The Ending Of Significant Other Explained
There's a modern misconception that a horror movie has to be rife with jump scares and terrifying, scream-worthy shocks. This notion has left some audiences missing out on some truly special movies that focus more on slow burn creepy thrills and chills. One such diamond in the rough is 2022's "Significant Other," a psychological horror movie that plays with the genre in unexpected ways.
With a twinge of black comedy and a sci-fi premise you won't see coming, "Significant Other" introduces us to Harry (Jake Lacy) and Ruth (Maika Monroe), a young couple who set out on a camping trip while dealing with their own relationship issues. Initially, "Significant Other" is a character drama, focused on the turmoil of their relationship, however, things take a mind-bending turn with a shocking discovery that turns an innocent romantic adventure into a fight for survival.
Though the film only really has two major characters and is set in one location, there's a surprising amount of story to be had and plenty of jaw-dropping moments. By the time it's all said and done, though, there are still many questions left unanswered and plot twists with some scary implications. So pull up the covers and turn out the lights, because this is the ending of "Significant Other" explained.
What you need to remember about the plot of Significant Other
For the first part of the film, "Significant Other" seems like it might be little more than a romantic drama. It opens with Ruth and her longtime boyfriend Harry setting out for a camping trip, though it seems it's mostly Harry who is excited about it. Ruth, who suffers from persistent panic attacks, is nervous about the trip, but Jake reassures her that it will be a positive experience for them both. But as their hike begins it becomes clear that despite their love for one another, their relationship has some issues, with Jake frustrated by Ruth's issues with anxiety.
What's meant to be a romantic trip in the great outdoors takes its first detour when Jake stuns Ruth by proposing to her on a precipice, prompting a panic attack that sees her rejecting him and running away in tears. She tells Jake that she'd made it perfectly clear to him in the past that marriage was never on the table, and that his proposal gone wrong may have ruined their relationship. Jake, meanwhile, believes that it's the divorce of Ruth's parents that is clouding her feelings regarding potential nuptials.
While the strain between Ruth and Jake is at a fever pitch, Ruth insists that she remains committed to their relationship. Still, tensions are running high, and Ruth is more anxious than ever. When she heads out alone on a walk through the woods, she makes a shocking discovery that changes everything.
Explaining the movie's biggest twist
If it weren't for a couple of spooky moments in the film's opening to clue you in, viewers would have been forgiven for wondering why "Significant Other" was marked as a science fiction and horror film. That's because, by the midway point, it seems the story is firmly fixated on the relationship troubles of Ruth and Harry, with nothing creepy happening at all. But when Ruth takes a stroll in the woods to clear her head, she finds a mysterious cave, and inside is a strange pool of blue slime, which precedes a major sci-fi twist.
Running away in a panic, Ruth encounters Harry and promptly knees him in the groin and throws him off a cliff, apparently murdering him in cold blood. The revelation, though, is not that Ruth is a ruthless killer because a brief flashback later reveals the truth. When exploring the cave she'd discovered Harry's mutilated body, meaning the version of Harry she encountered afterward wasn't him. Instead, it was an other-worldly, shapeshifting replicant, a dark version of Harry that contains all of his memories and life experiences, but is intent on killing anyone it encounters. The alien duplicate of Harry, no matter how hard it tries, cannot bring itself to kill Ruth, allowing her the chance to escape.
Alone and pursued by a deadly alien creature that has taken the form of her dead lover, Ruth must find a way to get out alive.
What happened at the end of Significant Other?
Try as she might, Ruth cannot escape the alien lifeform that has replicated Harry. However, the replicant surprises her by promising not to kill her, instead vowing to save her from an imminent invasion by his people. He takes her to a nearby beach where he reveals his cloaked spacecraft, promising to take her far away from Earth, which is soon to become a war-torn wasteland at the hands of an alien army. Though she puts up a valiant fight, luring the alien into the water where it's attacked by a shark, Ruth is ultimately captured and taken back to the same cave where the alien killed Harry.
Realizing that Ruth will never go along with its plan to keep her safe, the alien puts Ruth into a cocoon. Now, the alien sheds its Harry persona and slowly morphs into a duplicate of Ruth. In doing so, the alien doesn't just absorb Ruth's memories and life experiences, but also her crippling anxiety, self-doubt, and struggles with identity. As a result, the real Ruth is able to push just the right buttons and force her alien doppelganger into a panic attack, leaving it paralyzed with fear.
