What is the Real Ending to The Lighthouse?

 

Credit to ‘The Lighthouse’ Review: Dark Nights, Troubled Souls, Hairy Men — The New York Times

The Lighthouse is a special kind of horror film. We follow the story of two men stuck on a small island working as lighthouse keepers, and both men slowly lose their mind as their stay on the island builds up to complete chaos. When they realize there is no one coming to pick them up from the island, both men go down a path of madness. 

Howard (the young one, I’m addressing the characters by their last names, because they have the same first name), gets obsessed with the thought of wanting to be with the light within the lighthouse, and after they overstay their welcome on the island, Wake decides to go after the light on his own. He kills Wake (the older man), and he finally ventures up the lighthouse steps to the light. 

Upon touching it, Howard screams in agony, and falls down the stairs. The movie ends with Howard crying in pain as seagulls are eating his insides. 

While this ending is pretty insane, there are two possible theories as to the real ending of the film. 

Ending 1: This was secretly a story based on the Prometheus Greek tale. 

Credit to The Lighthouse Ending Explained: Lovecraft, That Mysterious Light and More — IGN

The Greek story of Prometheus is about a God who steals fire from Zeus, to give away to mankind. Zeus punishes him for this action, by having an eagle eat his insides for all eternity. 

The Lighthouse could easily pass off as this Greek tale in disguise. Howard chose to steal the light from the lighthouse, leading to his eternal demise, where seagulls will feast on his insides for the rest of his life. 

It’s a brutal ending, and it can be weirdly explained. Throughout the film, we see the insanity of what Howard is witnessing. He finds a mermaid on the island, Wake transforms into a beast out of nowhere, and he also experiences very strange visions of Wake and a man that he had once killed before arriving to the island. 

While I do prefer the supernatural ending, I do like the other possible ending for the movie. 

Ending 2: All of the events that take place were in Howard’s head. 

Credit to The Lighthouse Movie Ending Explained

This theory also makes a lot of sense, because the events that transpired on that island could make anyone go mad. However, I believe that Howard’s past actions were one of the biggest reasons why he lost his mind so fast. He revealed to Wake that he had once murdered a man, and his sinful action continued to haunt him throughout the film. 

Wake was stuck with a killer on the island that was prone to bouts of insanity, and I felt so sorry for the guy when Howard killed him toward the end of the movie. He wasn’t a perfect man, but Howard was super evil compared to him. Howard touching the light at the end of the movie could imply that the object was burning, which is pretty obvious if you were to look at it from a realistic standpoint. 

(Anyone who is willing to touch the light to a lighthouse is on another level of stupidity).

The ending shot of Howard getting eaten by seagulls could all be in his head too. After falling down the stairs, Howard was most likely delirious from his awful pain, and maybe he imagined his insides getting eaten by seagulls, since he had been constantly warned by Wake to never kill a seagull. 

Each ending can work for the film, because of how open ended the director had left the story for his audience. It’s a genius level of filmmaking, and I wish more horror movies did endings like this! 

Have you seen The Lighthouse? What is your interpretation of the ending? And which version is your favorite?