The Ending Of Night Swim Explained
"Night Swim," the latest horror film from Blumhouse, is a supernatural thriller that brings the terror to your backyard pool. The film — based on the 2014 short of the same name — follows a family looking for a fresh start after moving into a new home with a huge swimming pool. While this comforting luxury seems beneficial at first, it harbors a dark secret that's lying just below the surface. Now, this family must find a way to stay afloat as they're tormented by awful visions and put under the spell of a malevolent spirit.
"Night Swim" delivers unsettling suspense at every turn and puts a scary twist on a usually relaxing setting. Each new entity that haunts the family brings with it a slow-growing sense of dread that builds throughout "Night Swim." As the characters become more aware of the chilling secrets that lie within their pool, the film delves into an eerie history filled with death and deception. It all results in a tense finale that showcases some unexpected turns and shocking events. If you're left with questions, we're here to dive headfirst into the ending of "Night Swim" and talk about the intriguing lore that the film introduces.
What you need to remember about the plot
Before we get into the final stretch of "Night Swim," there are a few things you'll need to remember about the build-up. As the Waller family moves into their new house, the family patriarch Ray (Wyatt Russell) deals with a personal tragedy. He was recently diagnosed with a developing form of Multiple Sclerosis (MS) and as a result, he was forced to leave his professional baseball career behind. Ray struggles to adjust to a life without baseball but finds some comfort in his family, their beautiful new home, and the pool that comes with it. The swimming pool is particularly important, and strangely, it provides a form of therapeutic healing for Ray and miraculously improves his strength and mobility. Unfortunately, things aren't so great for the rest of the family, and Ray's wife Eve (Kerry Condon) and their kids experience traumatic visions and ghostly apparitions that wreak havoc in their lives.
In search of answers, Eve tracks down one of the previous owners of the house and unearths a mortifying truth. It turns out that the pool contains a paranormal presence that grants someone their deepest desires, but only if they're willing to make a sacrifice. For instance, the woman Eve speaks with sacrificed her young daughter to save her incredibly ill son. Unfortunately, this foul spirit also possesses the people who crave its power and now it has Ray under its control. With this revelation, Eve rushes home to find that Ray — now possessed by the ghost — are ready to continue this disturbing cycle.
What happens at the end of the movie
As Eve races home, the spirit lures her son Elliot (Gavin Warren) into a trap. Using sounds that mimic the family's beloved pet cat, Cider, the entity persuades Elliot to walk towards the water while it cranks the cover over the pool. Once Elliot falls in, the presence slowly pulls him into the dark space below. When Eve arrives, she quickly jumps into the water to save Elliot — swimming through the seemingly bottomless pit that's developed.
She successfully reaches Elliot but is overwhelmed by the various evil beings who inhabit the pool. That is until the apparition of a child named Rebecca (Ayazhan Dalabayeva) gives Eve directions to the surface. After rising out of the water, Elliot lies lifeless on the ground as Ray approaches Eve to stop her from saving their son. Before Ray can hurt Eve though, their daughter Izzy (Amélie Hoeferle) manages to subdue her father with a baseball bat.
Nearly broken, Ray has visions of his family and their support of him — which gives him the will to suppress the pool's power over him. However, the spirit then latches onto Elliot, forcing Ray to choose to sacrifice himself to save his son. After Ray swims into the pool, he disappears and his family is left devastated by their loss. In the end, they choose to stay in the house but cover the pool with dirt so that no one else suffers from this horrific nightmare as they did.
What does the ending mean?
In terms of the ghostly being that's resided in this pool for decades, the Waller family seems to have beaten it by the end of the film. Ray's decision to be taken by the pool, sacrificing himself to spare Elliot seemingly allows the entity's cursed cycle to conclude. Since the sacrifice is made, the spirit becomes dormant again and awaits its next group of victims. At this point, it doesn't seem like Elliot will be further afflicted by the possession.
