With Heretic, Scott Beck and Bryan Woods challenge what we believe. Even though the film very specifically tackles organized religion and faith, Mr. Reed’s interrogation of Sisters Barnes and Paxton can apply far more broadly. Once Heretic ends, you should question what happened in the film. But also the world around you. Are you the person you are because that’s who you want to be? Or are you this way because you’ve accepted certain “truths” about the world and allowed them to shape you to their ideals rather than your own?
Keep that in mind as we discuss Heretic’s ending.
Heretic Ending Explained
To believe or not believe, that is the question
The end of Heretic is designed to make viewers wonder what information is relevant or irrelevant. For example, there’s a whole stretch of the film where Mr. Reed wants Barnes and Paxton to believe that resurrection is not only possible but will happen in that grungy little room. Eventually, we find out the “miracle” was nothing more than a awful magic trick pulled off by two of Reed’s prisoners. But then Sister Barnes comes back to life! It’s a mira—oh, nope, she’s dead, again.
Some viewers will think it’s meaningful that Barnes saved the day. They’ll read the moment as a sign of divine intervention that justifies faith and belief. Others will view it through a non-believing lens and thus chalk it up to Barnes simply waking up for a second and having a last bit of energy to take out Reed. Another group might argue it’s a purposeful, meta-moment by Beck and Woods, where they rely on a storytelling deus ex machina to make an ironic statement about narrative. But the majority will probably find themselves uncertain, confused.
The same thing happens at the very end, after Paxton escapes from the house. She falls to her knees, relieved, in this strange forest. And just then a butterfly lands on her finger. That calls back to Paxton’s dialogue at the beginning of Heretic. Quote: When I die, I want to come back as a butterfly, just to follow around the people I love. I’ll land right on their hand. Not their arms. Not their head. Right on their fingertip, so they know it’s me.
When the butterfly lands on her fingertip, most viewers probably think it’s meaningful. It must be the soul of Sister Barnes! Except there’s a quick cut and the butterfly’s gone. Paxton’s all alone. Was the butterfly ever there? Or was it her imagination? Then the movie ends.
Again, a majority of viewers will probably find themselves undecided and confused. While others will take the initial appearance of the butterfly at face value and think the movie’s ultimately making a positive statement about religious belief. And others will come away feeling the opposite—that Paxton’s simply seeing things before she passes away and that confirms a non-believer’s perspective.
All this is done on purpose. The same way Mr. Reed gave the Sisters a choice between Belief and Non-Belief, the directors use the formal elements of filmmaking to give viewers a choice between Belief and Non-Belief. Does the movie take a turn toward the divine, despite the reveal that Reed was a liar? Or does it reinforce a bleak, cynical view of life and death?
There is no right answer. That’s the point.
Movies that make you think
Movies like Deadpool & Wolverine and Harry Potter just want to entertain crowds (and maybe teach some tacit lessons about friendship and life). Flicks like There Will be Blood and 2001: A Space Odyssey are artistic statements about society and the human condition. And then you have films like The Lobster and We Live in Time that want viewers to reflect on a question or concept. In the case of the former, Yorgos Lanthimos wants you to think about how far you’d go to be with the person you love. And in the latter, Florence Pugh and Andrew Garfield present a blueprint for grieving with grace.
Heretic is very much that third kind of movie. It’s not saying you shouldn’t believe in anything. Rather that you should, at least once, consider why you believe. Are there forces controlling you, guiding your choices, that you’re not aware of because you’ve always accepted the world around you as its presented? Heretic’s plot is more a means of having this conversation than it is a simple form of entertainment or artistic statement. It’s narrative as a vehicle for self-examination.
So the ending isn’t cathartic or horrific purely for entertainment value in the vein of films like Evil Dead or The Visit. And it’s not artistic commentary like The Babadook or Hereditary. It’s this carefully constructed moment that wants to leave you uncertain about what to believe so that you make a choice (or at least consider making a choice). Is the glass half full or empty? Was Paxton’s faith rewarded or did it not matter?
Pan’s Labyrinth does something similar. That movie ends with you uncertain if what you watched was realistic and thus tragic or actually a fairy tale and thus magically resolved in a heartwarming way. Honestly, you could argue that Paxton never even makes it out of the house, that she was already dead and when she’s outside it’s actually the afterlife or limbo, some strange other place that points to a truth none of us understand.
There is, intentionally so, no correct ending to Heretic because the goal was for the viewer to ask questions…not find answers.
It was all a dream—well, simulation.
Any proper discussion of Heretic’s ending should involve a simulation theory…theory. Why? Because of that moment near the end where Sister Paxton escapes from the basement and the film cuts to Mr. Reed’s model home. Instead of seeing the little figures Reed had made and would move accordingly to represent the position of various characters in the home, we actually see a tiny Paxton running in the model. When she emerges from the hallway, into the room, the camera tilts up to show full-size her in the room.
