The End

Play trailer

2:23

The End

R

2024

2h 28m

Musical

Drama

Sci-Fi

Fantasy

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

56%

Tomatometer

119 Reviews

28%

Popcornmeter

50+ Ratings

Twenty-five years after environmental collapse left the Earth uninhabitable, Mother, Father and Son are confined to their palatial bunker, where they struggle to maintain hope and a sense of normalcy by clinging to the rituals of daily life--until the arrival of a stranger, Girl, upends their happy routine. Son, a naïve twenty-something who has never seen the outside world, is fascinated by the newcomer, and suddenly the delicate bonds of blind optimism that have held this wealthy clan together begin to fray. As tensions rise, their seemingly idyllic existence starts to crumble, with long-repressed feelings of remorse and resentment threatening to destroy the family's delicate balance. But their reckoning with difficult truths also points to a different way forward, one based on acceptance, love, and a capacity for change.

Critics Consensus

The End doesn't lack for ambition or talent, but its bold vision is ill-served by a bloated runtime and monotonous musical score.

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Mark Kermode

Kermode and Mayo's Take (YouTube)

04/04/2025

Joshua Oppenheimer is not afraid of a challenge... the same is true of George MacKay.

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Nick Howells

London Evening Standard

04/04/2025

3/5

The whole enterprise is weirdly compelling and oddly flat at the same time. And those tunes? Showstoppers? Not quite, although by the end, their deliberately old-fashioned hokeyness grows on you.

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Robbie Collin

Daily Telegraph (UK)

04/04/2025

2/5

It’s all meaty stuff for a think piece, but rather less swallowable as a film.

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Marta Medina Pérez

mundoCine

Aug 20

3/5

Is its reflection on self-delusion powerful? Absolutely. But is it accessible to the average viewer, and does it sustain interest over more than two hours of runtime? Not quite.

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Will Bjarnar

Geek Vibes Nation

Jul 19

8/10

The End isn’t interested in showing you how best you can serenade your way through secrets and lies. It’s eager to convince you that doing so is just as bad as the act itself.

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Javier Ocaña

El Pais (Spain)

04/25/2025

It's a mournful post-apocalyptic musical with an ecological undertone, which could have been a brave attempt at the unconventional, but instead ends up in a narrative uphill battle...[Full review in Spanish]

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Dora

12/19/2024

Confusing, and didn’t really see how the musical aspect of it was important? Great concept though.

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John C

12/17/2024

Dear god. Stay far far away.

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Max

12/14/2024

Woof, I wanted to like this movie so bad, but the singing and characters were not connecting for me.

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Kashgar A

@AllFunAndGames 6h

A musical! Hard no from me

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Vince Q.

@Vincedeq Oct 31

Tilda Swinton and George MacKay star in this musical farse set in a post-apocalyptic world. The film explores the human quest for forgiveness, even under the most demanding of circumstances, but though the filmmakers embark in noble effort, it ultimately fails to convey its larger sentiment, wrapped as it is in the chaos of jarring buffoonery. Okay, it was just too wacky, even for me. It’s interesting to note that even in the most zany cinematic of plot lines, character motivations need to scale into relatively human ranges, especially if a writer wants to convey genuine human emotion. Otherwise, everything in your film floats with the farce.

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J R

@RT04388765 Sep 14

“Watching The End feels like someone put Schindler’s List into a musical. I thought Les Misérables with Russell Crowe was dire and over-bloated — I escaped two-thirds of the way through to join the other husbands at the bar. With this, I’d have been there after 28 minutes and 23 seconds. If I’d seen it in a cinema, I wouldn’t ask for my money back — I’d demand those 28 minutes and 23 seconds of my life back, with a no-quibble guarantee. Just as Russell Crowe’s singing was an insult to crows , this film is an insult to the very concept of storytelling.”

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Joshua Oppenheimer

Director

Tilda Swinton

Mother

Michael Shannon

Father

Lennie James

Doctor

Bronagh Gallagher

Friend

George MacKay

Son

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The End: Trailer 1

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Synopsis

Twenty-five years after environmental collapse left the Earth uninhabitable, Mother, Father and Son are confined to their palatial bunker, where they struggle to maintain hope and a sense of normalcy by clinging to the rituals of daily life--until the arrival of a stranger, Girl, upends their happy routine. Son, a naïve twenty-something who has never seen the outside world, is fascinated by the newcomer, and suddenly the delicate bonds of blind optimism that have held this wealthy clan together begin to fray. As tensions rise, their seemingly idyllic existence starts to crumble, with long-repressed feelings of remorse and resentment threatening to destroy the family's delicate balance. But their reckoning with difficult truths also points to a different way forward, one based on acceptance, love, and a capacity for change.

Director: Joshua Oppenheimer
Producer: Tilda Swinton, Signe Byrge Sørensen
Screenwriter: Rasmus Heisterberg, Joshua Oppenheimer
Distributor: NEON
Production Co: Final Cut for Real, The Match Factory, Wild Atlantic Pictures, Dorje Film, Moonspun Films , Anagram Sweden
Rating: R (Some Language)
Genre: Musical, Drama, Sci-Fi, Fantasy
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Dec 6, 2024, Limited
Box Office (Gross USA): $137.3K
Runtime: 2h 28m
Sound Mix: Dolby Digital
Aspect Ratio: Flat (1.85:1)