The Ending Of Talk To Me Explained
Contains spoilers for "Talk to Me"
Forget haunted houses. What about haunted hands? "Talk to Me" is an Australian seance horror movie featuring a handshake from hell — or at least one that creates a portal between our dimension and the not-so-great beyond. While the movie starts with the "fun" party game of quick-and-dirty demon possession, it ends with blood, tears, and a meaningful kangaroo.
Mia (Sophie Wilde) is a grieving teen still struggling two years after her Mom's mysterious death. She's disconnected from her dad. Her bestie, Jade, is distracted by her new boyfriend, Daniel. But at least Mia has Jade's little brother, Riley (Joe Bird) to genuinely connect with. The two are more family than friends, and no person alive can change that. Dead, on the other hand ...
Good cinematic beginnings often signal how the film will end, and this is definitely true of "Talk to Me." The wounded kangaroo, Mia's mom's death, the handshake that breaks the veil, and the scream-ripping opening scene — everything that kicks off the movie comes back big time in the ending of "Talk to Me." Read on for the ending of "Talk to Me" explained.
What you need to remember about the plot of Talk to Me
"Talk to Me" opens with Cole at a party searching for his brother Duckett — he's been acting strangely. Cole yells at the party for filming Duckett's freakout, but Duckett ends that defense by violently attacking his brother, then himself.
After this bracing opening, the movie shifts to Mia. She and her friends play with a supposed psychic's embalmed hand, the ceramic-coated curiosity granting those who hold it and say "talk to me" then "I let you in" a very special high via spirit possession — but only for 90 seconds. Any longer, and things tend to get out of control. Mia goes a bit over the "safe" 90 seconds before letting go of the hand and blowing out the seance candle — which makes her see things long after she's stopped holding the hand.
But Mia encourages young Riley to stay possessed for two minutes, causing him to seemingly be inhabited by the spirit of Mia's beloved mom. This causes the possessed Riley to try to destroy himself — and leads an increasingly possessed Mia on a path of destruction. Turns out the hand also got Duckett possessed like Mia and Riley — remember what happened to him?
What happens at the end of Talk to Me?
Not a lot is known about the embalmed hand, but we do learn that if you die while possessed, the demons will have you forever. At the end of "Talk to Me," Riley seems right on track for life in eternal demon hell. So does Mia. The kids find Cole, who tells them the safest bet for Riley is to wait the demons out — but Mia's getting other information.
Mia's "mom" tells her that her father is an impersonator, leading possessed Mia to stab him. Mia tricks Jade into leaving her alone with Riley. The false maternal spirit convinces her that if Riley dies, he will be at peace and she can "take care of him." It looks like Mia is going to kill Riley, until a spirit vision of the bloody kangaroo from the beginning of the movie shows up in the hospital. Jade discovers Mia's dad, then races to the hospital in time to see Mia pushes Riley's wheelchair up to the highway.
Instead of pushing Riley, Mia leaps into traffic herself. At first, it looks like she survived, demon-free. However, as Mia walks through the hospital and sees a now-healed Riley with his family, and sees her father, also recovered — Mia realizes she is dead. She heads toward a small light, where an outstretched hand awaits, belonging to one of many Greek partiers. The final moment shows Mia on the other side of the "talk to me" handshake — the spirit side.
What does the end of Talk to Me mean?
At face value, the end of "Talk to Me" means Mia shook the curse the same way Duckett did in the opening of the movie — Mia ended the curse by ending herself. But, just like with Duckett's self-destruction, the cursed buck doesn't truly stop there.
Even if Mia's sacrifice ultimately ended the immediate effects of the curse, the fact that she has a waking experience of the spirit world as a ghost herself — along with the fact that the hand ends up in Greece — means there's always going to be more to this story.
As long as the cursed embalmed hand still exists, it seems likely to keep being passed to other groups of friends and partiers looking for a new high, a higher follower count, or even a sweet bit of relief from grief. Of course, the end of the movie also contains some deeper meaning other than just letting audiences know that embalmed psychics' hands are more trouble than they're worth.
Mia's bad trip
"Talk to Me" starts with teens using the haunted hand to get high, but that high has a heck of a hangover. Though Mia (Sophie Wilde) admits to Riley that the experience does feel incredible, it isn't just a new party drug she's after with the hand — it's the chance to get more time with her dead mom.
