Aguirre, the Wrath of God ending explained

What happens

Everyone has died, including Aguirre's daughter Flores. He is alone on a drifting raft, overrun by monkeys, still announcing that he will found a dynasty and rule the continent. Nobody is left to hear him.

The last image

Aguirre's raft drifts down the river, covered in monkeys, with no one left to rule.

What it says

Aguirre's ambition has outlived everything it was meant to serve. The film ends here because conquest has become pure delusion: a man's empire exists only in his head, while the river keeps moving, indifferent to it.