Of course I cannot say the meaning of this movie but I want to offer you a view you can look at this movie again and I am sure most of you will be surprised by this perspective. <br /><br />Do you remember (especially you boys)when you were small? When you guys had your "gang" with leader (Steve), when you got a new boy (Ned) to your gang and some guy was very jealous on him? (Klaus) I am sure one of your rivals was decent boy from a rich family (Hennessey). Maybe you got very smart girl among you who could solve everything (Eleanor). You could fight with other gangs with guns that could shoot sparkles again and again and nobody got hurt. And when you jump over small pond (sorry huge swamp) there were plenty of leeches on you? Oh, I love that movie, now I know why I felt so sentimental when I watched that movie first time - it reminds me my childhood so so much. Our "gang" had secret plan - to get big boat somewhere, load it with food, guns and go to Cuba. We didn't have scientific dreams :-) <br /><br />I am sure that in this movie Wes Anderson tries to picture his adventurous dreams when he was small. Now I understand why there is an old man asking for signature of child's sci-fi books, why there is a letter from small boy, why Cate Blanchett is saying at the end of the movie: he will be twelve in eleven and half and Steve responds: that's my favorite age. That was my favorite age, too Steve... I take this movies as a wonderful tribute to childhood (mostly boyish I guess) where great adventure was all around us. <br /><br />Do not get me wrong: I did not discover this idea, I was told about it and for me it perfectly fits together and I love this movie even more!<br /><br />By the way: very similar movie tricks made Czech director Karel Zeman 40 years ago in B&W. Highly recommended