Spoilers · the ending
The Shape of Water: the ending, explained
Guillermo del Toro · 2017
This page gives the ending away. Not seen the film yet? Its spoiler-free guide is here.
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Spoilers · the ending
Guillermo del Toro · 2017
This page gives the ending away. Not seen the film yet? Its spoiler-free guide is here.
What happens
Strickland shoots Elisa and the creature at the canal. The creature heals himself, kills Strickland, and carries Elisa into the water, where the scars on her neck open into gills and she revives. She has become like him, and they will live together.
The last image
Elisa and the creature embrace beneath the water, her new gills open, as the sea takes them in.
What it says
Elisa was written off as mute and alone; the sea is where she is finally seen. The ending rewards attention over power, and as in a fairy tale, the monstrous man dies while the outsiders are made whole.