The Unsettling Ending of Nocturnal Animals Explained

Nocturnal Animals is a 2016 neo-noir psychological thriller directed by Tom Ford and starring Jake Gyllenhaal and Amy Adams. Based on a 1993 novel, the film follows art-gallerist Susan as she reads through a manuscript sent to her by her ex-husband, Edward, whose writing career she never supported. The movie weaves in and out of the novel’s tragic narrative and the real world, potentially causing some confusion among viewers, especially when it comes to the ending— why doesn’t Edward show up at the restaurant to meet Susan? Keep reading for a detailed breakdown of the film’s final scenes, including main themes and interpretations. Warning: spoilers ahead.

Ending of Nocturnal Animals Explained

Susan reads Edward's novel and they agree to get together for dinner to catch up. However, Edward never shows, and the final scene is Susan sipping her drink alone at a table. Standing her up has been part of Edward's revenge plan all along, mirroring the revenge plot of Tony's character in the novel within the film.^{[1]
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Lexi Amoriello
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Section 1 of 7:

What happens at the end of Nocturnal Animals?

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In the main story, Susan waits for Edward at dinner, but he never shows.^{[2]
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Lexi Amoriello
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Expert Interview} Susan receives Edward’s manuscript in the mail at the beginning of the film, along with an attached note sharing that he would be in town for a few days and expressing interest in catching up after so many years. The film progresses as Susan reads through the manuscript and ends when she finishes, agreeing to meet him for dinner at an upscale Los Angeles restaurant. However, Edward stands Susan up at the restaurant, leaving her to drink alone, lamenting the devastating mistakes that led her there.^{[3]
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- It can be argued that this has been Edward’s plan all along: to produce the novel Susan never believed he could write and to exact his revenge by standing her up.
- It’s important to note that Susan’s marriage to Hutton is visibly deteriorating as she finishes Edward’s manuscript, confirmed by his cheating on her while on his business trip.
  - This clarifies Susan’s tragic situation even more, as she seemingly will be left with no one— just like Edward who never remarried, and like Tony, who dies poetically, by his own hand.
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In Edward’s manuscript, Tony shoots Ray and then himself. After Tony chases Ray down to a cabin in the middle of nowhere, Ray taunts him by telling him details about his wife’s assault. Ray teases Tony, calling him “weak,” while hiding a fire poker behind his back. Tony shoots Ray as he gets closer but Ray still manages to hit Tony over the head with the fire poker, knocking him out until the next day. When Tony finally comes to, he stumbles over Ray’s body, who appears to have bled out overnight. Tony staggers outside to get help but trips and falls on his gun, shooting himself in the abdomen.^{[5]
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- This final scene from Edward’s novel flickers between Tony’s last heartbeats and Susan flipping through the novel’s closing pages.
- Tony’s ignoble death further highlights the futility of revenge and the consuming power of grief.
- Additionally, Tony’s revenge against his family’s murderers in Edward’s novel acts as a parallel to Edward’s revenge plot in the film’s main narrative.
  - Instead of a gunshot, Edward enacts his revenge against Susan by writing the novel she never thought he could write and standing her up at the restaurant, leaving her without any closure— just as she had done to him 20 years prior.

Section 2 of 7:

Interpretation of Nocturnal Animals’ Ending

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The events in Edward’s manuscript mirror his marriage to Susan. In the novel, Edward writes that Tony’s wife and daughter are sexually assaulted and violently murdered. This is symbolic of what happened to Edward in real life, as Susan has an affair with Hutton, leaves Edward, and aborts his unborn baby behind his back. Edward perceives this to be the ultimate betrayal, losing the life he had envisioned with Susan just like Tony loses the life he had with his family.^{[6]
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- Detective Bobby urges Edward’s quest for revenge forward, representing his perpetual guilt and persuading him not to give up.
- Before Tony shoots Ray, Ray calls him “weak,” which echoes a previous conversation in which Susan alludes to Tony being weak.

Section 3 of 7:

Why doesn’t Edward show up?

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Edward’s dinner suggestion was a calculated part of his revenge. It’s very likely that Edward planned to publicly humiliate Susan the entire time by standing her up— his final blow to her. He got her to read his brilliant and tragic manuscript, proving that he did possess the necessary talent all along, and then stood her up, getting back at her for failing to have faith in him, cheating on him, aborting his unborn child, and leaving him for Hutton.^{[7]
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- Edward writes Nocturnal Animals and dedicates it to Susan, who he used to call a nocturnal animal because of her insomnia.
  - The cryptic message he attached to the manuscript stating that she left him with “enough inspiration” to write it was filled with contempt, implying how wrong she was for never believing in his abilities as a writer and how much resentment he still harbors over what happened between them.
- Both fictional Tony and real-life author Edward suffer from the same affliction: the unquenchable thirst of revenge and the knowledge that you can never regain what was once lost.

