The Ending Of Strange World Explained

One of the biggest, and indeed strangest, reveals in "Strange World" is the nature of the film's world itself. While it was always made obvious that "Strange World" was set in some form of alt-history, given the retro future airships and plant-based energy, it's no less a surprising reveal to learn that the entire world is actually on the back of a giant turtle-like creature, resting in the ocean.

While this might seem random, the filmmakers are likely making an overt reference to the "turtles all the way down" theory. While its exact origin is up for debate (some attribute it to Hindu mythology, and there are similar stories in Native American and Chinese cultures), it is commonly used to exhibit the problem of infinite regress and the chicken-or-egg-like question of who is holding whatever is holding the Earth. As a Jesuit priest wrote in 1599:

"Others hold that the earth has nine corners by which the heavens are supported. Another disagreeing from these would have the earth supported by seven elephants, and the elephants do not sink down because their feet are fixed on a tortoise. When asked who would fix the body of the tortoise, so that it would not collapse, he said that he did not know."

In his 1988 bestseller "A Brief History of Time," Stephen Hawking seemingly renewed the theory for the modern age with his own anecdote:

"A well-known scientist (some say it was Bertrand Russell) once gave a public lecture on astronomy. He described how the earth orbits around the sun and how the sun, in turn, orbits around the centre of a vast collection of stars called our galaxy. At the end of the lecture, a little old lady at the back of the room got up and said: "What you have told us is rubbish. The world is really a flat plate supported on the back of a giant tortoise." The scientist gave a superior smile before replying, "What is the tortoise standing on?" "You're very clever, young man, very clever," said the old lady. "But it's turtles all the way down!"

As far as pop culture is concerned, up until now the theory's most successful personification has come in "Yertle the Turtle," the anti-authoritarian children's book published in 1950 by Dr. Seuss.  

This all fits with the "Strange World" themes of people stubbornly thinking they know something — such as Jaeger's faith in a world on the other side of the mountains, or Searcher's devotion to farming the harmful Pando plant — unaware that there is much more to discover and learn. If people don't think deeper or work to educate themselves, they'll be stuck believing impossible and outlandish things  — like, you know, the world being held up by turtles.