Spoilers · the ending
Scream: the ending, explained
Wes Craven · 1996
This page gives the ending away. Not seen the film yet? Its spoiler-free guide is here.
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Spoilers · the ending
Wes Craven · 1996
This page gives the ending away. Not seen the film yet? Its spoiler-free guide is here.
What happens
Billy and Stu are revealed as the killers. Billy blames Sidney's mother for his parents' broken marriage, and they planned to frame her father. Sidney, Gale and Dewey kill both, and Randy and Dewey survive.
The last image
Sidney, finally safe, is left standing amid the wreckage of the house, free of the killers who hid behind her closest friendships.
What it says
The ending turns the genre's rules against the killers. Sidney survives by taking control of them, and the killers' motives are spoken aloud, then undercut with banter. Real grief and real danger sit beneath the film's jokes, and she is the one who outlasts both.