A Monster Calls (2016) Timeline Explained – Every Event in Order

The Monster appears to Conor because he has been silently suffering from the emotional trauma of watching his mother die from cancer. While Conor tries to be strong and supportive, he secretly harbors a desperate wish for the suffering to end. The Monster reveals that Conor himself summoned him, not to save his mother, but to help Conor confront and heal from his own anguish. The Monster functions as a guide to help Conor process his grief rather than escape it.

Foreshadowing: The Monster tells Conor he was summoned, hinting that Conor's deepest psychological needs called forth this fantastical helper.

• monster
• conor
• summoned
• grief
• healing
• psychological

The truth Conor must tell is the painful reality he has been hiding even from himself: he unconsciously wishes for his mother to die so that his own suffering will end. This represents the darkest, most human aspect of grief, the conflicting feelings of love and exhaustion that a child experiences when watching a parent slowly die. The Monster does not punish Conor for this thought but validates that these complex, contradictory feelings are part of being human.

Foreshadowing: Conor's nightmare of letting go of his mother on the cliff foreshadows this truth.

• truth
• conor
• monster
• wish
• death
• acceptance
• guilt

The cliff nightmare represents Conor's deepest fear of losing his mother and the emotional abyss that would follow. In the recurring dream, Conor clings to his mother as she tips toward the abyss, symbolizing his desperate attempt to hold onto her life while simultaneously feeling the weight of his own helplessness. The nightmare appears throughout the film as a visual metaphor for his struggle between wanting his mother to survive and his unconscious desire for the painful uncertainty to end.

Foreshadowing: The nightmare appears in the opening scene and recurs throughout, building toward the climactic confrontation at the cliff.

• nightmare
• cliff
• fear
• mother
• loss
• abyss
• symbol

Conor's tension with his grandmother stems from feeling like she is trying to replace his mother and take control of his life during his mother's illness. Gran arrives to help care for Conor and manage the household, but her strict, controlling demeanor feels like an intrusion rather than comfort to Conor. He resents her attempts to impose order on his chaotic emotional world, seeing her as another authority figure failing to understand what he is going through. Their conflict represents the generational gap in processing grief.

Foreshadowing: The timeline notes Conor's dread about his grandmother's arrival, establishing the strained dynamic early.

• grandmother
• gran
• conor
• tension
• conflict
• family

When the Monster says Conor summoned him, he means that Conor's desperate psychological need for help processing his grief manifested in this fantastical visitation. The Monster is not a literal external being but a manifestation of Conor's unconscious mind, a way for his psyche to communicate difficult truths to himself. The Monster explains that stories have power, and Conor's need for someone to help him face reality was so strong that it created this therapeutic figure within his mind.

Foreshadowing: The Monster appears exactly when Conor needs him most, suggesting a psychological connection.

• summoned
• monster
• conor
• subconscious
• psychological
• stories

Conor must accept that his mother is dying and that there is nothing he can do to prevent it. More importantly, he must accept the conflicting emotions that come with this reality, the love he feels for her, the exhaustion of watching her suffer, and even the secret wish for it all to end. Acceptance does not mean wanting her to die, but rather acknowledging the full range of his feelings without guilt. Only by accepting this painful truth can Conor begin to heal rather than remain trapped in denial and grief.

Foreshadowing: The Monster's three stories all involve characters facing uncomfortable truths about themselves.

• acceptance
• mother
• death
• grief
• healing
• truth
• conor

The discovery that Conor's mother drew the Monster in her artwork reveals that she too was processing her own impending death through stories. This connection suggests that the Monster may represent something shared between mother and son, a creative, imaginative way of coping with the unbearable. It also shows that Conor and his mother were always connected through their inner worlds, and that her artistic expression foreshadowed the very coping mechanism Conor would develop. This discovery brings Conor closer to understanding his mother as a full person with her own fears and imaginings.

Foreshadowing: The Monster appears after Conor's mother has already been ill for some time, suggesting a shared psychological inheritance.

• artwork
• mother
• monster
• drawing
• connection
• lizzie

Conor's confrontation with his bully at school represents a turning point in his character arc where he begins to assert himself rather than remain passive. The Monster's stories challenge Conor to stop hiding from his emotions, and this courage manifests in his physical confrontation with the boy who has been tormenting him. This act of defiance shows Conor that he can face difficult situations directly, which parallels the emotional confrontation he must soon have with the Monster about his hidden truth.

Foreshadowing: The timeline notes this as a pivotal moment where Conor begins to transform.

• bully
• school
• confrontation
• conor
• transformation
• anger

The Monster's three stories each explore moral complexity and the idea that things are not always what they seem. The first story is about a prince who appears villainous but is actually the victim of manipulation. The second involves an apothecary facing ethical dilemmas. Each story teaches Conor that morality is not black and white, that people are capable of both good and evil, and that understanding requires looking deeper than surface appearances. These lessons prepare Conor to examine his own complex feelings about his mother's illness without judgment.

Foreshadowing: Each story becomes increasingly personal to Conor's situation, building toward his own truth.

• stories
• monster
• lessons
• morality
• prince
• apothecary
• grey areas

By the end of the film, Conor and his grandmother move from conflict to mutual understanding and bond over their shared love for Lizzie. After Conor confronts his truth about his mother's impending death, he and Gran are able to grieve together rather than fight. Gransoftens her controlling demeanor and allows Conor to express his emotions, while Conor learns to accept her love and support. Their reconciliation represents healing not just from grief, but from the family conflict that arose during the illness.

Foreshadowing: The timeline shows their bonding as the final stage of Conor's emotional journey.

• grandmother
• gran
• conor
• reconciliation
• bond
• grief
• family

The Monster tells Conor three stories as a narrative device to teach him about the complexity of truth and morality before revealing his own truth. Each story serves as a lesson about how people and situations are rarely straightforward, and how accepting grey areas in life is part of growing up. The structure of three stories also follows a classic storytelling tradition, building toward the final and most important story, Conor's own truth. The Monster acts as a therapist using narrative to prepare Conor for self-reflection.

Foreshadowing: The Monster explicitly states he will tell three stories and then expects Conor to share his truth in return.

• stories
• three
• monster
• lessons
• truth
• narrative
• guidance

Conor experiences a deeply conflicted emotional state where part of him wishes for his mother's death, not because he doesn't love her, but because watching her suffer from cancer is unbearable. This does not make him a bad person, it makes him human. The Monster validates this feeling as natural, explaining that people often have contradictory wishes when facing terminal illness. The truth Conor must tell is this unspoken wish, which represents the heavy emotional burden he has been carrying and hiding from himself.

Foreshadowing: The recurring nightmare of letting go foreshadows this conflicted desire.

• mother
• death
• wish
• conor
• guilt
• conflicting feelings
• humanity