Charlotte Wells directed and wrote the movie Aftersun released on October 21st, 2022, for her debut as a director in the film industry. The movie itself is based somewhere in the 1990s with a beautiful underlying coming-of-age theme. Ever since its release, the film has only ever received positive responses from its viewers and critics, with many praising Charlotte Wells for her amazing direction and screenwriting.
The movie managed to get actor Paul Mescal a nomination for Best Actor at the 2022 Oscar Awards. The film was a successful venture for creator Wells and the main cast which included Frankie Corio, who played the role of the eleven-year-old lead named Sophie, and Paul Mescal, who was cast in the film as Sophie’s thirty-one-year-old father, Calum. Actress Celia Rowlson Hall was chosen to play the role of grown-up Sophie in the film.
Wells has revealed that this is not the first time she has explored the parent-child relationship in her creative work and that she has shot a short film called Tuesday before, but with Aftersun, she wanted to dive into a different aspect of the father-daughter relationship, which was set in the completely different time period.
The way Wells has managed to write such human and raw characters all the while managing to portray the depth and complexities of their relationship covered under so many different layers and the way her direction makes the audience feel every specific emotion along with the actors might as well have been peak cinema and art.
The film is special for Wells and even for the audience as it manages to feel so life-like and thought-provoking for the viewers. Curious fans and readers can continue reading to find below the ending of the movie explained.
Aftersun Movie Ending Explained
The movie opens with eleven-year-old Sophie moving with her father, Calum, to Turkey for her summer holidays. We are told that Calum and his wife, Sophie’s mother, have separated and do not live together. Throughout the movie, Sophie continues to record her summer trip to Turkey with her camera, and the clips of those recordings get played between scenes.
On her holiday, we find Sophie meeting and hanging out with a few British teens, all on vacation too. The movie holds a slice-of-life vibe to it as we see Sophie observe her British friends engaging in all kinds of ‘mature’ activities.
She also managed to become friends with a young boy no older or younger than her, named Michael. The two hang out and play games as Calum remains busy with his own life struggles.
While we may be quick to judge Calum’s lack of interest in his daughter and call him out for being lost in his own world, we are soon told that Calum is not exactly living the best life. He has problems with bringing in money and seems to be struggling heavily because of it, which in turn seems to be affecting him mentally.
Apparently, with his financial struggles, Calum is also struggling with growing symptoms of depression and feelings of detachment from worldly affairs. Considering his situation, his behavior toward his daughter throughout the trip starts to make more sense, and we learn to empathize with him more. We are shown that though he might have his troubles, he may not have given up completely as he continues to keep up a happy face in front of his daughter, all the while reading self-help books and practicing Tai Chi when alone.
Trip To Turkey
Though Sophie seems to be observant toward strangers she meets on her trip, she seems to not be able to look past her father’s facade throughout the vacation. The two go scuba diving, but Sophie ends up losing the expensive scuba mask, and Calum says nothing to her though she realizes that he is very upset. She apologizes for her mistake, and we move to another market scene.
Right before this scene, we find Calum talking to the scuba instructor, telling him that he did not think he would make it till thirty years of age. He admits thinking that he probably will not grow as old as forty years old, which is slightly alarming coming from someone as young as him but also weirdly makes sense considering he is struggling so badly in life.
At the market, we see the two indulge in real and mundane things, like buying an expensive rug just because he likes the look of it. They move to a karaoke scene where he refuses to get on the stage despite Sophie’s begging. At night Sophie tries to do the same things with Michael, which she observed the British teens do and convinces the latter to kiss her at the pool.
Calum remains aloof and locked in his room, sleeping while completely naked. The next morning comes Calum’s birthday, and Sophie, despite what her father did to her at the karaoke, plans a surprise for him by getting a bunch of strangers to sing the song ‘For He’s A Jolly Good Fellow’ for him. Calum shows no emotion on his face, and the day goes by, and he gets wrapped in a dance that Calum and Sophie share, also indicating the end of their holiday.
The Cruel Reality
The holiday does not turn out to be Sophie’s best vacation ever though it does become her last vacation with her father. We see a flashback to the night when Sophie and Michael share a kiss. Calum remained in the room, naked and crying on the floor with letters that seemed to be written for young Sophie. After their holiday reaches its end, we see Calum dropping Sophie at the airport, returning her to her mother.
One aspect of the film that makes sense only at the end is the rave party scenes with dim changing lights in a room full to the brim with people, one of whom is Calum, who seems to be dancing while being completely out of it. Throughout these scenes, an adult woman, grown Sophie, tries to reach out and grab her father but continuously fails, only being able to observe.
The rave scene switches, and we find adult Sophie, the same age as her father at the time of their holiday in Turkey, with a wife and daughter of her own. Calum is no longer around, but his expensive rug is, with the videos that Sophie recorded throughout her trip, playing on repeat with adult Sophie trying to pinpoint the exact moment when something ticked or went wrong for her father.
The Ending Explained
The credits of the film roll right after the scene where Sophie is seen leaving her father to go to her mother, and Calum turns back to walk towards a door that opens to the same rave. At the end of the movie, we can correctly assume that Calum ended up dying by suicide, giving in to his depression and struggles. While we know Sophie was a young eleven-year-old kid who could not have possibly known any better, it is very apparent that grown Sophie blames herself to some extent for her father’s death.
It is likely she watches the videos on repeat, trying to take her attention away from the British teens and Michael and focus it all on her father to finally understand where it all went wrong, to see if she could have done anything to save him or if she was the one pushed him off the edge. The eleven-year-old Sophie was a young child unaware of the harsh realities of the world, but it seems like her father’s death showed her the same very early on and without warning.
Her young innocence and giddy nature seem to be gone as she finds herself stuck in a loop of grief and mourning, feeling just as helpless and depressed as her father. The last of the rave scenes where Sophie finally manages to get a hold of her father to hug him is obviously her imagination as we see him fade away and young Sophie comes onto the screen.
The fact that the rave scene has been shown time and time again goes on to show how much adult Sophie thinks about her father, and maybe she could have done something to save him. The entire scene is metaphorical, heavily intertwined with her grief and wish to get her father back. The scene where Calum mentions that he does not see himself reaching his forties hits hard as it just confirms his passing.
Life for Sophie is not easy anymore as she spends every day of her adult life in utter grief, despair, and helplessness, much like her father when he was alive.
Also Read: The Crowned Clown Ending Explained: The Crown Changes Place