Section 4 of 7:

What does Ray’s death symbolize?

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His death symbolizes the futility of revenge and the emptiness of closure. Both Edward and Tony sought revenge but ultimately found it unfulfilling, as evinced by their respective final moves. In Edward’s manuscript, Tony’s wife and daughter are assaulted and murdered. Tony narrowly escapes, living with overwhelming guilt and shame while working with Detective Robert “Bobby” Andes to bring the three assailants to justice. Tony finally takes matters into his own hands, finds and shoots Ray, leading him to bleed out and die. Unfortunately, Ray had hit Tony over the head with a fire poker in their struggle, causing Tony to partially lose his vision and accidentally shoot himself in the abdomen, resulting in his own death.^{[8]
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- Although it’s unclear whether Tony truly wanted to die, his grief and despair over the brutal murder of his family had certainly taken a toll on his mental health.
- Encouraged by Bobby, Tony sought revenge against Ray, but realized it would not bring back his wife or daughter as he lay dying in the field.

Section 5 of 7:

Main Themes Explored in Nocturnal Animals

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Revenge Revenge is the most prevalent theme in both the novel within the film and the film as a whole. In the main narrative, Edward writes Nocturnal Animals, dedicates it to Susan, and sends it to her as part of a greater revenge plot. First, he wants to prove to her that she was wrong for not believing in him as a writer, and then, he asks her to meet him only to stand her up. This is likely all in an effort to hurt her as much as she hurt him when aborted their unborn child and divorced him for Hutton, all those years ago.^{[9]
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- In the novel, Tony spends over a year in pursuit of the outlaws who assaulted and murdered his family. When he finally kills Ray, he ends up killing himself in the process, bringing the damaging effects of revenge full circle.
- The motif of revenge is fortified throughout the film. In one scene, we see a piece of art hanging in Susan’s gallery that simply reads “REVENGE” in black letters on a white canvas.
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Regret Regret is represented in many forms. For one, reading Edward’s manuscript while witnessing the deterioration of her current marriage fills Susan with remorse about her relationship with Edward. Not only is she ashamed of having wronged him so heinously, but she feels regret for not believing in his ability to be successful as a writer.
- Tony is the embodiment of regret in the wake of his family’s murder. He mentally chastises himself over and over again for not being able to defend them, agreeing to Bobby’s plan as a last-ditch effort to right his wrongs.
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Manifestations of grief In the novel, Tony’s grief causes him to act out of character, becoming a vigilante in the pursuit of justice for his wife and daughter. His grief transforms into violence, turning him into a killer— but at what cost? Getting revenge doesn’t bring his wife or daughter back, and he himself dies as a result, rendering his vengeance utterly meaningless.^{[10]
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- In the main narrative arc, Susan can’t shake the shame of what she did to Edward two decades earlier.
- By the end of the film, Susan is at the restaurant, alone, grappling with the failure of her current marriage to Hutton, while wondering how her life would have turned out if she had just believed in Edward.

Section 6 of 7:

How the Film Differs from the Novel

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The movie is based on a novel titled Tony and Susan, written by Austin Wright in 1993. In the novel, we see the events of the following day unfold. After Edward stands Susan up at the restaurant, she jots down a scathing review of his book. However, she decides against sending it to him and throws it away. Instead, she writes him a note stating that she’d like to give him some feedback on his work, but only if he’s open to it. The closing pages hint that Susan is trying to remain in contact with Edward, even though he continues to ignore her.^{[11]
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Section 7 of 7:

Final Takeaways

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Nocturnal Animals is a film about the pointlessness of revenge. At its core, Nocturnal Animals tackles myriad themes, from the impact of grief, to the reverberations of regret, to the meaninglessness of revenge. 20 years after their painful divorce, Edward sends Susan his captivating and harrowing novel, which he filled it with themes of grief, despair, and loneliness, naming it after her. Edward’s manuscript is meant to be a literary dramatization of his own life after their marriage ended, rubbing more salt into their shared wounds.
- Edward’s final blow to Susan is standing her up at the restaurant where they had where they had agreed to meet, leaving her alone, distraught, and without closure.
- In Edward’s manuscript, Tony kills Ray but still can’t fill the void left behind by the gruesome deaths of his wife and daughter, whom he failed to protect, and ends up dying himself.
- The film illustrates the futility of revenge and how seeking justice for the wrongdoings of others isn’t guaranteed to give you any respite from your pain.