‘Longlegs’ ending explained: what happens to Lee Harker?

Longlegs is one of the breakout horror films of this year’s summer season.

Directed by Osgood Perkins, the horror thriller follows FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) who is assigned to a number of unsolved killings across town connected to a mysterious figure known as Longlegs.

• READ MORE: ‘Longlegs’ review: Nicolas Cage brings the batshit in seriously creepy serial killer movie

Nicolas Cage plays the titular Longlegs, who is joined by other cast members Blair Underwood, Alicia Witt, Michelle Choi-Lee, Dakota Daulby and Kiernan Shipka.

What happens at the end of Longlegs?

After Longlegs mentions her mother before he kills himself, Lee Harker visits her mother Ruth to see if she’s connected to the satanic murders. Lee travels to her house with Agent Browning, who stays in the car while Lee investigates the house. From a window inside, Lee sees her mother shoot Agent Browning with a shotgun at point blank.

She rushes to catch up with her mother outside, who is found pointing the gun at a doll resembling a young Lee. When Ruth blows the head off, black smoke dissipates, and Lee collapses and loses consciousness.

In a flashback sequence, we discover Ruth is Longlegs’ accomplice. After Longlegs first encounters Lee as a young girl outside their house (as shown at the start of the movie), he later returned and subdued Ruth, who was given a choice – either let her daughter be killed as part of the satanic ritual, or save her by doing the Devil’s bidding.

Ruth agreed to save her daughter, so Longlegs moved into their house and lived in the basement. While down there, Longlegs created dolls and infused them with satanic magic, which Ruth, disguised as a nun, would deliver to families around town claiming it was a gift from the church. She would have to deliver the doll and ensure the Devil could manipulate the father of each family to kill the others, before they killed themselves.

As part of this, Lee had her own doll created by Longlegs which she’s had since childhood, which has allowed the Devil to distort the truth from her all these years. It’s also likely the reason behind her inexplicable intuition when it comes to solving cases.

When she wakes up in the basement, Lee answers the phone and hears an unknown voice who says she’s late for Ruby’s party. She rushes over to Agent Carter’s house, whose daughter Ruby is celebrating her ninth birthday that day.

Lee rushes over but finds Ruth has already delivered a doll replica version of Ruby to the house, with her family already possessed. Carter murders his wife in the kitchen, and as he tries to attack Ruby, Lee shoots and kills him. To complete the ritual, Ruth then tries to kill Ruby, which results in Lee shooting and killing her own mother.

In the final scene, Lee tries to shoot the doll but her gun does not fire. Lee and Ruby, who is devoid of emotion, both remain frozen staring at the doll, before it cuts to black. It’s unclear if either Lee or Ruby make it out alive.

What has the director said about the ending?

In an interview with Den Of Geek, director Osgood Perkins suggested the ending represents what the Devil has been hoping for all along.

“I think the ending for [Lee] is about as bad as it could have turned out,” Perkins said. “Like shooting her mom in the head, that’s about as bad a day as a person can have.

“So I think that ultimately one could say that the entire movement of the movie – or the entire movement of all of Longlegs’ crimes, starting from crime number one all the way to the Carter family – it’s all about getting this poor girl to a place where she shoots her mom in the head. Like that’s kind of the flourish, the Devil’s ‘Yep, I did that.'”

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