'Longlegs' Ending Explained: Does Lee Harker stop the serial killer?
Contains spoilers for 'Longlegs'
OREGON CITY, OREGON: 'Longlegs' hit the theatres on July 12, 2024, and the stunning psychological thriller sees FBI Agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe) track down a scary serial killer who calls himself Longlegs (Nicolas Cage).
The movie based in Oregon follows the journey of Lee who is investigating a serial killer whose victims are families who die by murder-suicide. He has been on this killing spree for a decade and leaves a cryptic message along with a calling card that says Longlegs. Also, the families, that are attacked have daughters who have birthdays on the 14th of the month.
Once the investigations begin, Harker and her superior Agent Carter (Blair Underwood) reach the sight of the first murder-suicide where they find a life-sized doll that looks like the daughter of the family, Carrie Anne Camera (Kiernan Shipka) who was the only one to survive and is still under the spell of Longlegs.
The investigation leads Lee to her mother's house where she finds a picture of Longlegs. What is Lee Harker's connection with Longlegs? Can she stop the serial killer? Here we explain the ending of 'Longlegs'.
FBI arrests and interrogates Longlegs
In the film's prologue, we see a young Lee Harker come face to face with Longlegs. Back in the present, we discover a photo that Harker finds in her mother Ruth Harker's (Alicia Witt) house. The photo helps the FBI arrest and interrogate Longlegs.
In the interrogation, Longlegs talks about an accomplice and that Lee should ask her mother about the accomplice. He then smashes his head on the table and dies. Carrie who Longlegs had visited earlier also dies leading the FBI to believe that the threat is over because it would complete the pattern that was being built by Longlegs.
Longlegs's statement leads the FBI to Ruth again but this time they are confronted by Ruth dressed as a nun who shoots down FBI Agent Browning (Michelle Choi-Lee). We see a doll that looks like a younger version of Lee. Once the doll gets shot down, an evil spell leaves Lee's body.
Lee Harker's mother Ruth was Longlegs's accomplice
In a spooky sequence, it is revealed that Lee Harker's mother Ruth Harker was the accomplice for Longlegs. She asked Longlegs to leave Lee in a deal wherein she agreed to be his accomplice and deliver dolls to different families, dressed as a nun.
It is also revealed that Longlegs was making his dolls in Ruth's basement and the spell was the reason for Lee's psychic prowess that makes the FBI put her on the case in the first place.
Lee realizes that there is one final victim that she needs to protect. Agent Carter's daughter Ruby Carter (Eva Kelders) has her birthday on the 14th and she has a doll that looks like her in her house.
Lee kills Agent Carter and Ruth in 'Longlegs'
At Carter's house, Agent Carter murders his wife and is about to murder his daughter when Lee shoots him. She also shoots her mother and puts an end to the immediate threat.
She goes to shoot the doll to help Ruby out of the spell but the gun is empty. This could be interpreted as a supernatural intervention of Satan as we see Longlegs singing Happy Birthday and Hail Satan to end the film.
The end of the film is ambiguous but a possible interpretation could be that the threat of Longlegs and Ruth might be over but the Satanic influence stays over them. The significance of Happy Birthday here can also be interpreted as a new life for Lee who is free from the influence of the doll however Ruby's doll still remains and carries Longlegs's influence on it.
'Longlegs' released in theatres on July 12, 2024
