Because the world has destroyed him like it destroys us.
It's not "Sci-Fi", it's SF!
"Calvinism is a very liberal religious ethos." - Truekiwijoker

I think maybe Mr. Newton has had enough, dont you?
What a great last line:
it's an image of total defeat, surrender to all the worst we as a race can offer a visitor.

• __@
  `<,
• ()/ ()- -__@
  `<,
• ()/ ()

nec
spe,
nec
metu
:*.. ..`

Also, do you notice how Bryce points his finger at Newton as the helicopter hovers over? I take this as Bryce's signal that he found the man they are still watching. It's Bryce's final betrayal.

Couldn't he just have been paranoid and that's why he looked at the helicopter that way?

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Did no one else notice that the government were still watching him at the end of the movie. This was shown by the helicoptor flying around and Tommy looks up and sees it.
I thought he'd given up emotionally and psychologically and hung his head in drunken stuporBowie even hiccups before doing so.
The waiter was just saying he'd had enough booze but Bryce took it further by implying he'd had enough of Earth but sadly nothing can be done.

I thought that he was dead. I have only seen the Criterion Edition that is supposedly extended by a bit, but there was a very long shot at the end when the credits rolled where his head was down and he didnt move, and this was not a still frame because the bushes and people in background were moving. I just thought that he had essentially fallen victim to the myriad vices that befall earthlings, specifically Americans.

In the movie version, he's definitely not blinded. When he leaves the house near the end he looks up at the floor number of the elevator and at other things (no, it's not the direction of noise). The waiter thinking he's had enough was per the spilled glass on the floor. Although it may be a metaphor, enough or not, he has nowhere to go now.

What I gathered, is that they left the door open on purpose. He didnt escape. Obviously they didnt regard him as a threat by the end of his treatment, so they just let him go. No further support.

I thought that grog didn't effect him the way it does humans? So he had become an emotional cripple. When the waiter says he has had enough he thinks he is drunk but he isn't. He has given up.
Also, the last scene very much goes back to the conversation that was had during the ping-pong game about what he had on his own planet. The last scene was saying that on earth we have all these things but we don't love each other.

I thought it was a sad ending. He was trapped on earth and would never see his family again. That's why he became a drunk.

He had excaped from the facility. He had no one, and he really had nowhere to go to, so he was at that lounge. Dr. Bryce was told that Newton frequented that place, so the waiter probably saw him on a regular basis.

Not so different that he isn't still emotionally shattered and his eyes are damaged.

The book and the movie are different things.
Goo Goo G'Joob

If you read the book you would understand that Thomas Jerome Newton was emotionally shattered as well as (in the novel) totally blinded.

Symbolically it could mean something, that he can no longer remove his human disguise. Like he is trapped in his role as an earthling.

My password is password.

I don't see why it matters to him that he can't remove his contact lenses. He sees fine with them on anyway.
i thought it symbolized that he was no longer an alien - they had permanently affixed him with this "humanoid" eyes. this, as well as some of the other traits he picked up (drinking alcohol when at first he was opposed to anything but water) show that he has adjusted to life on earth whether by his own choosing or simply being stuck here..
i also wondered what they were doing to his nipples, were they removing some type of alien glands from them (perhaps ones that produce the sex liquid?) or simply doing testing on him? this may have also played into them stripping away his individuality
but then again, i'm not so sure, lol -

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I just watch the Criterion Collection version of the movie and it seems to me that he is not blinded by the xrays but instead the "contact lens" are now permently attached to his eyes and can no longer be removed. It the scenes after the xray it looks like he is able to pour his drinks and drop in the ice cubes without missing the glass. Also he looked like he could see when he escaped were he was been held.

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I always thought it was just a waiter and that Newton had had enough of earth as well. I didn't think that the waiter had any links to the government. The government was through with Newtonhe was now a hopeless blind drunk with some of his fortune left but unable to return home or even help himself pick up a glass. He'd definitely had enough of everything at that point. The rest of the last scene is interesting, too. After he drops the glass and the waiter says the line, the music of Stardust by Hoagy Carmichel comes on and the credits rollmany reviewers have said the end music has two meanings. Of course, the obvious oneNewton comes from the stars so Stardust is appropriate and the second meaningStardust is a reference to the fact that Bowie played Newton and also played the famous persona named Ziggy Stardust.

That always confused me a bit too. I just always assumed it meant he had enough of dealing with life on earth.but I could be wrong.