Philippa (Cate Blanchett) kills 4 innocent people by mistake. In a powerful scene, she learns what she has done and is devastated. Soon after, she says with conviction that she must answer for that crime. All of this is in the first few minutes and it's very convincing.

But after that, we never return to that theme again. Especially once they're on the run, she (and possibly the audience) has completely forgotten all about it.

This always bothered me as a severe flaw in the film, and I remember on the old imdb boards other people brought it up too. Without a doubt, Philippa is a hypocrite. But suddenly I'm wondering, is that a deliberate part of the story? And could that imply a cynical interpretation of the ending?

ENDING SPOILERS BELOW

So in the final scene, they're completely surrounded and we assume the day of reckoning has come. Instead they steal the helicopter, but this is the interesting part. They don't just fly off to Greece or something. They fly straight up into the sky, way too high, reaching the point where (from the flight simulator flashbacks) we know that the helicopter will stall and crash. But we don't see it stall; instead it keeps going impossibly higher until it disappears. End credits: Heaven.

On the surface it's a fairytale happy ending. They somehow get away even though we know it isn't possible. The audience may be tempted to leave with a smile on their faces. But if we dig deeper, especially in context with Philippa's hypocrisy at completely forgetting her victims, we realize that maybe their vertical escape was a metaphor for running away from something you can't run away from. Denial. Escapism. Delusion. Call it what you like, but she leaves the realm of reality and escapes to an impossible heaven which she doesn't deserve.

Kieslowski (the writer) did have a cynical streak. Tykwer (the director) not so much - he favors fantasy happy endings. But I think the ending is meant to be a cynical, ironic one. Maybe like Brazil or many of the psychological films of the late 70s & 80s where we get a faux happy ending that doesn't quite sit right.