The final fly is the fly that made the lasting impression, but there were more bugs in the movie. I mean, the movie is sumptuous. There is a hot sun. There are bodies of water. There is an Italian villa with slatted doors. There are very ripe peaches, which are sweet and sticky, good for summoning flies. The flies are everywhere. They alight on Elio's notebook while he sits outside. They buzz around the fountain where Oliver is swimming. They hang out inside the house! Again, this all makes sense for the summer in Italy. But, everything else in the movie is careful. There might be all of 30 lines in the whole movie, actually. The dialogue is that cautious. So the flies have to mean something. I tried to get to the bottom of it. These are my theories about all the flies in this otherwise very perfect film.