Bones and All movie ending explained

From Academy Award nominee Luca Guadagnino comes an ambitious love story that’s equal parts sweet and creepy. Bones and All is now playing in select theaters before its wide release on Wednesday, Nov. 23. Though it’s just in time for Thanksgiving, we wouldn’t recommend you take the whole family to watch this one! It’s got an R-rating and for good reason.

Taylor Russell (Waves) stars in Bones and All as an 18-year-old named Maren Yearly, a lost soul who’s abandoned by her father after he discovers her disturbing habit hasn’t gone away. She’s addicted to eating human flesh. With just her birth certificate and some cash to her name, Maren embarks on an epic journey through America to find her birth mother. Apparently, her mom had the same problem she does.

MAJOR spoilers ahead for Bones and All.

Along the way, Taylor meets some unusual characters like a fellow cannibal named Sully (Mark Rylance) who gives her some tips on how to eat people, as well as a young man named Lee (Timothée Chalamet), who’s also a cannibal. Maren and Lee strike up a romance that’s hard to look away from.

This marks the second time Chalamet has teamed up with Guadagnino, the first being the Academy Award-nominated 2017 film Call Me by Your Name. Fans of the two are no doubt excited to watch Bones and All. The new movie runs 130 minutes long and is based on a YA book of the same name by Camille DeAngelis, with a screenplay that was penned by David Kajganich (2018’s Suspiria).

Though the plot of Bones and All meanders a bit, the cinematography is gorgeous and there are several shots that will stay with you for a while. This is certainly an artistic film, and it ends on a somewhat ambiguous note which might have some viewers scratching their heads. We don’t get many definitive answers, so that might confuse audiences. Here’s what to know about the ending!

Bones and All ending: Does Maren eat Lee?

The last chapter of Bones and All follows Maren and Lee as they attempt to lead a normal life amid their cravings for human flesh. It seems like they’re doing a great job, but one day when Maren arrives home she sees someone has broken in. It’s Sully, that creepy cannibal she met early on who’s been following her. It’s apparent he’s become obsessed with her, and Lee gets there just in the nick of time to fight Sully off. But in the process, unfortunately, Lee suffers a stab wound to the chest.

Maren and Lee kill Sully, but when it’s all said and done, it doesn’t look like Lee will make it. Lee tells Maren she should eat him, but she refuses until she starts licking his wound. We don’t explicitly see Maren eat Lee, but it’s heavily suggested that she does. The last shot of the film shows a landscape and the two lovers sitting together, likely as Maren reminisces on simpler times. She’s left all alone now, and we can assume she’s going back to her cannibal ways.

The ending of

Bones and All

is pretty depressing but well executed. Though it’s suggested what happens, it’s really up to the viewer to make their own interpretation.

Bones and All hits theaters across the U.S. this Wednesday, Nov. 23.