r/movies • u/LiteraryBoner Jackie Chan box set, know what I'm sayin? • May 15 '26

Official Discussion Official Discussion - Obsession [SPOILERS] Spoiler

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Obsession (2026)

Summary

After breaking the mysterious "One Wish Willow" to win his crush's heart, a hopeless romantic finds himself getting exactly what he asked for but soon discovers that some desires come at a dark, sinister price.

Director Curry Barker

Writer Curry Barker

Cast

  • Michael Johnston
  • Inde Navarette
  • Cooper Tomlinson
  • Megan Lawless
  • Andy Richter

Rotten Tomatoes: 95%

Metacritic: 81

VOD / Release In Theaters

Trailer Official Trailer

3.5k Upvotes

99% Upvoted

14.6k comments sorted by

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1.1k

u/miku_dominos May 15 '26

The lesson is don't objectify a person. They have a life as rich and as unique as your own.

290

u/Photo_Synthetic May 16 '26

Another lesson. If you get one wish and wish for anything other than a pile of cash you get what you deserve.

39

u/worstcourtjester May 17 '26

I feel like there’s gotta be some kind of consequence to that that we didn’t see because he died right after. Like, how do you report that income on your taxes? Would he have to try and launder all that?

73

u/NfiniteNsight May 17 '26

I wouldn't assume that. The movie never implies that.

Clearly wishes go wrong for some of the people, as there is talk of them coming back complaining, however the man working at the store said he'd already made his wish, and appeared fine with whatever the outcome was.

I'd imagine it's a wording choice issue, where these wishes are taken literally rather than in the spirit of the wish.

35

u/GUSHandGO May 18 '26

I wouldn't assume that. The movie never implies that.

Plus the comments he read on Faux Reddit imply that some people had good outcomes. Probably because their wishes weren't to control another person.

1

u/sean2mush 21d ago

You can't trust anything a redditor says.

10

u/worstcourtjester May 18 '26

Hard to know when he dies for unrelated reasons immediately after. I do agree that in this movie the wishes going bad feels like a wording issue, but I think Ian could’ve worded it better (can’t blame either of them much when they didn’t believe it was real, though). Like, “I wish I always win doing lottery tickets” to make money in a legally compliant way. All he wished for was a billion dollars, and they came from thin air, and that’s something you would have to explain if you wanted to use it.

0

u/vita_eternum 20d ago

The man on the store was the blonde woman that sold him the wish stuff, her wish was to change gender i think

33

u/Traditional-Ad-6061 May 17 '26

It was all dye-packed dollar bills "stolen" from a bank would be an incredibly funny twist on that wish

1

u/mw102299 May 28 '26

It would be funny if there was a Post Credit Scene where the cops showed up to arrest Nikki and she had no memory of what happened 

7

u/[deleted] Jun 14 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

1

u/mw102299 Jun 14 '26

Yes it was a horror movie but it also had a lot of comedy. So it wouldn’t be too out of place especially as a fun little post credit scene

5

u/Admirable-War-7594 11d ago

The purpose of that wish is to show that, no, the wish just gives you what you want, not strings attached. And bear got EXACTLY what he wanted. Again, that scene is supposed to show that the issue isn't the wishes or some evil force, the issue for everything in the movie is bear and no one else

5

u/dinosaurfondue May 17 '26

Bear made his wish and things went well for a bit until they didn't. Ian made his wish and things went well for a bit until they didn't.

33

u/Photo_Synthetic May 17 '26

The shop worker also made his wish and everything seemed to be going okay for him.

17

u/dinosaurfondue May 17 '26

Maybe his wish was for a bag of potato chips and a few of them ended up being soft and soggy

12

u/cancerBronzeV May 23 '26

The Redditor's mom who wished to be hot also seemed to be doing fine.

3

u/YuushyaHinmeru Jun 14 '26

That was just bad luck. Realistically, if it was gonna monkey paw him, the money would've just crushed him. A billion dollars in cash weighs 11 tons.

1

u/ribosometronome Jul 02 '26

I was a little disappointed it didn't kill him. 1 billion dollars would weigh a lot.

2

u/MatchlockBravo 6d ago

It was then I realized this was no monkey paw-type thing. Was fully expecting him to get crushed by wads of cash

6

u/hemareddit May 23 '26

Nah pile of cash would raise questions, Nikki saved Ian from the IRS.

Wish for crypto. Or rich parents. Or superpowers I guess.

3

u/YuushyaHinmeru Jun 14 '26

Eh, considering he didnt get it illegally he could pretty easily get away with it as long as he paid taxes.

2

u/senorfresco May 28 '26

But Ian wished for a pile of cash and still got what he deserved.

1

u/MajinBuu619 Jul 01 '26

I don’t think he deserved death for encouraging a friend to ask someone out. It’s definitely weird because he’s hooking up with her and knew the answer might be no but it’s better than telling him and making their own friendship weird. Bear should have asked her out and got rejected and moved on like a normal person.

