dylar for several months, tells Mr. Grey that he shot himself and that the couple is only saving him from death, knowing that he also suffers from memory lapses like her. Babette’s intervention is expected to save Jack from any legal troubles as well.
Read More: Did Adam Driver Gain Weight for White Noise?
