What The Heck Is With That Ending To Hope?
Na Hong-jin reveals the original script was “too long and too dense for a single movie.”
To say that Hope does not go in the direction you expect would be an understatement. After the first half of the movie follows the residents of Hope Harbor in their wild and bloody pursuit of the monster that attacked their town, Hope takes a breather while our heroes lick their wounds. But a few late-act confessions from some a couple of surprising characters suddenly transform Hope from a straightforward monster movie into something much stranger and fantastical.
It all builds to an explosive climax that almost feels like the beginning of a whole new story. And it might’ve been, if director Na Hong-jin hadn’t trimmed his original script because it was “too long and too dense for a single movie.” So, what does that ending mean, exactly? And could there be a sequel? Na helps break it down (somewhat) and teases whether he has a sequel in him.
Warning! Spoilers ahead for Hope.
Hope Ending Explained
Sung-ki and his crew enter the alien spaceship.
As the survivors of the attack on Hope Harbor recover in the makeshift hospital, police chief Bum-seok (Hwang Jung-min) learns something shocking from local weirdo/aspiring carpenter, Yang-bae (Eum Moon-suk). While Yang-bae was out hunting, he stumbled upon a strange creature like the monster that attacked their town. Naturally, he killed it and stuffed it into his freezer, hoping to make a fortune on it. When he shows it to Bum-seok and retired colonel Nak-yeon, Bum-seok has the horrifying realization that the creature that Yang-bae killed is a baby alien, and the monster that attacked their town must have been its mother. That’s when rookie cop Im Sung-ae (Hoyeon) arrives with another terrifying revelation from a witness in the woods: the monster that attacked the town has three more companions that are still at large.
This is where Hope once again descends into more bloody madness. Ko Sung-ki (Zo In-sung), Bum-seok’s cousin who had taken his hunting buddies deep into the woods to track the monster, stumbles upon the spaceship that had brought these aliens to Earth. They discover the ship had been carrying a bunch of infant aliens, but are scared away from exploring further when the three adult aliens approach them. A tense standoff ends in a massacre, with only Sung-ki surviving by fleeing on horseback — just in time for Bum-seok and co. to arrive with the whole police station armory in tow. Sung-ki manages to blast one of the aliens to pieces while jumping from the horse to the police car in wild moment of triumphant — only to be thrown off the car by a sudden swerve. (Don’t worry, a mid-credits stinger reveals that Sung-ki miraculously survived this brush with death.)
But the group is given little time to mourn Sung-ki, as just then, a spaceship falls from a portal in the sky and crashes into a nearby mountain, sending a shockwave that knocks over the police car and forces them to run back to Hope Harbor on foot.
J'aur literally accepts Ma'veyyo’s heart.
This is when Hope takes a turn for the bizarre, cutting to the aliens and introducing more lore about them in 5 minutes than we had the entire movie. It turns out the baby belonged to J'aur (Alicia Vikander), the slender alien Empress who is shocked by the “cataclysm” of their fellow ship crashing. But Ma'veyyo (Michael Fassbender), her bodyguard, assures her that they will find her baby and resurrect him, pulling out his own beating heart to do so.
So, what exactly is happening here? Is there more alien lore? Director Na Hong-jin confirms initially there was, telling Inverse, “There is more to the narrative and the background of the aliens, because at first the script used to be really long and really big, but I realized that it might be too long and too dense for a single movie. So I had to shorten it to what we see today.”
Na did add some dialogue and imagery around the aliens to “make the movie feel more complete in terms of their narrative.” However, he doesn’t feel the need to follow up more with the story, suggesting that the details of this alien storyline can also be up for interpretation to the audience.
“I realized that within our movie, the story and the atmosphere of the stories of the aliens are conveyed enough at this current point in time,” Na says.
Will There Be A Sequel To Hope?
The spaceship crashing at the end of Hope.
Currently, Na is not in talks to develop a sequel to Hope and he tells Inverse, “As of now, I don't even want to get close to this movie.”
However, he adds, “Maybe after some time passes, I can reconsider it.”
It does feel like Hope sets up a sequel that would explore more of the alien plot and their plans on Earth (and if not, it would be one of the most bewildering endings to a sci-fi blockbuster ever). Are they staging an invasion? Are they planning to colonize the Earth? Was the first ship just an initial recon crew? Are there any survivors of the crashed ship? These questions remain unanswered for now, and Na is still tight-lipped on the details of his original, longer script. All we can do is hope for more.
