La Jetée ending explained

What happens

He returns to the jetty and sees the woman. As he runs toward her, he notices a man from the camp following him. He realizes the death he witnessed as a child was his own, and the memory that defined his life was its ending.

The last image

The man runs along the jetty toward the woman, while the man from the camp closes in behind him.

What it says

The ending closes the circle: the opening image was also the last. The film suggests the past cannot be changed and that a life may be a closed loop, with its end already present in its beginning.