As the alien begs for mercy, Ruth is able to get free, and she smashes the alien's head with a rock. Escaping to Harry's SVU, Ruth is able to leave the trailhead, but not before the creature warns her through the vehicle's radio that the alien invasion is still coming.
What did the alien replicant want?
Early in "Significant Other," when Harry and Ruth first arrive at their campsite, they come upon a horrifying scene: The mutilated body of a deer, apparently split in two by an unknown force. Harry tries to chalk this up to some kind of animal attack or even a disease, but after the alien is discovered to be taking the form of Harry later in the film, it becomes apparent what they've seen. When the alien doppelganger kills two hikers, it uses a needle-like blade formed from its finger to cut them open, much in the same way the deer had been sliced apart.
It's later revealed that the alien had taken other forms before, clearly some of which hadn't been human, in an attempt to understand the creatures who inhabit Earth. The alien admitted to being an advanced scout, sent down to learn about the planet and its inhabitants, and becoming Harry was its first attempt at being human. In duplicating animals and humans, it could learn by absorbing their memories and experiences, and use that knowledge to aid in its people's invasion of the planet.
The alien encountered its first obstacle when Ruth discovered Harry's dead body. Not wanting to be caught and exposed, it pursued Ruth to stop her from getting away and revealing its existence to anyone else. To its own horror, though, it found itself unable to kill her, and at first, it couldn't even understand why.
Why didn't the alien replicant kill Ruth?
From the moment the alien took the guise of Harry, it pursued Ruth and was focused on murdering her to prevent her from exposing him. He killed a pair of innocent hikers during his quest to do just that, but when he had the chance to kill Ruth he just couldn't do it. Even the replicant was confused by his inability to kill her, and that's when it made a bewildering realization: In absorbing Harry's memories it also absorbed his devotion and love for Ruth, making it impossible for it to do her harm.
This love for Ruth is also why, when Harry captures Ruth, the alien only keeps her confined in a cocoon in the cave, instead of killing her as it did Harry. The alien has never experienced the emotion of love — which it says is unique to humans — and it wants to fulfill its vow to Ruth, while still keeping her alive. But with Ruth unwilling to leave the planet with the alien, it instead chooses to become Ruth and merge its being with both she and Harry. In essence, it creates the one thing that Ruth has always feared: a deep and lifelong connection between Harry and herself.
What were the themes of Significant Other?
On the surface, "Significant Other" is a psychological horror movie and sci-fi thriller about an alien invader who takes on the form of a human in an effort to learn about mankind ahead of a wide-scale attack on the planet. But the film's title is a clue that this is far more than just a straightforward invasion story. In a bending of genres, the film uses the story of an alien replicant and imminent assault on Earth to examine deep personal issues; Everything from fear of commitment to family tragedy, and self-acceptance.
When the film begins we meet Ruth, who is plagued by anxiety that causes daily problems, and learn about her struggle to accept herself for who she is. By the end, when the alien shapeshifter assumes her form, Ruth has learned that what she sees as flaws are simply a part of who she is, and she has found a way to accept herself. She's also realized that her ability to cope with her own struggles makes her stronger than she ever realized, as the alien is completely incapacitated by the same anxieties that she copes with every day.
What the directors have said about the movie's allegory
At the core of the drama early in the film is the pressure that Ruth feels to get married. And that drama isn't there just to serve as a canvas to paint tension on before the alien invader is revealed. Instead, it's integral to the film's story and themes, as directors Dan Berk and Robert Olsen confirmed. "I think from a young age, a lot of people — mainly women — are being told you've got to get married," Olsen told an audience at New York Comic-Con in 2022 (per TV Line). "We wanted to make a movie that was born of the anxiety of that situation. The fact that she doesn't necessarily want to get married, you can't really escape those societal expectations. They just keep coming after you, which is sort of what happens in the movie."
In fact, the pressure from society that chases Ruth to meet its own expectations for her — to become a dutiful wife and doting mother — is mirrored not-so-subtly by the alien doppelganger that chases her through the second half of the film. But while the suffocating feeling she gets when Harry proposes cripples her, she is able to overcome that same feeling when confronted with the alien duplicate.
