This movie gets pretty poor reviews, and a lot of that seems to be connected with the broad sentiment among reviewers that the ending doesn't make sense. I'll grant that it's complicated, and I had to rewatch the last 15 minutes a time or two to work it out in my head, but I think I finally understand it well enough to explain it. It *does* make sense for the most part. It's just quite convoluted.
**SPOILERS** Most people's confusion (understandably) begins about the time that Madeline 51 rescues Owen and the two agree on the plan to send Owen back to the past to stop Original Madeline before she ever starts the time loop. From there, Owen is shocked to find himself instead sent to the bleak, desert "future zone" the Madelines kept spawning to and got stuck in until they finally made their round trips to the present. He walks into their camper to find Madeline 115 (the mean/villain one) waiting for him with a knife, saying she'd been warned he was killing her and the other time-clones, so she wants to kill him first. She stabs Owen, but not before receiving the facial scar that we first met her with when she appeared in the present. Then Owen *himself* respawns in an injured state right outside the camper. He sees to his horror an entire army of Madelines marching toward him in the desert to presumably kill him. Then, we get a slip-away to a "BEFORE" scene where a Madeline clone seems to stop Original Madeline from ever creating the loop, ending with an arial shot and a gasp right before the credits.
"What-the-huh?!", right? I had a lot of questions initially. How did Madeline 115 "leave herself a note" when she presumably only made the one round trip through time? Why did she want to kill Owen, anyway? Why did the time machine misfire like that, and who was behind the "override" briefly mentioned onscreen? Who was the Madeline that showed up in the "before" scene at the end? Well... here's what I believe is going on that (mostly) explains the ending.
Right as Madeline 51 is pressing the button to send Owen to the past as intended, the screen on the computer turns red and the words "Madeline Override Sequence" appear on the screen. Earlier, in the present-day after multiple Madelines started arriving and took Owen prisoner and took over the house, we saw that Madeline 115 (the villain) was spending a lot of time alone in the lab or in the camper with the time machine by herself. Specifically, she was messing around with some of the code in the USB drive. I believe she knew herself (or rather, the other versions of her) well enough to think there was a reasonable chance that one of them would do exactly what they did -- rescue Owen and try to use the time machine to alter the past and end the loop.
As a failsafe for that contingency, Madeline 115 did two things. First, she traveled to the "future zone" herself in secret in the dead of night and briefly left a message before making a return trip to the present, writing on the camper's counter that "He's killing us" to rile up the slightly-past version of 115 and to convince her and the other Madelines to punish Owen's interference (if he ever came there) with death. Second, she reprogrammed the time machine itself with an override sequence so that if Owen ever *did* attempt to correct the past, he'd be sent to the future zone instead, where past-future-her and the other Madelines would deal with him. In a bit of poetic revenge, she apparently created some sort of respawn sequence so the Madelines still there could even kill him over and over, as he did her.
The scene with the army of Madelines was impressive, but I suspect the director or writer might have thought it was too bleak an ending. Therefore we got Madeline 51 -- who you as the viewer are supposed to know because she's the only one with a twin-bun hairstyle and who was shown wearing that particular scarf earlier in the film -- saving the day by travelling to the past herself and stopping Original Madeline from ever pressing the button. We know she's clearly smart enough to fix the code, and she was right there with the machine and (by that point in the movie) seemed sincere about wanting to help Owen end the miserable cycle of clonings and killings. Ergo, we get a happy... ending?
Look, I'm not going to completely justify the convoluted ending, because it still does contain some logical holes no matter how you look at it. There's no explanation for how or why Owen would respawn outside of the camper after being stabbed without benefit of the time machine -- none of the many Madeline clones did that after their demises. If original-him, armed with a knife, had been the one to respawn like that, that would have been a different story but also wouldn't have made much sense as a good evil plan for Madeline 115. The "good ending" with Madeline 51 also felt very tacked-on, and the gasp right before the credits doesn't seem to serve *any* purpose that would make in-world sense. (Unless, perhaps, it's Madeline 51 poofing into nonexistence after altering the timeline. I'm thinking more likely it was just a lame throwback jump-scare sound effect to recall the Madelines' first sound upon respawning earlier in the film.) It was also never exactly clear what Madeline 115 thought she was going to do with an army of herself, and the presence of the camper in the future zone was a permanent puzzle.
All told, there are much better ways this film could have ended. I think there was a real missed opportunity for a darkly funny and trippy "Multiplicity" ending with several good Madelines saving the day and deciding to share their life and lover, compromising between their identity as a collective "person" and as individuals (my preference), or they could have focused on a sweet "message" ending with Owen and Original Madeline having some sort of emotional thing to work through on dreams and what sacrifices are and aren't worth it (also acceptable). Instead, we got an EXTREMELY plot-heavy, mystery-style ending that played out like an Agatha Christie novel but with the loose ends much less neatly cinched-together.
But... yeah. The "true" ending was that Owen went through a harrowing time and possible murder in the future zone thanks to Madeline 115's masterful snare, but that Madeline 51 fixed the past on her own and saved the day.
And as a micro-review for the movie itself, I feel it's much better than its low IMDB score makes it look. I found it trippy, exciting, occasionally very funny, with special effects that weren't amazing but also were adequate and not-half-bad for this film's likely budget. The lighting and some of the cinematography were great, and I enjoyed the music, though it as a smidge too loud in some scenes. I also thought all three of the tiny cast of regulars did great jobs, and I actually kind of liked the ending (or at least appreciated it as an adequate wrap-up) once I finally understood it. The film just made things way too hard on themselves and their viewers by not shooting for an ending that was emotionally or thematically satisfying rather than trying to be too clever by half with an overly twisty finale. Worth watching at least once!
