Netflix’s In the Tall Grass ending explained: What’s the secret of the tall grass?
By Sandy C.
In the Tall Grass is now streaming on Netflix and it’s packed with secrets! So many secrets, in fact, that it’s confusing audiences. What happens in the ending?
The maze the tall grass in In the Tall Grass creates takes viewers through more paths than we care to journey through. In the end, the confusion and loss of interest the movie has been giving audiences isn’t necessarily because they don’t understand the concept, but the execution is what fails here.
Puzzled by the movie? No worries, we’re here to help. Please note, however, that there are significant spoilers ahead if you have not watched In the Tall Grass on Netflix. Watch the movie first before reading ahead. Or don’t, it may not be worth your time, actually.
In the Tall Grass centers on Becky (Laysla De Oliveira) and Cal (Avery Whitted) a brother and sister duo traveling by car to San Diego. They make a quick stop when Becky, who’s pregnant, doesn’t feel well. But their brief break takes longer than planned when they hear cries for help from a young boy inside the tall grass. The boy shouts that he is lost, so Cal and Becky go in to help him.
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Inside, they eventually meet Tobin (Will Buie Jr.), his father Ross (Patrick Wilson), and even Travis (Harrison Gilbertson), Becky’s ex-boyfriend, and learn that the tall grass is hiding secrets and doesn’t plan on letting them leave. But, in a way, it also represents how humanity, unfortunately, works (or fails) when presented with a problem.
What’s up with the tall grass?
Time does not work inside the tall grass the same way it works outside of it. The grass is able to bend time and control different realities. We initially believed that Tobin pulled in Becky and Cal, who then pulled in Travis when he went searching for the two after they went missing for some time. But when Travis finds Becky and Cal, they tell Travis that they just got there. How did Travis get there before Becky and Cal?
That’s because, in another reality, Travis pulls in Tobin, who pulls in Becky and Cal, who pull in Travis. It’s crazy, I know, but the grass makes its own rules and is able to manipulate time. This is what the tall grass does in order to continue pulling in victims.
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What does the grass want?
Why is the tall grass doing this? That, I’m not sure. I haven’t read the novel so I can’t say if the pages explain this better. Perhaps it’s what it feeds off of, fear and violence. In once scene, an insane Ross kills his wife and reassures his son that it’s okay, because “it’s just flesh.” Apparently, it’s the circle of life inside the tall grass. A body dies, the grass and soil consume it, and a differently reality restarts.
This is what’s important here. When we are faced with an issue or disagreement, we become angry and violent instead of taking a step back and considering other options and opinions. It’s possible, had everyone worked together to escape, they may have found a way out of the tall grass.
In the end, Tobin escapes with the help of Travis, who tells Tobin to warn Becky and Cal not to enter the tall grass. This way, Becky, Cal, and Tobin can continue on to create a different reality, one in which they don’t enter the grass and are safe. But what happens to Travis?
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My guess is that Travis dies in the grass, but is fine with it because there’s another version of him out there that has not entered the tall grass. And now that Becky and Cal won’t get lost in it, Travis won’t go searching for the duo, which means he’ll also be safe.
As for Tobin, he makes it out, but we do hear the voice of another Tobin from within the maze, so that version of him is still inside there. Again, it’s a bizarre concept, but an interesting one. Captivating enough to give this movie a good review, though? Not for me.
In the Tall Grass is now streaming on Netflix.