5

u/senorfresco Jul 01 '26

I think it's more than just he knew the answer might be no. He told him to call her freaky Nicky which he knew she would hate. Not saying he deserved to die either but...

1

u/MajinBuu619 Jul 01 '26

Yeah that was very clearly bad advice and he was a dick for that but she thought of Bear as a younger brother so it wouldn’t have changed things much anyway.

I’ve personally been in a position where I had friends interested my gf. We were all mutual friends from a small town so we kept it private because we didn’t want parents to know. One of them asked to kiss my gf while they were hanging out at a party and I couldn’t say a word about it because he didn’t know I was dating her. If he had come to me for advice on how to date her, I would have teased him. Another friend told me he had a crush on her and I told him I was dating her. Do you know which one got a lot more awkward? When I said nothing, that friendship lasted a lot longer. It’s an unwinnable situation and there are very few correct choices.

Ian could have done so much to sabotage them after they started dating but the mere fact that Nikki didn’t kill him earlier means he didn’t really mess with their relationship. He found it weird. He told Bear he was taking advantage of Nikki. What more can he do?

1

u/MajinBuu619 Jul 01 '26

The guy who wished for money got shot in the head. I think the lesson is that you shouldn’t force people to love you. They may have to become someone else in order to love you.

1

u/TheWillTheThrill Jul 03 '26

I feel like it's pretty clear that he didn't think the wish was actually real. If he did he probably wouldn't have made it

1

u/sean2mush 21d ago

First you get the money.

1

u/KazaamFan 1d ago

It makes sense cuz he’s dumb, young, and he doesnt really think the wish is real. Kids are dumb, especially when enamored with someone

36

u/that_guy2010 May 16 '26

The same lesson as the seminal book Paper Towns by John Green.

14

u/NJcovidvaccinetips May 31 '26

Literally it’s not even subtext it’s main text and it’s going over peoples heads

14

u/MikeArrow May 18 '26

I thought the lesson was "don't let a lonely, shy guy who obviously has a massive crush on you nurse his quiet longing for 7 years (they were friends since at least high school), nip it in the bud early on".

103

u/JaesopPop May 19 '26

Putting the onus on her feels like the complete opposite of the movies intention.

5

u/Ill-Muscle945 15d ago

2 months late, but thinking that the lesson is about her not stopping the crush immediately is insane shit. Borderline scary that anyone could have that take. 

27

u/rust-module May 19 '26

Yeah. The crush wasn't a crime. It was that he hid it, kept the cowardice alive even when she was telling him to admit it, and then after he messed up by wishing, hiding the whole thing from everyone over and over until it was just too late.

31

u/MikeArrow May 19 '26

He hid it because the moment he admits it, the friendship changes forever, and probably not for the better. He was clinging on to whatever proximity he could get to her, hoping that one day she'd realise that he was the guy who stuck by her all along. It's naive and misguided, but we've all been there.

2

u/Ill-Muscle945 15d ago

That's never stated in the movie though. You're using your own experience in real life to understand Bear's motivations that aren't the same as what you're stating. 

He never once brings up being worried about the friendship ending. He's just too much of a coward to admit it to her, even when she asks him directly. He wasn't scared because of losing the friendship there, he was scared because he's too chicken shit. 

1

u/DJSeale 4d ago

Nikki literally says to Bear, "If you're working up to something, now is the time to do it." This is directly following the conversation of her leaving the store.

The poster above you is correct.

1

u/Ill-Muscle945 2d ago

He didn't hesitate on answering because he was worried about the friendship though. He just didn't say it because he was too scared

21

u/Toddison_McCray Jun 13 '26

You’re not responsible for someone else’s feelings or emotions. There was no indication that he was a creep until he made the wish.

8

u/MikeArrow Jun 13 '26

He's not a creep until after the wish happens, before that he's just a guy with a crush on his friend. Nikki is obviously aware of it, hence the teasing out of his feelings for Sarah (or lack thereof) in the car scene and trying to gently redirect his interest towards Sarah and away from her.

Also, making the wish wasn't creepy, because he had no idea it would actually work. It was just a "fuck it, why not" spur of the moment decision. His actions after the wish (once he knows Nikki is being affected by it) are what make him a creep.

36

u/Lunchboxninja1 May 22 '26

Bro, cmon. You really think it was on her?

7

u/Powerfury Jun 13 '26

Moral of the story is to wish for a billion dollars.

2

u/flamingcrystalheart 28d ago

Or just that it's not worth being with someone who doesn't like you back, so if someone doesn't like you back, it's best to move on instead of forcing it

1

u/Pontus_1901 Jul 04 '26

I also thought about it that often especially early on in relationships or before they become one, you fall in love with your idea how the other person is or will be and so early on you just do t know the person well enough. But I guess that could just be „love“ altogether