Explaining the ending of Charlotte Wells’ film ‘Aftersun’
Charlotte Wells’ wonderful feature film Aftersun was undoubtedly one of the best films of 2022, if not this century. The project starred Paul Mescal and Frankie Corio in one of the most nuanced father-and-daughter relationships in recent memory. Perhaps one of the most harrowing elements of the film was its ending, and with that, we’re going to take a closer look at how Aftersun draws to a close. Naturally, there are spoilers ahead.
Aftersun ends on Calum and Sophie’s final night of their holiday in Turkey. After Calum cheekily helps himself to more of Sophie’s ice cream that she had bargained for, they head over to the outdoor disco, where Calum proceeds to show off his embarrassing dad-dance moves.
‘Under Pressure’ by Queen and David Bowie rings out, and Sophie eventually joins her father. At this point, the film keeps cutting to an imagined rave in Sophie’s memories. The dancing in Turkey is contrasted with Sophie screaming at Calum, who continues to dance in the rave, oblivious to the fact that he is a figment of her imagination.
The song crawls along to a slow pitch as Bowie sings the lyrics, “Love dares you to care for the people on the edge of the night. And love dares you to change our way of caring about ourselves. This is our last dance.” The last line is repeated, indicating that this will indeed be the last dance that Calum will ever share with his daughter.
Throughout the film, we see that Calum is incredibly depressed, though he does his best to hide it from Sophie. He tells a diving instructor that he is surprised he made it to thirty, let alone hoping to make it another ten years. When Sophie brings up her own feelings of angst, he spits his toothpaste at the mirror as though in disgust of himself, and an isolated scene sees Calum (perhaps in the future) crying naked on the edge of his bed.
With this in mind, we can (even though we might not want to) conclude that Calum’s depression eventually became too much to bare. Whether that means that he committed suicide or disappeared, or anything else for that matter, is not explicitly stated. Still, we can safely assume it was the last time the father-and-daughter duo held each other closely.
The dance ends with child Sophie clinging to her father in Turkey in love and adult Sophie to her father in desperation, wishing he would never leave her memory. We are then shown camcorder footage of potentially the last moment Sophie sees her father, playing around while he drops her off at the airport.
With Sophie gone back into her mother’s care, Calum puts away the camcorder and walks down the empty airport corridor. But rather than walk out into the open air and into his own life, he opens the double doors back into the rave, where he will forever live in Sophie’s mind. It’s an ending that will likely live long in the legacy of cinema for decades to come. A potent finale for a powerful movie.
Check out the ending below.
