'I Love Boosters' Movie Ending Explained & Summary: What Does The Post-Credit Scene Mean?

I Love Boosters is both a fashion designer’s dirty dream and nightmare. The film tells the story of a gang of Boosters, who find themselves in a feud with the person they’ve been stealing from, Christie Smith. Corvette has always been a creative soul. She makes her own clothes despite stealing and selling stuff at discounted rates. She’s a walking contradiction of sorts. She wants to change the world; she technically wants to be Christie Smith, but they say never meet your heroes, and that’s proven when Corvette hides in a mobile espresso unit to see her. Corvette’s wearing a dress that she calls turquoise in this scene, and Christie, who compliments it, also tells her that it’s aquamarine. Already, you can smell the elitism in this woman’s tone. She’s also been insulting Christie and her gang, “the Velvet Gang,” by calling them low-class urban b-words. The film explores the themes of capitalism through the lens of the fashion industry. An industry that is notorious for being elitist, exploitative, and unequal. With that said, let’s get straight into the ending of the film.

Spoiler Alert

What Exactly Do The Machines Do?

The first we see of the machines, one’s being used by Jianhu to suck up all the clothes in a Metro Designer outlet that the Velvet Gang had their eyes on. Naturally, this leaves store manager Grayson (played by Will Poulter, having the time of his life) wrecked, but Corvette and the others had spent months working at the store too, and they’ve suddenly had the rug pulled out from under their feet. Convinced the girl who boosted all the gear is their new competitor, the Velvet Gang quickly wipes the surveillance footage, abducts her, and tries to figure out what her deal is. That’s when we get the whole rundown on the Chinese government-developed teleporter, and how Christie Smith’s Fuxin factory stole some copies of it to bypass shipping costs.

Except, of course, we know this machine is way more than just a teleporter. It takes the union organizer, Violeta, showing up and explaining the device before we understand what it really does, and it’s basically a way for the workers to take back what’s meant to be theirs. The device is based on the Marxist concept of dialectical materialism. There’s an acceleration tool and a deconstruction tool. While the former heightens the contradictions inherent in the thing you point it at and essentially pushes it towards its final synthesis, the latter deconstructs those contradictions and brings things back to an earlier stage. Oh, and also, once something has been deconstructed, the human time that went into its construction is somehow refunded too.

So to break it down, there’s a teleporter mode, which shuttles stuff between Jianhu’s devices in San Francisco and Li Pan’s device in Qiangdong; there’s a situational accelerator, which pushes things towards their eventual heightened state (like making the dresses what they wanted to be or turning that cop car into a tank); and then there’s the third, which deconstructs things to their basic form. In this case, when the clothes are deconstructed, they get broken down to the raw material along with the toxic things that were used to create them. But more importantly, it essentially takes the workers back in time. Not literally, but it adds life, because if the garment is broken down, then the work they put into it never happened. 

How Does Corvette Use The Machine To Bring Christie Down?

The big revelation Christie has when she starts working at Christie’s high fashion store is that the woman stole her idea. This is what fuels Corvette’s desire to defeat Christie in any way possible. The running theme of this film is also loneliness and despair; having friends in Mariah and Sade, Corvette continues to feel alone as the film progresses. But what we realise is that she’s actually being selfish, which is leading to her being lonely. It’s when Jianhu shows up that things start to change and ramp up a lot. But even in that case, Corvette isn’t trying to steal the products for her friend Mariah so she can support her family. She’s not trying to help the factory workers whose cause Jianhu is championing. All she cares about is destroying the person who stole her idea. I suppose here we’re meant to see the similarities between the protagonist and antagonist, both of whom feel power in leadership, but that’s what leaves them lonely. The difference is Christie is a billionaire or whatever, and Corvette doesn’t have anything to her name. But it’s when the factory workers help her without even knowing who she is that she realizes the power of community. This is what has been keeping her lonely all this time. 

