Did I miss something. Did the flag tell a joke. He laughed pretty hard. A very creepy laugh.

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JP2005 — 11 years ago(October 26, 2014 11:45 AM)

That's what I thought too. It seemed dubbed or at a minimum enhanced. Why should he laugh so hysterically?
-In my mind, Christopher Reeve will always be Superman.-

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forthesafetyofpuppies — 10 years ago(June 20, 2015 11:56 AM)

Does the flag qualify as the first subtle hint at the grand climactic twist?

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JamesA1102 — 10 years ago(June 23, 2015 06:53 AM)

No I think that it is meant to be more ironic. Early in the film Taylor laughs at the flag, a symbol of America. At the end of the film he is anguished at the sight of another symbol of America, the statue.

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Fletcherj119 — 10 years ago(June 24, 2015 01:38 AM)

I also took it that Taylor was amused at the futility of Landon representing a civilization that was "long since dead and buried".

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JamesA1102 — 10 years ago(June 24, 2015 07:44 AM)

That's why Taylor laughs at the flag but it still sets up the irony of the ending.

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Fletcherj119 — 10 years ago(June 24, 2015 08:40 AM)

Affirmative.

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texascoon2 — 10 years ago(January 06, 2016 08:59 AM)

I took it as Taylor thinking that the American flag (or anything from Earth) would be meaningless to whatever life (if any) they found on the planet. Plus, usually, when a flag is put up, it shows possession of the area which wasnt worth the distance they went through.

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Fletcherj119 — 10 years ago(January 07, 2016 01:20 AM)

Plus Taylor believed that everything they had known on Earth was now "dust".

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jmhammerstein-980-842586 — 9 years ago(September 11, 2016 11:49 PM)

He laughed because of how little a thing it was planting a small flag 320 light-years from Earth 2,000 years after when they left.

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Fletcherj119 — 9 years ago(September 12, 2016 08:23 AM)

Especially when the country represented by that flag probably no longer existed.

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rickrowlands-34179 — 9 years ago(January 26, 2017 04:26 AM)

I was laughing at him laughing