Mia's grief isolates her from friends and family, who love and feel for her, but have moved on with their lives. Her dad and friends don't know how to handle her depression, and neither does Mia — until she gets her mitts on the hand. "Mia sort of gets addicted to using that hand and the euphoria it brings her," Wilde tells Entertainment Weekly. "And then it all goes to sh*t after that!"
As Mia's addiction to the hand grows, so do the consequences of using it. Mia sees more of her "mom," but leaves herself open to being possessed by all manner of demons. Even though the hand helped Mia feel less alone at first, by the end of "Talk to Me" it has taken over her life — and almost ended many of those around her. Mia's shift from the hero of the movie to its fearsome killer is made possible because, in her grief, Mia lets the wrong ones in. Those demons take her — and almost get her for good — in the end.
Are they spirits or demons?
So, do spirits or demons haunt the hand? Sometimes the possessions seem friendly, sometimes there's making out with dogs, and sometimes — like at the end of "Talk to Me" — there's a bloody red pit full of demons feasting on the flesh of the innocent Riley. So which is it? Or is it both?
There are flickers of spirits and demons in the world the kids access by letting the hand haunt them. It seems like the hand grants access to a sort of spirit or ghost that is not good, not evil, but formerly human. For a moment in each possession, there appears to be a real spirit present. But then, the spirits can become demonic. Like with Mia's mom — when Riley is first possessed, before time is up and his face is pulp, Mia's mom's spirit seems genuine. All she wants to do is ask her daughter's forgiveness and say she loves her. But after Riley goes over time, any "spirit" that appears through him seems, well evil. Demonic.
Mia flickers between seeing helpful spirits — reflections in the hospital windows, the little girl on Riley's bed — to demons like her "mom" and "dad," and the aforementioned demon buffet dimension. This lore isn't ever fully fleshed out in the movie, which doesn't matter when you watch it — but the confusion helps muddy the waters for Mia as she desperately follows her grief into hell.
What do the demons want from Mia?
It's a time-honored tradition in possession films for demons to mess with people either because the humans messed with them first, or because demons want what demons want, and that is to feast on an endless buffet of human souls.
"Talk to Me" never dives too deeply into the lore of why demons do what they do, but it's a little from column A and a little from column B when it comes to what they want from Mia. But, as Hayley tells her earlier, if she stays too long or dies while possessed, the demons get her forever. For whatever reason.
Mia summons the spirits through the hand. Then she breaks the rules and makes Riley stay too long under the "possessive" state. So now the demons want their human bodies and eternal souls. It's a real "you break it, you buy it" possession philosophy. If Mia didn't get greedy, maybe she and Riley could have just sung more Sia songs in the car.
Did Mia really kill Max?
Demons always find a way to make their tricks seem like truth, and up until the end of "Talk to Me" audiences might be tempted to believe the demons, too. But the audience is let in for certain on the fact that the demons are lying to Mia in the sequence where she tries to kill her imposter dad.
The demon that manifests as Mia's mom urges her to kill Riley to save him. This harkens back to the scene where a newly-possessed Mia tells Riley that the demons like him and will "split him." Since that splitting does come true — and in harrowing fashion — it only makes sense that Mia believes her mom's "spirit" when she says the way to save Riley is to kill him. And when she tells Mia that her father must be stopped.
Mia, tripping on the demon's lies and visions, imagines her dad is trying to attack her. Really, he's trying to save her. The audience sees this, but Mia doesn't — and when she stabs him in the neck with scissors, we know that Mia is fully under the demons' spell. While he ultimately survives, everyone around Mia is in danger — and so is Mia herself.
What is the meaning of the bloody kangaroo?
Mia sees a dying kangaroo in the beginning of "Talk to Me" that comes back to literally haunt her in the end. However, unlike her demonic mother figure, this bloody little ghosty isn't interested in possessing Mia's mortal soul. This bloody kangaroo wants to save it.
In the beginning of the movie, Mia and Riley see a wounded kangaroo on the side of the road. Even though the animal is struggling and in pain, Mia is unable to "put it out of its misery." Maybe Mia sees some of her own struggle in the kangaroo, maybe she is just grossed out by the idea of killing it herself to show some mercy, but either way — she leaves the animal to struggle.
But in the ending of "Talk to Me," Mia sees the bloody kangaroo again — the spirit version this time. The sight of it, right before she would otherwise kill Riley, seems to strike a chord with her. The bloody kangaroo is a reminder of her humanity, and it literally leads the way for Mia to withdraw from the demons' clutches long enough to save Riley from herself — and possibly, to save her own soul.