So, in I Love Boosters’ ending, Corvette decides to help Jianhu and Violeta’s unions fight for their rights. They combine their forces and accelerate the union, also deconstructing the garments in the fashion show to show everybody that Christie stole ideas, and that she’s been treating workers like they’re not even human. She’s been exploiting the Chinese workers as if they weren’t the reason for her big success, telling them to continue to work on toxic denim in the name of art, even though it was killing people. Earlier, Christie’s assistant had told her that people want to be artists, not the art. This isn’t just an aesthetic conversation like Christie might think it is. She truly thinks she’s doing something great with her fashion, trying to control people by making them wear a single colour at a time. Really, she’s creating uniforms and positioning herself a leader, no? Ultimately, this is where the difference between Christie and Corvette lies, as Christie still believes she made “stolen ideas” her own. Claiming to be a savior of sorts. This is so relevant to the conversation about racism today, too. As someone from the South Asian community, I find myself irked every second by the West stealing what’s ours, renaming it, and pretending it’s something new that they invented. This applies to most cultures that are not White. This film uses fashion to show a bigger problem. Christie stole ideas from the regular “low-class” urban people and called it art, but when it was them doing it, she called it trash. 

What Is The Meaning Of The Skin Suits? 

The biggest question you might be left with (apart from Pinky Ring Guy, of course) is regarding the skinsuits. Mariah wants to get her hands on the 100,000-dollar suits, thinking that’d be enough to fund her daughter’s education. But when they find these suits, they’re shocked to learn that they’re “skin suits,” as in the only people who can wear them look like anatomical diagrams, with the skin suits serving as disguises. In this state, you can’t really recognise a person’s race or ethnicity. It makes everyone equal in a way, but it also leaves more room for people in power to steal identities, ideas, and entire cultures for their benefit. So, the people who had their skin surgically removed for Christie did so to change people’s thoughts and manipulate them into doing whatever they wanted. They change perspectives by using real people’s skins. Imagine if changing your clothes could change the perception people have of you. It’s disturbing, but also feels like something the rich, who believe using their own kid’s blood could make them younger, would absolutely do. 

What Does The Big Ball Of Trash Corvette Keeps Seeing Represent?

After freeing the Chinese factory workers by deconstructing so much stuff that Christie made (it even makes Jianhu’s mother cancer-free), Corvette is a changed person. When the Pinky Ring Guy ends up asking Corvette to be with him because it might help him become a non-monster, she refuses despite her attraction for him. For one, this guy is a monster who sucks the souls out of people during sexual encounters. But more importantly, she chooses sisterhood at the end of the film by breaking out of her mold of being selfish and choosing her friends over a man. How fun. At the end of the film, the massive ball of stuff that’s been haunting Corvette finally becomes small, fitting in the palm of her hand, ready for her to toss out. It’s a sign that she’s now gotten over all her previous anxieties, and she’s living a new life with her friends, not worried about selfish things. Together, they can handle anything. Even many more Christies. She’s free of her past, and now she’ll probably become the artist she always wanted to be. She continues to wear turquoise, this time more proudly than ever before. This means that though she’s changed, her principles remain the same, meaning she’ll never turn into a Christie. 

What Does The Post-Credit Scene Mean?

At the end of the film, we get a post-credit scene where Violeta is describing the thesis, antithesis, and synthesis of the device that the Chinese government made all over again. I think what this scene is meant to imply is that though this one situation is over, it’s likely going to repeat itself. It’s a never-ending circle that continues to repeat but is slightly different each time. Sure, the fashion workers have unionized and saved the day in the face of Christie. But there are a dozen other Christies waiting to get them again. At the end of the day, I Love Boosters” touches on a lot of interesting topics related to consumerism, race, capitalism, price- parity, social commentary, and so much more. It still hits home despite the variety of themes because, despite the bizarre representation, everyone can see the truth behind what Boots Riley is showing us. I have a feeling this is the kind of film that will give you something new every time you watch it. The skin suits definitely got me, but as someone in fashion myself, for me, this film was plain reality about an industry that is applauded for its exploitation and insider vs outside situation. It’s not as exclusive anymore. 

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