Elephant ending explained

What happens

Alex shoots Eric, then finds two students hiding in a kitchen freezer and recites a counting rhyme to choose between them. The film cuts away before we learn the outcome. The attack has no clear cause and no hero.

The last image

The film cuts to the sky, where clouds drift past and the screen stays on them without comment.

What it says

The ending is not a puzzle to solve. Cutting away before the outcome denies you the closure, judgement or explanation you might want. The cold, chance-like rhyme and the indifferent sky fit the film's idea that no single cause explains what you have seen.