Typically, you’d just chalk that up to nothing more than a creative shot (or a nod to the maze in The Shining). But because Mr. Reed introduced ideas of simulation theory…we actually have to consider simulation theory. Reed: I have come to the dark realization that we exist inside a simulation so advanced that we cannot tell the difference between real life and artificial dream. You heard the prophet. She said it’s not real. You see, fire dynamics are very difficult to render. I’ve noticed this anomaly in its behavior when it interacts with simulated NPCs, like poor old Sister B. She couldn’t come back to us. But when you die…you will pass through death and wake up into the real world. What do you think?
Paxton calls bullshit on that whole speech and says Reed is panicking because the “prophet” went off-script when she said “it’s not real”. At the time, we didn’t have enough information to know why the “prophet” would say that. But, at the end of the movie, once we see the women in cages, we get it. It was an act of rebellion. An attempt to help Paxton and Barnes before it was too late. What we’re supposed to realize is that everything Reed had been saying throughout the film was a carefully constructed plan to convert Paxton and Barnes to his cult. He would break down their belief system, break down their relationship with reality, then break down their will to resist. Then, finally, put them in cages like the others.
With that in mind, we shouldn’t take the simulation theory seriously because it really was what Paxton said—Reed’s attempt to fix the “prophet” going off script. But Reed’s miniature of his house is a simulation of what’s happening. And the film formally shows Paxton in this simulation. Again, that could just be a creative choice. But it opens up the potential reading. Especially since you can argue that the very end is Paxton passing through death before she’ll wake up into the “real world” (whatever that is).
I’m not trying to say this is Heretic‘s real secret ending or should be considered the primary way to read the ending. Just that it’s yet another potentiality that the filmmakers added in to allow viewers to decide what they want to believe or not believe.
Remember the earlier conversation where Reed explains the Butterfly Dream. Quote: The butterfly dream concerns an ancient Chinese philosopher who asked himself the followed question. “Was I dreaming of a butterfly? Or am I now a butterfly dreaming that I am a man?” Zhuangzi’s question is about the nature of reality and perspective and what we believe and why we believe it. The crux of the butterfly dream is that you can’t test it or prove it because you’re stuck within your perception of the world. That’s what the end of Heretic wants to leave us with. This reminder that answers are hard to come by and that’s why our choices matter, why our beliefs matter.
Heretic frequently asked questions
What was in Sister Barnes’s arm?
When Barnes doesn’t “wake up”, we see Reed cut into her arm and dig around. He pulls out a pin and tries to argue it’s a chip that proves she’s a program and not a real person and that’s why she doesn’t come back to life. Sister Paxton counters that the pin was actually contraceptive. And she was probably right. The Nexplanon implant is a plastic rod that NHS Inform says is “is placed under the skin of the upper arm by a doctor or nurse to prevent pregnancy.”
What was the point of Topher Grace’s character?
There’s this whole subplot where Elder Kennedy realizes Barnes and Paxton never checked back in. We see him venture out into the storm and go door to door, asking people who had been on the schedule if the girls had made it. After several hopeless visits, he arrives at Reed’s place.
The expectation is that Kennedy will help in some way. Topher Grace is the actor, after all. You cast him because he’s going to impact the story, right?
Nope. He doesn’t press for answers. He isn’t suspicious at all. Then he just…leaves. But then he comes back to the door! He will help! Except we find out he only wanted to leave a pamphlet. Then leaves, again, and is out of the movie completely.
This is what I mean about Beck and Woods being self-aware when it comes to audience perception. Anyone who watches movies would expect—would believe—Elder Kennedy to play a larger role. When he doesn’t, it actually causes savvy viewers to doubt themselves and other assumptions they may have made about the movie. Well, I think that’s the intended goal. In reality, such viewers might think it’s a failed subplot and miss the meta intent.
It’s the same reason Beck and Woods had Hugh Grant in this role. They told an Iowa news station, quote: Hugh Grant is somebody that has had a relationship with an audience in the world of romantic comedies, most notably. But this performance, he turns it, weaponizes that relationship that he’s built with audiences worldwide. He’s at once incredibly witty, incredibly charming, very intellectual, and yet he goes to very, very dark places in this role.
So whether you like or dislike the Topher Grace subplot, at least be aware that it was probably a purposeful red herring that plays into the film’s main theme in a meta way. As opposed to cluelessly bad writing. You could also take it as commentary on the effectiveness of a religious organization, a bit of dark humor.
Cast
- Sister Paxton – Chloe East
- Sister Barnes – Sophie Thatcher
- Mr. Reed – Hugh Grant
- Elder Kennedy – Topher Grace
- Prophet – Elle Young
- Written by – Scott Beck | Bryan Woods
- Directed by – Scott Beck | Bryan Woods