Does Mia ultimately save Riley?
For the final act of "Talk to Me," things don't look good for Riley. In all fairness, things haven't looked good for Riley ever since the demons make him smash his poor face at the beginning of the movie. But the end of "Talk to Me" shows the demons winning their battle for Mia's soul, and Riley about to lose his life. But when Mia sees the spirit of the bloody kangaroo, she also sees a terrible vision of Riley as a demon in his hospital bed.
In the mix of these mind-melting images, she sees something sweet and familiar: A brief glimpse of Riley, her friend, in the hospital bed. In this moment he isn't wounded, just asleep — and at her mercy. The image is so sudden, so brief, and so effective, it shocks both Mia and the audience with who Riley was — and who Mia was — before this nasty business with the hand started.
Mia's possessed body still wheels Riley up to the brink of death. At the very last moment, Mia breaks away from the demons' power long enough to throw herself into danger — not Riley. Riley makes a recovery in the hospital, and is able to go home with his family — who now seem to really value him — all because Mia didn't kill him.
How does the ending pull off being so heartbreaking?
"Talk to Me" is a thrill ride, and every scare is tied to the characters. This is a violent movie, but not a random gore fest. Which, in part, is why the ending is so heartbreaking. The movie really makes you care about Mia and her friends, especially the relationship between Mia and Riley.
Mia's grief is seen as a nuisance to her friends and especially her father, who lies about her mom's death in a misguided attempt to protect her. Mia is awkward with Jade's family, uncomfortable at home, and feels desperately alone, except for the big sister dynamic she has with Riley. He's a sweet kid stuck between being a child and a teenager, and Mia is the only person in his life who sees him on his own terms.
So it makes the ending all the more poignant, heart-racing, and grim that Mia can save — or destroy — both of their lives with her choices. But did Mia deserve even more pain than she was dealing with in the first place? The end of "Talk to Me" gives Mia one hero moment, but still leaves her lost in the dark. She could have grown through her grief with Riley, but instead, she's trapped in limbo — making the occasional escape only for haunted party tricks. Knowing that the hand goes on to claim more victims like Mia and Duckett is a twist of the knife — and a real emotional knuckle sandwich.
What has the crew of Talk to Me said about the ending?
Viewers are left with many questions at the end of "Talk to Me." How much time has passed between Mia's death and the first time she's summoned by the Greek partiers? Is Mia going to be able to communicate with anyone in any meaningful way ever again? Will Mia be a destructive force if she possesses a human body, or will she walk the metaphorical path of the helpful, bloody kangaroo for someone else down the line?
The directors of "Talk to Me," twin brothers Danny and Michael Philippou, want to leave the ending up to the audience to determine. "We just want for people to have their own interpretations and be able to have that conversation. But all the clues are there," Danny told Dexerto. "Everything's planted, but we really don't want to spell things — spell anything — out."
While the movie doesn't hand its audiences any clear-cut message, the directors cop to the movie being both a fun horror movie, as well as dealing with major themes. "Severe depression runs in our family," Michael told Dazed. "Our grandmother took her own life, and our mum struggles with it. There's that idea of inheriting it. Are we going to be depressed in that way as well?" Danny agreed, saying, "I was tapping into things that scared me personally ... I can't really pinpoint what the film is about, because it's expressing so many different things."
Could there be a Talk to Me sequel or franchise?
"Talk to Me" stands on its own as a self-contained horror movie, but could its world get revisited? We still have a lot of questions. Cole seemed to know more about the possession even after his brother Duckett died — did he do his research after the loss? Is Riley doing research on Mia's loss? Is anyone going to try and summon her from the dead?
Will Mia be in danger even after her death? Will she be alone, or able to find friends? Who will the next victim of the hand be? How many of them have there been since Mia? "Even when we were writing the first film, we were writing scenes for a sequel," Danny told RogerEbert.com. Michael agreed, saying, "We have barely scratched the surface of that world, and so the idea of doing 'Talk 2 Me' would be very exciting."
"We have an entire Mythology Bible that we don't really even touch on in the film that explains everything. From like where the hand came from, and there's like little clues hidden on the hand and little seeds that we planted," Danny told Dexerto. Michael joked, "We're looking forward to 'Talk To Me 8: Talk To Me in Space.'" While it might be a minute before we get to "The Conjuring" levels of the "Talk to Me" franchise, count us in for "Talk 2 Me: Talk 2 the Hand."