The Iron Claw’s Riskiest Scene Proves Why The Movie Is So Great

WARNING: MAJOR SPOILERS ahead for The Iron Claw.

The most risky scene in The Iron Claw is actually what elevates the film to an elite status. The Iron Claw is somewhat of a sports movie but is much more focused on the effects of the sport, and the family tradition of such, than the specific outcomes of the competitions themselves. In what just may be Zac Efron’s career-best performance, The Iron Claw combines thoughtful retelling of tragedy and generational trauma mixed with the gritty albeit orchestrated inner world of professional wrestling during one of its earliest televised eras.

More than anything, The Iron Claw is about the seemingly unbreakable sense of brotherhood between the Von Erich boys, played by Efron, Harris Dickinson (Triangle of Sadness), Stanley Simons (Superior), and Golden Globe-winner Jeremy Allen White (The Bear, Shameless). The degree of tragedy of the Von Erich’s true story is so severe that it nearly feels too bad to be true. However, the film has been praised for its close and accurate depiction of the Von Erich’s careers as wrestlers and connection as brothers, both in this world and in a thoughtful “afterlife” scene.

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The Afterlife Scene With The Von Erich Brothers Was Iron Claw’s Riskiest Scene

The afterlife scene at the end of The Iron Claw is certainly the riskiest part of the movie by far, as it takes the lens of realism away from the film and suggests themes of faith and religion that weren’t key concepts throughout. For these reasons, the afterlife scene is very different from the rest of the movie and could have been seen as a misstep if done improperly, since taking such a narrative risk would have been incredibly easy for writer/director Sean Durkin to lose a handle on.

Much to Durkin’s credit, the afterlife scene actually elevates The Iron Claw from the realm of good to great by courageously ending on a much-needed point of brotherly reunion that offers great relief to the dark and spiraling tale. Without getting too deep into the religious and spiritual aspects of the Von Erich’s beliefs on faith and life after death, the film achieves great catharsis by portraying four of the brothers together again on the “otherside”, so to speak.

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Why The Iron Claw’s Afterlife Scene Is Actually Perfect

With so much tragedy that plagues the Von Erich family like a curse in The Iron Claw, the afterlife scene brings the brothers back together for a well-deserved emotional crescendo. The scene hammers home the main focus of the movie, which was always on the relationship between the brothers and their shared passion, and obligation from their father, to dedicate their lives to wrestling. It also is reminiscent of some of the earlier happy moments in The Iron Claw when the Von Erich brothers were enjoying each other’s company without the judgemental force of their overbearing father, which added a final note of liberation to the movie.