Warning! SPOILERS for Bones and AllBones and All is a cannibalistic love story directed by Luca Guadagnino with a heart- and gut-wrenching ending. The cast includes Academy Award nominee Timothée Chalamet and rising star Taylor Russell as the cannibal couple at the center of the story. When Maren (Taylor Russell) is abandoned by her father, because of her monster-like urges, she sets out to find her mother, whom she has not seen since she was a baby. Along the way, Maren quickly discovers that she is not alone, and there are other “eaters” all around from whom she can learn. This includes a creepy man named Sully, played by Mark Rylance, and Lee (Timothée Chalamet) with whom she forms a bond.
As the director of Call Me by Your Name and 2018's Suspiria remake, Guadagnino is no stranger to unconventional romance and unsettling drama. Though a "cannibal love story" is in and of itself a strange and intriguing premise, Bones and All delivers on this somewhat novel idea by the story's end. With that in mind, here's a detailed explanation of what happens at the end of Guadagnino's Bones and All.
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What Happens In Bones And All’s Ending?
Bone's and All's all-star cast creates a gripping, heart-wrenching, and terrifying movie all at the same time. Lee and Maren have finally created a happy life together and settled down, when a menacing and strange cannibal Maren met years ago named Sully returns. Jealous and angry that she left, Sully enters their apartment and threatens her. Lee arrives home and protects Maren, but he is stabbed in the lung in the process. In his dying breath, he begs Maren to eat him while she weeps and initially refuses.
Does Maren Eat Lee?
Maren initially rejects Lee’s offer for her to consume him, but after a passionate kiss, she changes her mind. Though not shown as graphically as some other feedings in Bones and All, or other cannibal movies for that matter, it can be assumed that she does eat him. She begins licking up his blood before the film cuts to an empty apartment, implying that Maren ate Lee before cleaning it up and moving out.
How Does The Bones And All Movie Compare To The Book?
Bones and All is based on a 2015 novel of the same name by Camille DeAngelis. While the general plot of the book is the same as the movie, there are a few major differences. Firstly, in the novel, it is Maren’s mother who leaves, and she goes looking for her father, effectively the reverse of what happens in the movie. The people who Maren feels compelled to eat in the book are those who show her affection. In the movie, this is not explicitly said.
In the book, Maren eats people entirely, "bones and all,” but in the movie she just consumes pieces. While at a river in Missouri in the Luca Guadagnino film, Lee and Maren meet Jake who is played by Michael Stuhlbarg, known for Best Picture winner The Shape of Water and Call Me By Your Name. He is another eater who tells them for the first time that eaters reach their full form when they eat an entire person, “bones and all.” it is a kind of rite of passage, as it is depicted in the film. As is true of many book-to-movie adaptations, the movie misses many of the details that can more easily be explained via written exposition.
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Why Does Lee Want Maren to Eat Him?
Throughout Bones and All's cannibal love story, Maren and Lee form a very special bond. If it is true that Maren and the other eaters in the movie are most attracted to people who show them affection in terms of who they want to eat, Lee would be Maren’s ideal meal. While Lee’s request is quite odd, the two have grown close, living together, and are deeply in love. It is possible that Lee knew how much dining on him would satisfy her, and knowing he was already dying meant that she could.
Throughout Bones and All, Maren is very uncomfortable with killing innocent people for a meal. She would much rather find an immoral person to someone who is already dying. Whenever the pair had to eat, Lee usually did the dirty work. Lee, knowing that she was against violence also may have chosen to have Maren eat him, so she would not have to use kill anyone, at least for this next meal.
What Does "Bones And All" Mean?
In the Bones and All scene that takes place by the river in Missouri, eating someone “bones and all” is described as essentially a rite of passage for an eater. This clearly carries symbolic weight, as it is the title of the book and movie. In the movie's unconventional love story, Maren and Lee not having eaten someone entirely before puts emphasis on their inexperience, and why they have to lean on each other to learn about how to navigate their urges.
While not confirmed, it can be speculated by the shot of an empty apartment after Lee’s death, that she may have entire him whole. With both of her mentors, Lee, Sully, and her father, now dead or gone, Maren has to go off on her own, and her eating someone entirely demonstrates that she has grown and is ready to handle life alone.
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The Real Meaning Of Bones And All’s Ending
Maren and Lee are madly in love with each other, and Lee’s final plea is an effort to be as close to her as possible. The two share a unique and beautiful bond throughout the movie, despite their occasional arguments and separations. The intimate scenes in the movie show off just how much the two love each other. Reminiscent of the love story in Luca Guadagnino’s other Oscar-nominated film Call Me By Your Name, it seems as though the couple loves each other so deeply that they want to become one with each other. Through Lee’s final sacrifice, he allows them to do just that.
Though unconventional, Bones and All is a classic tale of teens trying to find themselves while longing to be normal. All the two lovers want is to be normal, and they are disgusted with their own compulsions. When Lee and Maren decide to get jobs and live in one place for a while, it is clear that all they want is to be normal and to be together. “Let’s be people,” Maren says. “Let’s be them for a while.” The final moments of the film show Maren and Lee sitting together in a field hugging, in a real moment reminiscent of a normal couple, that Maren can hold onto as she embarks on the rest of her journey alone.
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