'In the Tall Grass' Ending Explained: The Stephen King Story's Creepy Conclusion (SPOILERS)
Updated April 15 2020, 11:39 p.m. ET
Stephen King and his son, Joe Hill, are known for their mind-bending, unsettling horror creations. In the Tall Grass, the new Netflix adaptation is no exception. But what exactly went on at the end of this creepy, spine-tingling movie? We'll explain the end of In the Tall Grass here. Spoilers will abound!
What's the plot of In the Tall Grass?
The movie follows a brother and sister, Cal and Becky, who is very pregnant, on a car journey through the middle of nowhere. They stop at a church on the side of the road and hear what sounds like a little boy calling for help in the middle of the field of grass.
They enter into the tall grass to help the boy, where they become lost and trapped by a malevolent force that keeps them in the grass and slowly makes them lose their minds.
Cal and Becky eventually find the small boy, Tobin, and his father Ross (Patrick Wilson). They are super spooky and seem untrustworthy. Eventually, Cal and Becky are led to the middle of the grass maze, to a giant rock that, when you touch it, supposedly tells you all the secrets of the Tall Grass.
It's a mind-bender for sure, one of those horror movies that keeps you unnerved and confused for the majority of the time. Stephen King is known for this sort of symbolic horror in which people become overwhelmed by frightening otherworldly forces that reveal fundamental truths about people.
As the film progresses, eventually Travis, the father of Becky's baby, also enters the Tall Grass searching for the pair. It becomes clear after a while that in the Tall Grass, time doesn't work the way it does elsewhere.
The Tall Grass pulls people in by manipulating time and creating multiple realities.
There are multiple timelines and different realities we become privy to as the film progresses. Eventually, you realize that this is how the Tall Grass pulls more people in and traps them.
According to this explainer of the In the Tall Grass ending, "The Grass is able to alter the past whilst retaining elements of the future." This is how Travis ends up in the grass, eventually pulling in Tobin, who pulls in Becky, who pulls in Travis. Time is not linear in the Tall Grass.
It's a complete mind-bender for the people in the Tall Grass and for the audience watching. Becky, Cal, Tobin, Ross, and Travis are all prey to the Grass once they enter. The Grass can pretty much manipulate their minds to believe any reality, which is why the ending left us with so many questions.
In the Tall Grass ending explained:
OK, you ready for this? As we know now, the Grass is controlled by this giant rock that Ross believes is the "center of the world." Cal almost reaches the rock when Tobin's mother, Natalie, is pulled into the circle from a different timeline to stop everything.
Ross then kills Natalie and beats Travis after he refuses to touch the rock. This is one of several scenes in the movie that symbolize how we try to use violence to force others to see our truths even though they may not be true for everyone, according to Deffinition.
In the end, they resort to violence and argument instead of trying to work together, which would have probably gotten them out of The Grass. But they constantly made the wrong choices, which only led them deeper into the grasp of the Grass.
At different points, each character realizes that they have made a wrong choice in their lives. Because of the multiple timelines at work, Tobin is eventually able to escape The Grass and warn Becky and Cal before they enter. At least in one timeline, they made the right choice and set themselves on new paths in the right direction.
In the Tall Grass is really about not letting ourselves spiral out of control when one bad thing happens. There is always a way to turn things around and hope is always a valuable thing, even when it all seems bleak. Pretty timely, eh?
