Bull (2022) Plot Summary & Ending Explained

The film opens with three men burying a burning body in a secluded field, a grim omen that sets a bleak, almost mythic mood for what is to come. Bull Adam Xander Angelides returns with a single, relentless goal: to exact vengeance on those who tried to kill him. He begins by cutting a path of violence through the streets, murdering an unidentified man, then turning his fury on his ex-wife’s sister, Cheryl, and her husband, Ollie, inside their home. The body count climbs as he tracks down Marco, one of the gangsters tied to his past betrayal, leaving no doubt that this is a man warped yet driven by a deep, personal reckoning.

The narrative then slips into a series of flashbacks that reveal Bull’s life a decade earlier. He was an enforcer working for Norm, his ruthless father-in-law and a gang leader who ruled through fear. Bull’s capacity for violence made him formidable within the gang, but it also isolated him from those around him. The man’s personal world fractures when he learns that his wife, Gemma Lois Brabin-Platt, is cheating on him with fellow gang member Gary and is using heroin. Norm pushes a brutal agenda: divorce Gemma and surrender custody of their son, Aiden Henri Charles, so Gemma can marry Gary. The motive behind Norm’s plan is financial—leveraging Gary’s drug connections to widen the gang’s profits.

Bull refuses to abandon his son. In a cruel turn, Norm, Gemma, Gary, Marco, and Clive abduct Bull, dragging him to an abandoned caravan where he is burned alive and shot, his last sight the young face of Aiden watching in horror.

Bull’s return from the grave remains shrouded in mystery. When Norm learns of his sister-in-law’s death, he swears vengeance and begins torturing Bull’s mother, Marge Elizabeth Counsell, for answers—an act that Bull witnesses from the shadows. After Norm departs, Bull acts. He enters the house, asks his mother if she wants help, then ends her suffering with a quiet, devastating kiss of death.

The vengeance plan expands as Bull kidnaps Clive’s children to coerce Clive into bringing Gary to a funfair. When Clive complies, Bull releases the kids, then seizes Gary, interrogating him for Gemma’s whereabouts, wounding him and leaving him to bleed out on a carnival ride.

In Gemma’s new town, Bull escalates his campaign with brutal precision. He confronts a heroin dealer, mutilates him, scavenges his cash, and compels the dealer to reveal Gemma’s address. He breaks into Gemma’s home and uses her to lure Norm there. Norm arrives and, mistaking the unconscious dealer for Bull, orders Colin to kill him. Bull, however, ambushes Norm instead. The torture continues, as Bull digs for Aiden’s location, even as Gemma reveals a shocking truth: Aiden, traumatized by witnessing his father’s death, has fallen into heroin use. The revelations are merciless, and Bull’s revenge culminates in the deaths of Norm and Gemma.

The pursuit reaches a grim crescendo as Bull eventually finds Aiden, emotionally wrecked and unconscious beneath a bridge. He carries the boy to a church and vigilantly watches over him through the night. The next morning, a vicar—Norm’s ex-wife—discovers Aiden sleeping beneath the altar. She recoils at the sight of Bull and demands to know how he could enter a house of God. Bull turns to reveal his eyes, fully black, leaving no doubt about the otherworldly power he embodies.

The film reinforces its eerie premise through consistent flashbacks that confirm Bull’s eyes have remained black throughout. It’s implied that Bull truly died ten years ago and was resurrected through a deal with the devil to avenge his death. He begs the vicar to help save Aiden and leaves behind the money from the drug dealer for his son’s care, a stark paradox of mercy and violence in equal measure.

In the final, haunting scene, Bull returns to the field where his body was buried. He kneels as smoke begins to rise from his form once more, a visual cue that his time on Earth is drawing to a close and that, with his work complete, he must return to Hell. The closing image leaves a chilling sense that vengeance, power, and the supernatural have intertwined in a fate that cannot be escaped.

Raging Bull’s ending reflects the deep themes of self-perception and responsibility that run throughout the film. As the story concludes, we see an older, overweight Jake LaMotta in his later years, haunted by his past. Despite losing his career, his marriage, and his relationships due to his violent and volatile behavior, LaMotta continues to see himself as a contender, a champion who has simply fallen on hard times. The final scenes echo the opening, where LaMotta prepares for a comedy performance by looking into a mirror and psyching himself up, symbolizing how he perceives himself—still fighting, still trying to regain some sense of greatness.

In the last moments, LaMotta recites a quote from On the Waterfront into the mirror, echoing Marlon Brando’s character Terry Malloy, who laments how he could have been somebody. LaMotta’s choice of this quote hints at his own perception of his life—blaming others, especially his brother Joey, for his misfortunes and refusing to accept personal responsibility. This refusal keeps him locked in a cycle of self-delusion and regret. The film’s message is that LaMotta’s inability to acknowledge his guilt and change ultimately leads to his downfall, making his life a tragic, self-perpetuating cycle.