All That Jazz ending explained

What happens

Joe's heart fails after surgery, and in a fantasy number, "Bye Bye Life," he stages his own death as a variety show for family, lovers and colleagues. He is zipped into a body bag and embraces Angelique, death.

The last line

"That's all, folks!"

What it says

Joe cannot stop performing, even facing death, so the film lets him turn his end into spectacle. Fosse had survived his own heart attack, so the ending is imagined. It confesses and flatters at once, and you applauded.