Rewatched Labyrinth again and as always I find something new with each watch through.
After Sarah wakes up from her hallucination she falls into the junkyard and meets Junk Lady. Junk Lady manages to take Sarah into an identical replica of her room, where Sarah thinks she dreamed it all. Until, she opens the door and the Junk Lady comes in and begins showing Sarah all of her possessions and trying to get her to stay in there with them.
But here's the detail that I never thought about before.
She piles them on the back of Sarah's chair. She piles them on Sarah's back. She's trying to turn Sarah into one of them.
I'm a big "it was all real" truther with this movie. And with that in mind I think all of the Junk People in this movie are former runners. People like Sarah who were trying to save someone, and failed.
When Sarah opens the door to leave the Junk Lady says-
JUNK LADY: "Better to stay in here, dear! Yes! There's nothing you want out there! No, oh, no." (01:12:15)
I think the Junk People failed to save someone from the Labyrinth, and were thus trapped. Maybe they ignored who they were saving to instead find comfort in their items, like Junk Lady tries to do with Sarah. Or they failed and then found comfort in their items. If you look on Junk Lady's back she has a chess board, a drum and some stuffed animals along with everything else. It looks like she tried to take her whole room with her, including the chair she sat in. Similar to how Sarah sits down in her chair.
And isn't that a fitting punishment? You failed to save what truly mattered, so why not carry with you for all eternity what you really cared about. I mean, Junk Lady says it herself:
JUNK LADY: "It's all here. Everything in the world you've ever cared about, is all right here." (01:13:20)
Not to mention her reaction to hearing Sarah reciting from the Labyrinth book. She's heard those words before, but in this version of the film she's no longer being puppeted by Jareth. So how does she know? Unless she had that book once too.
Idk what are y'all's thoughts?