Unlike Rebecca's mother, Kay (Jodi Long), Elliot isn't tethered to the pool's power anymore. He's shown to be acting normally in the film's final moments and the dark veins that consumed him and his father are no longer present once Ray vanishes. This likely means that the pool no longer has control over him and he doesn't need water by his side for the rest of his life.
More importantly, with the pool now smothered by dirt, it doesn't seem like this unnatural force will be able to spring to life again. After all, it can only reawaken through someone disturbing the water by jumping in. While the family grapples with their loss and the trauma they have experienced, the film does seem to conclude with the assurance that this will be the end of their horrifying experiences. However, there is a degree of ambiguity that leaves things open to our interpretation.
What do we learn about the pool and its inhabitants?
Although we've briefly touched on the film's central evil and its dark motivations, let's dig a little deeper into its mythology. As explained by Rebecca's mother, the spirit in the pool comes from a spring that once existed in the woods before people settled in the area. For a long time, it would lurk within the shadowy depths of the water waiting for people to come.
Once awakened, the ghost uses a person's deepest desires to gain control over them and force them into making an unimaginable decision. Eventually, the person is led to kill someone close to them for their wish to be granted. However, that doesn't mean that the person who made the wish is free from the entity's clutches. As seen with Rebecca's mother, whoever gets their wish granted is forced to stay near water or else succumb to a gruesome drowning from within.
The people who are sacrificed, however, arguably suffer a fate worse than death and are destined to lure people into the pool for all eternity. When Eve is attacked by various ghouls underwater, it appears that they each represent the different victims who drowned in the water over the years. While they are in varying states of decay, they all resemble various people who were killed in the water and can be seen when Eve is researching the history of the pool.
Will filling the pool actually work?
In theory, the family's plan to fill the pool with dirt seems like a viable way to keep the spirit at bay. If no one can enter the pool, then surely the problem is solved, as there is nothing for the entity to work with. However, the story that Kay tells Eve reminds us that the spirit isn't necessarily solely tied to the pool, and it is the water — or something in it – that holds the power. She mentions that the area used to be a secluded spring until someone built over it. Back then, the ghostly presence hid deep under the spring and became tethered to the water somehow. The spring has since been built over, but it stayed attached to the water and found a new home in the pool.
This means that wherever the water goes, the spirit travels with it. So, as long as the water from the spring finds someplace to spill into, this terrible plague can technically continue to spread. Perhaps in rivers, in other pools, maybe even in a drinking fountain. Or most chillingly, it could even find its way into the pipes and plumbing system of the Waller's house. The plan to smother the pool with dirt will certainly keep the Wallers from being affected — at least for now — but this presence is probably far from contained forever.
Can the pool be defeated from within?
While most of the ghosts who reside in the pool resemble zombie-like corpses, there is one inhabitant who doesn't and it is this one that holds some deeper meaning and significance. As Eve tries to swim out of the depths of the pool with Elliot in her hands, the spirits attempt to pull her further under. Thankfully, the spirit of Rebecca shows up to save her, and interestingly she doesn't look as undead as everyone else. Having drowned in 1992, perhaps it is simply that Rebecca hasn't been corrupted by the water as much as the others. It is also intriguing that Rebecca is the only one to try and save Eve and Elliot, meaning she is actively working against the hive mind of the other spirits. All of this seems to suggest that the spirit could be stopped from within.
If Rebecca can find a way to keep her previous form and also help the people who are being haunted, then perhaps the other victims can too. For all we know, a rebellion could develop against this omnipotent force and it can finally be defeated. The film never directly explains why Rebecca is capable of opposing this supernatural puppet master. Given that she was sacrificed by her mother, it could be that she wanted to save this mother and son to stop them from suffering the same fate, and her resistance could be the key to shifting the power out of this specter's hands.
