Never Let Go ending explained: What happens to Momma, Samuel, and Nolan?

Never Let Go starring Halle Berry is now showing in theaters everywhere! In this horror-thriller flick, we follow a family of three, Samuel, Nolan, and the strict matriarch known as Momma, as they live together in a remote cabin in the woods in the middle of nowhere. Wait! We forget to mention their dog, Koda. He lives with them as well.

They're forced to stay in the cabin at all times unless to scavenge for food and supplies. And when that happens, they must tether themselves to the cabin with a rope for protection, vowing never to detach themselves so that the "Evil" roaming the woods won't get them. What happens if the Evil gets them, you ask?

Well, according to Momma, it will possess them and make them do bad things like murder each other. Throughout the film, Momma tries her best to keep her twin boys safe from the sinister entity that lurks just outside the cabin. But when one of the boys begins to question if the Evil is actually real, that's when things take a turn for the worse for the family of three.

If you haven't seen Never Let Go, you might want to leave this article because we're about to get into some spoiler content by discussing the film's ending. What ends up happening to Momma, Samuel, and Nolan in the movie?

Spoilers ahead from Never Let Go.

Momma sacrifices herself to protect her kids in Never Let Go

About halfway through the movie, Momma sacrifices herself in order to protect Nolan and Samuel from the Evil. After the harsh winter pretty much wipes out their food supply, Momma tells the boys that the only way they'll be able to survive is if they kill Koda and eat his remains for food. Nolan, who believes that the Evil isn't real at this point in the movie, refuses to let this happen and ends up trapping Momma in the greenhouse untethered to save Koda and to show her that the Evil doesn't actually exist.

However, the Evil, in the form of Momma's mom, shows up in the greenhouse with Momma. With the firm belief that if the Evil touches her, she'll be driven to kill her kids, Momma sacrifices herself by slitting her throat with a shard of glass before the Evil can get to her. Samuel runs into the greenhouse to save Momma, but it's too late as she bleeds out.

Is the Evil real?

That's a good question that we never really get the answer to in the movie. Even the film's director, Alexandre Aja, plays coy about this question, telling Entertainment Weekly in an interview that the Evil "is as real as you think it is." That means it's left to each viewer's own interpretation.

Some viewers believe that the Evil wasn't real and that Momma had some form of mental illness passed down from her mom, causing her to believe that a sinister supernatural force was after her and her kids. Then, you have some viewers who believe that the Evil was real because of the polaroid that Samuel takes at the end of the film, showing the evil entity's hand on his shoulder. But again, it's left to each viewer to decide whether the Evil in the movie is real or not.

Was the hiker and his daughter real?

According to Aja in his interview with EW, the hiker's daughter wasn't real but instead a figment of Samuel's imagination. However, the hiker was a real person who ventured out into the woods and found the cabin. Unfortunately, Samuel fatally shoots the hiker in the stomach, believing that he is the Evil trying to trick them.

Samuel and Nolan are rescued from the cabin

After Momma sacrifices herself, Samuel and Nolan are left to fend for themselves. However, they're on rocky terms since they have different views about the Evil being real. Later, Samuel shoots the hiker that shows up at their cabin, believing him to be the Evil in human form. However, the hiker manages to escape but doesn't get very far as he starts choking on his own blood. Nolan finds the hiker in the woods and takes his backpack full of food as he dies.

Nolan makes his way back to the cabin and immediately starts eating the hiker's food. Samuel sneaks and eats the food later that night. After eating until he's full, Samuel ventures outside the cabin and sees the hiker's daughter. The hiker's daughter asks Samuel if he's seen her dad, and Samuel begins apologizing. The hiker's daughter then looks at Samuel's hands and sees that he's holding her dad's flashlight.

At that moment, she realizes that Samuel had something to do with her father's disappearance, so she immediately runs away into the woods. Samuel chases after her with the rope attached to his waist. However, the rope gets stuck, and Samuel takes it off, believing the hiker's daughter to be real and not the Evil. Samuel eventually catches up to the girl, but she transforms into a grotesque creature with many hands. The creature vomits out a centipede, which then jumps into Samuel's mouth. Samuel is now possessed by the Evil.

Samuel returns to the cabin and sets it on fire, locking Nolan in their mom's old room. He then walks outside and sits on the ground, smirking at the burning house. Unknown to Samuel, Nolan manages to escape from the room and faces the Evil in the form of Momma. He then runs to the cabin's crawl space and locks himself and Evil Momma in it. As he hugs Evil Momma tightly, she eventually hugs back before suddenly exploding.

Shortly after, the EMT arrives at the cabin and saves Nolan and Samuel by airlifting them by helicopter out of the woods. The last scene then shows the polaroid that Samuel took while watching the burning cabin. In the polaroid, the Evil's hand is shown resting on Samuel's shoulder. Dun dun duuun! It appears the darkness is still in Sam.

Did you enjoy watching Never Let Go? What are your thoughts on the horror film?

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