The final part of the "Brick in the Wall" explodes with the culmination of years of repressed rage and mental anguish. The recurrent guitar riff is no longer the soft drone in the background as it was in "part 1" nor the lively anthem of youthful anarchy in "part 2." Rather, the riff has been transformed into a savage declaration punctuated sharply both by the outbursts of guitar throughout and Pink's own unrestrained statements of personal disconnection. From the loving embraces of his overprotective mother and his adulterous wife to the mind numbing effects of drugs and his celebrity, Pink immediately rejects the things that have previously blunted the pain of his existence in the first two, bitter lines.

Seeing "the writing on the wall" is a phrase often used when one believes to know the outcome of an event. This "knowing" is not necessarily in a psychic or premonitory sense but rather out of the belief that one knows how things will turn out based on what has happened so far. In an e-mail concerning the origin of this phrase, Robert Bell wrote the following: "the writing on the wall could be an allusion to writing that appeared on the wall at a feast of the proud king Balshazzar (Daniel 5:5-10). When the king's wise men failed to decipher the writing, Daniel was summoned and was able to read the inscriptions, which prophesied the King's ruin. That night, the King was slain and his kingdom divided. 'The writing on the wall' is now commonly used as an expression of a warning about one's fate." (Many thanks to Robert for sending this astute observation.) One can only assume what Pink believes will happen if he were to stay with his current course, though he most likely assumes that ultimately he will be devoured by the destructive world, crushed beneath the burdens that he believes are being unfairly placed upon him. As he sees it, the only way to survive is to sacrifice himself to his isolation and to complete his wall, swearing off anyone and everyone that might have been able to offer any amount of help. In Pink's mind, there is only hurt where help should be. As a final declaration, Pink sings that "you were all just bricks in the wall" in an attempt to "convince himself," as Waters stated in his 1979 Tommy Vance interview, "that his isolation is a desirable thing." Caught between living a painful existence in the external world and finding solace in his own disconnection (so he believes), Pink chooses the metaphorical death of his self-imposed isolation. Catalyzed by the realization of his wife's infidelity, the memories of what he had lost in the past, his inability to connect with a single person, and his inadequacy to deal with it all, Pink's wall grows to completion as the remaining gaps between himself and the outside world are stoppered up.

The film scenes for "Another Brick In the Wall Part 3" are nearly impossible to describe shot by shot. For the most part, the song's scenes are comprised of various earlier scenes from Pink's life (his wedding, rejecting his wife, the school teacher, crawling in bed with his mother, the bombing of his father's bunker, etc.) interspersed with a profusion of scenes depicting a full scale riot. Though the riot scenes are most likely different, they are quite reminiscent of some of the first scenes in the movie ("In the Flesh?") in which a group of Pink fans are harassed by the police. In a sense, the inclusion of riots at both the beginning and end of the first half of the movie insinuates the closing of this specific period in Pink's life. He's been born, grown up, faced the trials and hardships of life and is finally embarking into unknown territory when he encloses himself behind his wall. What was Pink will soon be no more as this stage of his life comes to a close. I think it's also intriguing how the riot scenes (completely random and impersonal in terms of the Pink storyline) are woven into the completely personal story of Pink. To me it's as if Waters (or maybe Pink?) is suggesting that life is impersonal, that it is nothing more than a riot. Life and especially the burdens therein are nothing more than a handful of events whose consequences intensify until they are completely out-of-hand, reeking havoc and leaving a wake of destruction.

It is also interesting to note the introduction of the worms (maggots) superimposed over one of the shots halfway through the movie footage. While the worms, a symbol of decay, aren't introduced lyrically until "Hey You," they make their debut in "Brick Part 3," and quite fittingly considering that it is at this point in Pink's journey that he starts to decay and regress into the farthest reaches of his mind.

The song ends with the first real shot of Pink's wall overwhelming the screen in its veryimmensity. Yet so it seems true in life, as well, that we don't realize the burdens of our lives, our own walls, until they are towering over our heads. Thereby it is only appropriate that the viewer never gets a full grasp on just how massive Pink's wall isuntil the wall has been completed and it is too late for Pink to escape. Possibly for the first time in the movie, the viewer gets the sense that the wall has shifted from being a means of protection to an all-encompassing prison impenetrable from the outside world and inescapable from within.