(WARNING - CONTAINS SPOILER) The film's dominant after-impression is left by the tragic fate of its characters as they conclude their various journeys through the sewers: in truth, the claustrophobic suffering of the travels themselves makes for a certain monotony that historical interest and sincerity cannot entirely overcome. There's something too tidy about the conception of this subterranean hell (with Dante explicitly evoked) and the accompanying psychological and spiritual descent. At the start of the film, when they're holed up in a big house, they still cling to an illusion of semi-normality - playing piano, having sex, one man even able to call his wife on the telephone: even though we're told of the city's wrecked state, there's at least a patina of optimism. There's something of the same quality at the end as Jacek dies in Daisy's arms, thinking himself near escape, but by then the delusion is overwhelmingly sad. And yet, what really is the message there? The film always seems somehow limited - for example, isn't the idealized superwoman conception of Daisy strangely akin to the Aryan visions that the film as a whole flees from?
