Jerry makes a terrible judgment call and winds up sacrificing his love for Lori on the pyre of his obsession: he uses their daughter as bait for the killer. Lori finds out about this and leaves him. The killer, whom we have not seen throughout this film, dies en route to dally with Jerry's daughter. At no point do we ever see the killer's face. There is no villain here. There is no hero. There are two tragically flawed men and the people around them. At film's end Jerry is left to rave and rant to himself, all alone, as his obsession has driven away everything that could comfort him -- and because the killer is now gone from this veil of tears, his pledge can never be fulfilled. What does this mean? In my opinion, Jerry's swearing to find the killer is symbolic. He's sworn on his salvation and the hunt has damned him as thoroughly as Javere's own hunt damned him. Jerry's doomed to live in the world of what might have been, surrounded by painful reminders of his mistakes, but he can never know if he was right or if he was wrong or even whether or not he can give up his chase. Damnation or limbo -- *you* make the call.

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