**SPOILERS** Most people's confusion (understandably) begins about the time that Madeline 51 rescues Owen and the two agree on the plan to send Owen back to the past to stop Original Madeline before she ever starts the time loop. From there, Owen is shocked to find himself instead sent to the bleak, desert "future zone" the Madelines kept spawning to and got stuck in until they finally made their round trips to the present. He walks into their camper to find Madeline 115 (the mean/villain one) waiting for him with a knife, saying she'd been warned he was killing her and the other time-clones, so she wants to kill him first. She stabs Owen, but not before receiving the facial scar that we first met her with when she appeared in the present. Then Owen *himself* respawns in an injured state right outside the camper. He sees to his horror an entire army of Madelines marching toward him in the desert to presumably kill him. Then, we get a slip-away to a "BEFORE" scene where a Madeline clone seems to stop Original Madeline from ever creating the loop, ending with an arial shot and a gasp right before the credits.
"What-the-huh?!", right? I had a lot of questions initially. How did Madeline 115 "leave herself a note" when she presumably only made the one round trip through time? Why did she want to kill Owen, anyway? Why did the time machine misfire like that, and who was behind the "override" briefly mentioned onscreen? Who was the Madeline that showed up in the "before" scene at the end? Well... here's what I believe is going on that (mostly) explains the ending.
Right as Madeline 51 is pressing the button to send Owen to the past as intended, the screen on the computer turns red and the words "Madeline Override Sequence" appear on the screen. Earlier, in the present-day after multiple Madelines started arriving and took Owen prisoner and took over the house, we saw that Madeline 115 (the villain) was spending a lot of time alone in the lab or in the camper with the time machine by herself. Specifically, she was messing around with some of the code in the USB drive. I believe she knew herself (or rather, the other versions of her) well enough to think there was a reasonable chance that one of them would do exactly what they did -- rescue Owen and try to use the time machine to alter the past and end the loop.
As a failsafe for that contingency, Madeline 115 did two things. First, she traveled to the "future zone" herself in secret in the dead of night and briefly left a message before making a return trip to the present, writing on the camper's counter that "He's killing us" to rile up the slightly-past version of 115 and to convince her and the other Madelines to punish Owen's interference (if he ever came there) with death. Second, she reprogrammed the time machine itself with an override sequence so that if Owen ever *did* attempt to correct the past, he'd be sent to the future zone instead, where past-future-her and the other Madelines would deal with him. In a bit of poetic revenge, she apparently created some sort of respawn sequence so the Madelines still there could even kill him over and over, as he did her.
The scene with the army of Madelines was impressive, but I suspect the director or writer might have thought it was too bleak an ending. Therefore we got Madeline 51 -- who you as the viewer are supposed to know because she's the only one with a twin-bun hairstyle and who was shown wearing that particular scarf earlier in the film -- saving the day by travelling to the past herself and stopping Original Madeline from ever pressing the button. We know she's clearly smart enough to fix the code, and she was right there with the machine and (by that point in the movie) seemed sincere about wanting to help Owen end the miserable cycle of clonings and killings. Ergo, we get a happy... ending?
Look, I'm not going to completely justify the convoluted ending, because it still does contain some logical holes no matter how you look at it. There's no explanation for how or why Owen would respawn outside of the camper after being stabbed without benefit of the time machine -- none of the many Madeline clones did that after their demises. If original-him, armed with a knife, had been the one to respawn like that, that would have been a different story but also wouldn't have made much sense as a good evil plan for Madeline 115. The "good ending" with Madeline 51 also felt very tacked-on, and the gasp right before the credits doesn't seem to serve *any* purpose that would make in-world sense. (Unless, perhaps, it's Madeline 51 poofing into nonexistence after altering the timeline. I'm thinking more likely it was just a lame throwback jump-scare sound effect to recall the Madelines' first sound upon respawning earlier in the film.) It was also never exactly clear what Madeline 115 thought she was going to do with an army of herself, and the presence of the camper in the future zone was a permanent puzzle.
All told, there are much better ways this film could have ended. I think there was a real missed opportunity for a darkly funny and trippy "Multiplicity" ending with several good Madelines saving the day and deciding to share their life and lover, compromising between their identity as a collective "person" and as individuals (my preference), or they could have focused on a sweet "message" ending with Owen and Original Madeline having some sort of emotional thing to work through on dreams and what sacrifices are and aren't worth it (also acceptable). Instead, we got an EXTREMELY plot-heavy, mystery-style ending that played out like an Agatha Christie novel but with the loose ends much less neatly cinched-together.
But... yeah. The "true" ending was that Owen went through a harrowing time and possible murder in the future zone thanks to Madeline 115's masterful snare, but that Madeline 51 fixed the past on her own and saved the day.
And as a micro-review for the movie itself, I feel it's much better than its low IMDB score makes it look. I found it trippy, exciting, occasionally very funny, with special effects that weren't amazing but also were adequate and not-half-bad for this film's likely budget. The lighting and some of the cinematography were great, and I enjoyed the music, though it as a smidge too loud in some scenes. I also thought all three of the tiny cast of regulars did great jobs, and I actually kind of liked the ending (or at least appreciated it as an adequate wrap-up) once I finally understood it. The film just made things way too hard on themselves and their viewers by not shooting for an ending that was emotionally or thematically satisfying rather than trying to be too clever by half with an overly twisty finale. Worth watching at least once!