The meaning of Ray's personal struggles
While also dealing with the things that are slowly consuming him and terrorizing his family, Ray is heavily affected by his trauma. Along with the physical pain of MS, Ray is continually haunted by the reality of no longer being able to play baseball. In some ways, he feels like a shell of himself and constantly yearns to get back on home plate to hit a redemptive home run. It's the main reason that the spirit targets him as a potential vessel, and it's a relatable aspect of his character arc. Ray represents not only the troubles and hardships of suddenly living with a destructive illness like MS but also the agonizing fear of being ripped out of the spotlight, and not being able to enjoy or partake in something that had previously been such a huge part of his identity.
Truthfully, Ray wasn't ready to leave baseball and without it, he is going through an identity crisis. Ray even mentions to Eve that if he didn't have MS, he doesn't know if he would've left baseball. It's why he takes advantage of every moment he gets to lean back toward his passion. Sadly though, that desire becomes his undoing. Ray's story is undoubtedly a cautionary tale of what happens when our determination to reclaim what's lost turns us into self-minded monsters. Thankfully, Ray can attain the redemption he seeks through the final sacrifice he makes to save his family, proving once and for all that his family is more important to him than baseball.
The film is a classic 'be careful what you wish for' story
The whole concept of wishing and sacrifice in "Night Swim" is a prevalent part of the narrative and something that links to a classic moral dilemma. Despite the spirit making people's dreams come true, it sets a pretty harsh price for its services. Not only are they forced to help bring someone to the pool for the entity to take, but they're also never really free from its grasp, even after the sacrifice has been made. It forces the characters — and the audience — to question whether the reward outweighs the punishment, and it is why the film excellently embodies the old saying, "Be careful what you wish for."
This is a phrase that has been uttered many times before in cinema and literature, and it is often a foreboding component of stories. It highlights how wishes can come with undesired consequences and results, leading to surprising twists that turn dreams into nightmares. For Ray, that is exactly what happens when he starts to regain his health. He might've been able to re-enter professional baseball and enjoy what he loved once more, but he eventually lost himself completely to the entity's possession, and the consequence of his wish-fulfillment was the safety of his family — the one thing he loved more than baseball.
The film's messages about not giving up are important
Another ongoing thematic element of "Night Swim" is the sense of support that's expressed through Ray and Eve. In multiple instances, Ray and Eve are seen trying to motivate their children in rough times. Whether it's before a big moment at baseball practice or after being tortured by the spirits that are haunting them, these two always have stories that personify their inability to quit. While these moments might seem like typical parenting scenes, they end up playing an important part in Ray defying the spirit's hold over him.
After Izzy weakens her possessed father in the film's climactic ending, he has a moment of clarity. Suddenly, his mind becomes flooded with memories of his family and all the times he told them not to give up. Then, both Eve and Izzy yell to him to fight against the entity's grip on him. It ultimately leads to him breaking free and shows that pure willpower can defeat it if it is strong enough. It's a small story thread that has a big impact and acts as an emotional reminder of how a strong sense of discipline and determination can overcome the greatest obstacles. It is also a great full-circle moment — Ray had to urge his children not to give up, and now he has to dig deep to do the same
What does the ending mean for a potential sequel?
While covering the pool seems to be a conclusive end to the story, there is still plenty of ambiguity that leaves the options open for a "Night Swim" sequel. With the spirit now crushed under the dirt, the Waller family decides to stay in the house — partly so they can remain close to Ray's spirit. So unless they suddenly decide to move out — or the sequel takes a big time jump to the next family who lives there — it seems the pool will stay covered and the spirit repressed.
That isn't to say it will always be that way, and director Bryce McGuire seems to have ideas for a follow-up film. In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, McGuire acknowledges that there could be more to touch on in a potential sequel to "Night Swim." "Look, if there were to be a sequel, I do have an idea, and there's lots more of the mythology," said McGuire. " ... There's lots more that has already been discussed and could have been in the movie that I would love to get to explore, if people want more."
Based on his response, McGuire is hinting at a deeper look into the pool spirit if a sequel ever gets greenlit. There are certainly options for a further film. Perhaps the spirit finds its way into another water source or a prequel could explore the root of the evil. For now, audiences will have to keep their eyes peeled for a disturbance in the waters and a possible "Night Swim" sequel.