How the directors crafted the ending of Significant Other
Written during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, co-director Robert Olsen explained that the goal was to make a movie with a limited number of characters and in an outdoor setting to allow for shooting during extreme lockdown conditions and tight production restrictions. "We started with the idea that it would be out in the woods for the whole movie, always outside, with just two actors," he explained in an interview with Digital Trends. But as time went on, and COVID was further in the rearview mirror, the movie's story was able to elaborate somewhat. As it did, the ending was re-developed and expanded beyond what was originally envisioned.
"The climax of the movie was always what it is in the film, with the showdown that happens between the protagonist and antagonist," Olsen said. "But over time, there were a few different versions of how you [end the story], whether a character gets away, and how much the antagonist pursues the protagonist." Together with producers at Paramount, the directors were able to zero in on the final version of the ending which leaves the audience with multiple possibilities, both in terms of interpretation and the potential for more story. "The [ending] that's in there, which we really love and leaves the door open, should this story be continued at some point."
How the cast was challenged by the ending
A taut sci-fi thriller, "Significant Other" surprises audiences with a number of reversals, twists, and shocking moments. For the cast, that meant giving performances that created an eerie vibe without giving away what was coming. If that sounds easy, think again. Stars Jake Lacy and Maika Monroe talked about the challenges, and how they tried to convey subtle hints at what was to come. "You're, like, very aware of an audience watching it at some point," Lacy told Screen Rant Plus in an interview during the press tour for the film. "In creating it you have to figure out when to let them in on what's happening and when not to, and how not to tip your hand."
Lacy also talked about how it became a collaborative effort to keep those secrets hidden, working with both directors and Monroe to decide what to share and when, both in terms of plot and performance. Monroe agreed. "It was challenging, you know, because as the actor playing this role, like, I know what's going on internally but, having to sell something also to the audience that is different," the actress explained. Ultimately, they walked the tightrope just well enough to keep audiences guessing ahead of the movie's mid-story reveal and its eerie ending.
What audiences and critics say about the ending of Significant Other
When a movie upends its very premise midway through the story, it can polarize both audiences and critics. Throw in a major plot twist and an ambiguous, open-ended climax, and it's practically inviting divisiveness among movie-goers. "Significant Other" manages to thread the needle though, and while it has its critics, it earned strong reviews from audiences and critics alike. As for the ending, it proved to be one of the movie's biggest appeals.
"The journey from where 'Significant Other' starts to where it ends are wildly unpredictable," said Dread Central reviewer Tyler Doupe. "Just when you think you've got the narrative figured out, more information is revealed and you're back to square one ... It frequently subverted my expectations in the best possible way."
Not everyone was in love with the film's final act, with Radio Times saying it "shamelessly escalates into utter farce." Collider, meanwhile gave the film a hearty thumb's up, but called out the ending for leaving something to be desired, and frustrated that so much of the story was left hanging when the credits rolled. Nevertheless, even those who disliked the ending lauded the film for successfully straddling genres, and using sly, dark humor to punctuate a creepy tale of an alien takeover against the backdrop of a strained romantic relationship.
Does the ending of Significant Other hint at a sequel?
From interviews with the movie's directors, it doesn't sound like there was ever any intent to turn "Significant Other" into a franchise. Yet, it's hard to escape the notion of a follow-up given the open-ended nature of the film's final moments. While Ruth is able to escape with her life, she hasn't actually killed the alien scout, who makes it clear that she's done nothing to stop or even slow the coming invasion of Earth. The alien also lays out a frightening vision of what's to come, portending vast, global destruction and the potential end of all mankind.
With that kind of tease, a sequel feels almost inevitable. Unfortunately, neither the film's directors nor its stars have discussed the possibility, even in spite of the obvious tease at the end of the movie. If there is to be a sequel though, there are many possibilities for where such a story could go.
A direct follow-up starring Maika Monroe as Ruth, as she tries to warn the wider world is just one possibility. Horror franchises in particular have often pursued more broad sequels that focus on new characters in stories that are set in the same fictional universe, such as "Birdbox: Barcelona" and "A Quiet Place: Day One." A sequel to "Significant Other" could do likewise, with an entirely different story. Whether set after the alien invasion with a more sci-fi/action story, or even another thriller focused on a different scout toying with a human target, there are plenty of possibilities.