Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein ending has sparked both acclaim and debate since the film’s debut on Netflix, offering a multifaceted and emotionally charged retelling of Mary Shelley’s famous creation. Audiences are met with a narrative that diverges dramatically from the original novel, as Oscar Isaac’s Victor Frankenstein and Jacob Elordi’s Creature journey toward an unforeseen finale marked by reconciliation rather than destruction.
Dual Perspectives: Interweaving the Lives of Victor and His Creation
Guillermo del Toro’s film echoes the literary tradition by balancing the viewpoints of Victor Frankenstein and the Creature, inviting the audience and Captain Anderson, played by Lars Mikkelsen, into their intertwined fates. Victor recounts a troubled childhood filled with trauma inflicted by his father, deep affection for his mother who died bearing his younger brother William (Felix Kammerer), and an obsession with reanimating dead tissue ignited by her loss and visions of a fiery angel. This obsession pushes Victor from the circles of reputable academia, yet a benefactor named Henrich Harlander, portrayed by Christoph Waltz, enables him to continue forbidden experiments. These personal demons ferment as Victor develops affection for both his brother’s fiancée and Harlander’s niece, Elizabeth (Mia Goth), who reminds him of his late mother.
This convergence of loss, longing, and forbidden science leads Victor to successfully reanimate the Creature. However, disturbed by the result of his work, he attempts to erase his mistake by incinerating the laboratory, with the Creature trapped inside. At this juncture, the narrative pivots to the Creature’s ordeal, as he survives the catastrophe and seeks belonging among a family led by David Bradley’s blind patriarch. His quest for acceptance ends tragically—blamed for the death of the patriarch, he is cast out, directing his loneliness and suffering back upon Victor, his maker, and ultimately hoping for companionship.
Tension heightens as Victor blames his Creature for the emotional rifts in his life, especially after Elizabeth’s rejection and subsequent death during a confrontation intended for the Monster. Consumed by grief and rage, Victor embarks on a relentless pursuit, following his creation across icy wastelands to the far Arctic. Here, del Toro explores the extremes of vengeance and endurance as Victor cannot free himself from obsession nor outpace the Creature, who survives at any cost.
Captain Anderson’s intervention occurs near Victor’s breaking point—he and his crew rescue the desperate doctor and bring him aboard their vessel, even as the Creature follows. The film gravitates towards this climactic meeting on the ship, where long-suppressed narratives and confessions surface, setting the stage for the film’s unexpected resolution.
A Profound Resolution: Forgiveness Between Creator and Creation
The heart of the film’s conclusion comes as Victor ultimately perceives the suffering he projected onto his Creature as a legacy of his own pain—a cycle inherited from his father’s cruelty. In a rare moment of self-realization, Victor uses his final breaths not to curse his creation, but to ask for forgiveness and to name the Creature as his son, recognizing a shared humanity long denied.
“In forgiveness is where the Creature learns that he can finally be human,”
Jacob Elordi, who embodies the Creature, shared with Netflix’s Tudum. — Jacob Elordi, Actor
“The only way he discovers that is not through violence or revenge. It’s through actually seeing another person and understanding them and understanding his father’s flaws and that his father came from somewhere as well.”
— Jacob Elordi, Actor
With Victor’s confession and request for absolution, the Creature reciprocates compassion. He chooses to acknowledge his inheritance not as a curse but as a calling to life. The film’s denouement follows the Monster as he forgives his creator, bearing witness to Victor’s passing alongside Captain Anderson. Allowed to leave the ship without retribution, the Creature traverses the Arctic, the rising sun bathing him as he reaches toward its warmth. This imagery returns to the story’s roots—a callback to a long-ago lesson, when Victor taught his creation to feel the vitality emanating from sunlight, connecting existence with hope. The Creature’s journey into daylight signifies not only his acceptance of life but the completion of Victor’s ambition: to resurrect more than a body, to inspire a soul to choose living over despair.
The narrative concludes with an epigraph from Lord Byron:
“The heart will break, yet brokenly live on…”
— Lord Byron, Poet
This poetic final note bridges Victor’s transformation into the father he yearned for as a child and the Creature’s acceptance of loss and life. Elizabeth’s death lingers as a shadow, yet the Monster’s decision echoes the very lessons of humanity—to endure tragedy, to choose forgiveness, and to embrace a new dawn, liberated from the confines of the night and its sorrows.
Distinct from Mary Shelley’s Novel: A Cinematic Reinterpretation
Guillermo del Toro crafts the Frankenstein finale with a deliberate divergence from Mary Shelley’s original ending. In the 1818 novel, the reconciliation seen in the film never unfolds. Victor’s motivations remain driven by vengeance, and his last earthly purpose is to ensure the Creature’s destruction—a quest he cannot complete, ultimately entrusting Captain Walton with this mission. In the book’s closing passages, Victor admits his failure and passes, leaving the Creature to mourn and plan self-immolation:
“Miserable himself, that he may render no other wretched, he ought to die,”
— Victor Frankenstein, from Mary Shelley’s novel.
“The task of his destruction was mine, but I have failed.”
— Victor Frankenstein, from Mary Shelley’s novel.
The narrative arc concludes as Walton documents the Creature’s grief and intent to end his own agony:
“The light of that conflagration will fade away,”
— The Creature, from Mary Shelley’s novel.
“My ashes will be swept up by the winds. My spirit will sleep in peace; or if it thinks, it will not surely think thus.”
— The Creature, from Mary Shelley’s novel.
By pivoting away from endless suffering and revenge, del Toro’s vision fosters a reconciliation that neither the original Victor nor his Creature experienced. This thematic choice reframes the relationship between creator and creation, suggesting a redemptive possibility where remorse and understanding can eclipse inherited pain. Del Toro discussed his personal connection to the tale, saying,
“I’ve lived with Mary Shelley’s creation all my life,”
— Guillermo del Toro, Director.
“For me, it’s the Bible. But I wanted to make it my own, to sing it back in a different key with a different emotion.”
— Guillermo del Toro, Director.
Del Toro’s adaptation underscores how the myth’s relevance endures through reinterpretation—speaking to the reconciliation not just of fictional parent and child, maker and made, but also to universal struggles between generations and the hope that forgiveness might triumph over darkness. While Shelley’s text remains a meditation on the consequences of unchecked ambition, Guillermo del Toro Frankenstein ending becomes a meditation on healing, with the relationship between Victor, Elizabeth, the Creature, Captain Anderson, and the wider world reframed as one of possibility rather than inevitable doom.
Viewers can now experience this emotional odyssey, imbued with the struggles of fathers and sons, creators and creations, streaming on Netflix across the U.S. As the sun rises over the Arctic, del Toro offers a final, unforgettable vision: the monster, at last, stepping into the light.
