David Cronenberg, one of the main filmmakers of body horror, presents his unique perspective on the dangers of twin brothers in "Dead Ringers". The movie focuses on the Mantle brothers, Beverly and Elliot, both gynecologists who often switch places so no one can tell them apart. While "Dead Ringers" may not be the most conceptually consistent or captivating film, it still contains Cronenberg's signature style and psychological complexity. The ending of the movie left us more questions than answers. Here is Dead Ringer ending full explanation.
#1. What is Dead Ringer about?
Source: Variety
Beverly is the "baby sister" to sweary Elliot Their days of regular identity swaps, which only require a hairband, have been interrupted by Beverly's love affair with Genevieve (Britne Oldford) and Elliot's increasingly hard-to-hide chaotic behaviour, which has now been carefully documented by journalist Silas (Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine).
As the first episode begins, pregnant Beverly has severed her own umbilical cord to Elliot to pursue a life of domestic bliss with Genevieve as they await the arrival of their twins. Their tandem lives now torn apart, Elliot is hounding Beverly with ceaseless unanswered phone calls and what seem to be guttural screams for reunion through their twin telepathy channel.
As the ache of twin separation – and that never-ending buzz of her ringing phone – eventually overwhelms Beverly, the sisters are drawn back together at their longed-for birthing centre. But what really unfolds there and which of the Mantle twins comes out on top?
#2. Did Beverly die? What happened to Beverly?
Source: Pop Sugar
Beverly wakes up to find Susan and Rebecca, her icy wife, there to inquire about what had happened. She informs them that her sister Elliot "assisted" her and Rebecca responds with "She took the babies out." Rebecca's expression is unreadable, leading one to believe that she knows more than she's saying. Susan timidly brings up the idea of having a doctor examine Beverly, but Rebecca dismisses it quickly, raising further suspicion.
Beverly and Rebecca share a look as Susan asks where Elliot is. "Gone," says Beverly, before a cryptic smile spreads across her face. We then cut to an anxious-looking Tom (Michael Chernus) fleeing New York at getaway-car speed. We're then back in the hospital room. "Congratulations, Beverly," says Rebecca, her previously inscrutable face now split with a cat-that-got-the-cream smile. Genevieve hurries back to New York as the credits roll and we see Beverly (it's got to be Elliot) learn from a passing woman that Beverly had been attending a bereavement group and pretending Elliot was dead. Then we finally see her at said group, opening her mouth to speak.
Source: People
On the one hand, Beverly waking up in a hospital bed after days of less-than-lucid flashbacks relating to her sister could suggest the whole C-section scenes were a dream or hallucination. Or, this cast of unsavoury characters helped to cover up what was essentially Elliot's murder of her sister Beverly in the birthing centre.
After the truth of Elliot's series of Hippocratic hiccups came to light, Rebecca previously told Beverly: "It's just a shame. She's my favourite." And now Rebecca looks happier than ever that she's bankrolling the Mantle twins' dream to practice cutting-edge maternal medicine.
Silas's not-so-puffy piece on Elliot hits newsstands and we see the headline still describes her as "brilliant" – as well as "abusive, destructive and murderous". So, Rebecca could be looking like a prospector who's just struck gold because she knows Elliot swapped into Beverly and she can now monetise Elliot's envelope-pushing fertility research.
Rebecca may well know, because how else has Beverly's body not been discovered in the birthing centre? This is where Tom might have come in. After his passionate speech to Beverly about Elliot's brilliance, he could have aided and abetted in the disposal of Beverly and may have been driving her corpse away from New York to be done away with.
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#3. Dead Ringers ending explained
Source: Variety
The last installment of the show sees Beverly having dinner with Rebecca (Jennifer Ehle), a dealer of opioids. It's then revealed that Rebecca has used her ill-gotten wealth to keep a journalist, Silas, from exposing the wrongdoings of the Mantle sisters. The idea is to take the fall for the sisters, which would leave Beverly able to continue their work on the birthing center in order to expand it across the nation.
Beverly's arm is twisted into publicly denouncing her sister before the hit piece lands. Public flogging of twin sister complete, Genevieve leaves to shoot a new film on location and Beverly seizes the solitude to go to her sister's apartment.
She arrives at Elliot and Greta's (Poppy Liu) place and, given this show's streaming home, it is suitably strewn with Amazon packages, as well as blood, glass and other bits of ominous detritus. But Elliot's not there. Where is she? The floor of her lab at their deluxe facility.
The sisters share an emotional and charged reunion, before Beverly spots the fruits of Elliot's Frankensteinery: she's grown not one, but two baby foetuses in the cutting-edge lab.
Source: IMDb
After Beverly has told Elliot she doesn't think she's capable of happiness, she then utters the horrifying words: "I have to climb inside you now. There was only ever supposed to be one of us. You always were a better me."
In their final switcheroo, Beverly removes her hairband and Elliot scrapes back her tresses to put it on. Lying down on a nearby hospital gurney, the Dead Ringers delivery-room realism returns for one final sequence as Elliot slices open her own stomach and then promptly sews it back up.
She then turns the knife on a now unconscious Beverly, cutting open her pregnant belly to remove one and then another crying baby. Clutching the newborns to her fleshly stitched up skin, Elliot blazes a path of blood through the maternity centre as she cries out for help before collapsing.
Meanwhile, we see Beverly still on the gurney, surrounded with blood and with horrific bits of her innards poking out from the fresh dissection. Then, one of the Mantle twins wakes up in a hospital bed. Her hair is tied up – loosely.
Turning around, she sees Susan (Emily Meade) sat on the edge of her bed. "Beverly," she says. "Beverly, you're going to be fine" and says the babies are also well. So, is this really Beverly? Or, more likely, is it actually Elliot in the guise of Beverly?
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