It's widely thought that Baz Lurhmann's adaptation of the well known stage play, tragedy, and arguable romantic comedy is...unique. Using almost the exact same language as the original script used but set in a modern day scenario, Romeo + Juliet aims to retell the story of the star-crossed lovers with guns for swords and a costume party to replace Lord Capulet's fateful feast.
The final two scenes are definitely interesting. Lurhmann definitely ups the emotional factor during the double suicide, making for a more powerful scene.
Rather than having them die in delayed succession (as well as the dead body of Paris nearby), Juliet revives from her coma right as Romeo swallows the poison, leading to a tragic moment of confusion and miscommunication as Juliet is forced to watch the love of her life literally drop dead before her eyes, while he's forced to fade away into death as she practically rises from the dead, completely unharmed.
It almost gives the audience a sense of false hope, the brief thought that, "Maybe they'll both live and everything will be fine!"
Which is immediately shut down with Romeo falling dead onto a bed and Juliet finding a gun in the sheets and promptly joining him in eternal rest.
Compare this to the play, which ends with a not-as effective scene. The stilted succession of their deaths makes for a comparatively less emotional ending, thanks to the readers being unable to see the effect of death as well as the fact that we can't see expression through body language, facial expressions, tone of voice, and so on. In addition to this, we can also see one last moment of interaction between the leading actors in this saddening scene.
The final scene of Romeo + Juliet concludes with a relatively short scene in comparison to other adaptations of the play. Interestingly, it takes the time to show the audience all of the secondary and supporting characters in the ending as the Prince delivers his speech of disapproval. This detail was most likely added to show how the deaths of the lovers affected the entire city. As well as that change, the movie also doesn't have statues built in their honor but rather ends on the somber note of the Prince condemning the heads of house Capulet and Montague for letting their petty feud affect the people of the city as well as their own beloved children.
(Author's note: I was forced to type this on an on-screen keyboard due to spilling water on my own. Please excuse any typos and formatting errors I may have missed.)
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