Dark City ending explained

What happens

Murdoch destroys the Strangers' leader and takes control of their machine. He makes the sun rise and raises an ocean. The city was a floating experiment all along, and he turns it into a real home.

The last image

Murdoch and Anna walk along the newly built Shell Beach, a place once only a painted billboard, now real, with sea and daylight.

What it says

A person is not the sum of borrowed memories. Murdoch invents Shell Beach for real, so identity lies in choice. Anna's old life is gone, yet they begin again, and that gives the film its hopeful ending.