Early in the movie, there is a scene which shows children sleeping in their beds, each with a book laying on their chest, which presumably is the book they are reading before they fall asleep. The last kid apparently has been reading Jean-Paul Sartreās 1944 existential play āNo Exit.ā
At first, I thought itās just a gag (kid reading super-serious literature,) but after some googling the synopsis of the play, I feel it might not be the case. The play goes like this: 2 women and a man found themselves in a room after they died. The room has no window and mirror, only a door which cannot be opened. The three characters all did something terrible during their lifetime. Furthermore, Woman A finds herself to be attracted to Woman B, Woman B is attracted to the man. The man initially is not attracted to either of the 2 women, then later succumbed to the seduction of Woman B. But he is only willing to have sex with her if both women say heās not a coward; the man was executed for desertion, so he wants people to assure him heās not a coward. Woman B complies, but Woman A refuses, partly due to jealousy and partly because sheās a sadist. Then the door suddenly opens after the manās several attempts to open the door, but he refuses to leave the room until he convinces Woman A heās not a coward. However, Woman A tells him she will never give him the approval he so desires. Also, neither of the women wants to leave the room as well for various reasons. This is when the man realizes they are in hell, and what is torturing them is none other than each other.
In Jason Lives, after we see the kid with the Sartre play, the movie cuts to a shot of the hamster cage, with a hamster frantically running a hamster wheel, almost like trapped in a loop. Maybe the movie is saying that Jason and the characters in his movies, especially Tommy, are kind of like the characters in the play, trapped in a metaphorical hell. Jason can never stop killing and avenge himself and his mother, as there will always be horny teenagers. Tommy and characters in Jason-verse will forever be haunted by the unkillable monster that is Jason.
Oh, if the plot of āNo Exitā sounds familiar, maybe itās because it serves as one of the inspirations for the sitcom āThe Good Place,ā in which Jason Mantzoukas is a recurring character.