'The Guilty' Ending Explained: Did Joe save Emily? Here's how his vicious day ended
Netflix’s latest offering ‘The Guilty’ has finally been released and fans are absolutely loving Jake Gyllenhaal’s riveting performance as a 911 operator and policeman Joe Baylor. It comes as no surprise that there is a lot of buzz around it because of Jake’s involvement in it. On the other hand, it is directed by none other than Antoine Fuqua, who is known for making movies like ‘The Equalizer’ and ‘Training Day’.
The film is a remake of the Danish movie of the same name by Gustav Moller and had Jakob Cedergren playing the lead role. Meanwhile, in the English version, it is Gyllenhaal playing the lead role of Joe Baylor, who is having a hard day at the Emergency Desk because of a distress call. A woman named Emily Lighton (voiced by Riley Keough) has apparently been kidnapped by her husband Henry (Peter Sarsgaard).
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The entire premise mainly revolves around these three characters and Joe’s hearing about shooting a 19-year-old boy. So, what happens in the end? Did he save Emily? Or something even dark is waiting for Joe? Let’s take a look at how the Netflix movie concluded.
‘The Guilty’ Ending Explained: Did Joe kill the boy accidentally?
During the final moments of the movie, we get to know that Henry has apparently abducted his wife and they are driving on the freeway when Emily talks with him. Through some information, he gets the number of her house and talks with her daughter Abby. She tells him that her mother and father left her and her little brother in the house. During that time, we get to know that Henry has a history of assault and has spent time in jail as well.
Joe connects with the police officers and tells them to reach Abby. Meanwhile, he is trying hard to tell CHP to send a car to follow Henry, but they can’t because Joe has little information. Elsewhere, two police officers reach Emily’s house and they find Abby there. One of the police officers talks to Joe and he says that Abby’s hand and clothes are covered in blood. The male police officer checks around the house and panics when he sees a body on the floor of a bedroom. It’s Oliver and he’s not breathing. Oliver is just a few months old and the police officers call an ambulance to try and save him. We get to know that Henry has done something diabolical here.
Joe calls Emily again and Henry is still driving while Emily is at the back of the van. Joe tries to calm her down and asks her about Abby and Oliver. She tells him that they loved going to the aquarium because the kids adored the sea animals there. While on the call, Emily gets a bit serious and starts talking a bit delusional. At that moment, we get to know that it was actually Emily who took her son’s life because she is mentally unstable. She believed that Oliver’s stomach was filled with snakes and she was just trying to take them out.
Joe is absolutely horrified to learn that because he has been helping the wrong person. Henry stops the vehicle and gets to the back of the van. Emily, who is scared to death, hits Henry and runs away. The entire scenario is changed and there is absolute silence for a moment when Joe again talks with Henry, who’s going back to take care of his daughter. Henry tells him that she was in a psychiatric facility for some time and she came back home fine, but the problem started happening again because he couldn’t afford the medicines.
Henry cuts the call and goes back to his daughter.
Meanwhile, Emily calls Joe once again and they talk. Emily is going to take her own life and now she also knows what she has done to her son. Joe holds up the call and tells his colleagues to send help. While they talk, Joe admits that he once killed a 19-year-old boy and he doesn’t know if the boy actually hurt someone or not. In the end, police officers reach Emily and they save her. On the other hand, one of Joe’s colleagues tells him that Oliver has made it to the ICU and is safe.
Joe’s difficult day finally comes to an end and he goes to the washroom, talking to his colleague who accompanied him on that fateful day when he shot the boy. Joe tells Rick that he should tell the truth to the court. The movie ends with Joe called Los Angeles Times reporter Kathleen Harbor and wants to talk about what exactly happened on that day.
The movie gives us a pretty heavy ending. Joe finds himself guilty of what he did that night and he doesn’t want to do the same thing to Emily. He wants to save her because of her children. Gyllenhaal’s acting in the entire movie is as good as it can get. Meanwhile, Riley Keough has done such amazing work in the movie and she perfectly captures the emotions through her voice.
All in all, a perfect ending that doesn’t have any loose ends.
‘The Guilty’ is currently streaming on Netflix.