“Frankenstein” Movie Ending Explained: Where Does the Creature Go?

NEED TO KNOW

• Mary Shelley’s book inspired Guillermo del Toro’s sci-fi Gothic movie Frankenstein

• The director changed the ending of the book to show the Creature’s humanity

• Frankenstein, starring Oscar Isaac and Jacob Elordi, premiered on Netflix on Nov. 7

Fans of Mary Shelley’s iconic novel Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus might be leaving Guillermo del Toro’s 2025 film adaptation a little surprised.

The sci-fi horror flick, which had its global premiere on Netflix Nov. 7, follows the turbulent life of scientist Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) as he embarks on an unorthodox experiment to create life after death.

The result is a monster known as the Creature (Jacob Elordi), a character whose own personal journey and quest for companionship has inspired a myriad of work since Shelley’s inception of him in 1818.

While del Toro’s adaptation of Frankenstein remains mostly loyal to its source material, the acclaimed director makes a daring choice to diverge from Shelley’s book by the film’s end, choosing to craft a finale laden with hope rather than tragedy.

So what does Frankenstein’s ending mean? Here’s everything to know about the film’s finale and what Guillermo del Toro has said about its significance.

How does Frankenstein (2025) end?

Following the deaths of his brother William (Felix Kammerer) and his sister-in-law Elizabeth (Mia Goth), Victor vows vengeance on the Creature and dedicates the rest of his life to a merciless pursuit of him.

His hunt eventually leads him to the Arctic, where he’s discovered wounded by a stranded troupe of sailors who offer him shelter on their trapped ship. While resting on the boat, Victor begins telling his story to the ship’s captain, Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen), but is interrupted midway by the Creature, who has made it aboard.

Rather than destroy his creator, however, the Creature tells his side of his life’s story and recounts the neglect and abuse he’s faced at Victor’s hands. The conversation prompts a moment of catharsis for Victor, who finally realizes how he’s failed the Creature as his creator and subsequently as his father.

Victor quickly apologizes for his past cruelty and begs the Creature for his forgiveness in the film’s final few moments. He also implores the Creature to keep living life as he is, before succumbing to his wounds and dying.

The Creature, finally at peace after having received the closure he needed from his creator, leaves the ship and helps push it out of the ice it was stuck in. As the boat sails away, the Creature quietly stares into the sunrise with a smile on his face.

How is Frankenstein’s ending different from the book’s ending?

While both Shelley’s book and del Toro’s Frankenstein end with Victor having told his story to a captain in the Arctic before being found by the Creature, how the stories conclude, and their impacts differ.

In the book, Victor finishes telling his story and vows to keep hunting the Creature, no matter what it takes, as a salve for his actions. But before being able to fulfill that promise, Victor dies while aboard the ship due to his poor health.

It is at that moment when the Creature finally arrives on board, only to discover that his creator is now dead. After mourning Victor’s death, the Creature indicates that he now also plans to leave this life, and departs the ship to burn himself on a pyre.

Frankenstein’s ending notably diverges from its source material in several ways. Firstly, the Creature in del Toro’s adaptation is immortal and therefore unable to die. Secondly, and perhaps most glaringly, the Creature and Victor forgive each other at the film’s end, unlike the book, which offers catharsis through death.

What does Frankenstein’s ending mean?

The ending in del Toro’s Frankenstein is evidently one of bittersweet hope.

With the onset of sunrise, the Creature has chosen to embrace and live his life fully despite all his broken — literal and symbolic — parts.

To drive the point further, del Toro ends Frankenstein with a quote from English poet Lord Byron’s piece “Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage” that reads, “The heart will break and yet brokenly live on.”

Although the Creature finds catharsis at the end of both Shelley’s text and del Toro’s adaptation, one leans on a more tragic note, while the other offers a sense of hope befitting a modern retelling of Frankenstein, focused on the power of kindness and empathy.

By the film’s conclusion, Victor has been able to break the pattern of generational abuse born from his troubled relationship with his father, Baron Leopold Frankenstein (Charles Dance), leaving the Creature to grow from that cycle of hurt.

What has del Toro said about Frankenstein’s ending?

In an October 2025 interview with Man of Many, del Toro reflected on the film’s divergence from the book’s ending and pointed to the different themes that helped shape his decision.

“The movie has sort of a circular structure. It starts with the sun rising on the captain on the ship, and ends up with the sun rising on the Creature,” the director explained. “And I thought, ‘Well, if the idea is that he’s going to live forever, can he still welcome the sun? Can he still welcome being alive?’ ”

“Imperfection is the condition of life,” the Pan’s Labyrinth director continued. “You will lead an imperfect life. And I think the movie makes peace with that and forgiveness and what it is to be human, which is to be capable of seeing the other,” he noted, adding that these were the themes that propelled the movie toward a “different” image by its end.

“It’s probably one of my most hopeful endings, in a strange way,” he concluded.

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