Christine (2016) Ending Explained – Final Scene & Meaning

Arnie dies because he has become completely consumed by Christine's evil. In the film's version, Arnie is fully possessed and chooses the car over his friends and himself. When Christine tries to run over Leigh, Arnie is thrown through the windshield and impaled on glass, dying while clinging to the car's hood. Unlike the novel where Arnie fights the possession to help destroy Christine, the movie shows him fully succumbed to the car's malevolent influence with no chance of redemption.

Foreshadowing: Earlier scenes show Arnie increasingly prioritizing Christine over his friends and girlfriend Leigh.

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No, Christine does not truly die. Even after being crushed into a cube by a bulldozer, the car's evil persists. When the crushed remains are taken to the junkyard, the eerie '50s rock and roll begins playing again, and the car's grille twitches subtly when the characters look away, implying the malevolent spirit remains alive and could potentially return.

Foreshadowing: Throughout the film, Christine repeatedly survives attempts to destroy it, demonstrating supernatural resilience.

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After Arnie's death, Christine continues pursuing Leigh and Dennis, trying to kill them even in death. The duo manages to trap the car and crush it with a bulldozer, but the car's malevolent spirit persists despite this destruction. They ultimately take Christine's crushed remains to a junkyard, where the evil presence remains.

Foreshadowing: Leigh and Dennis had been trying to help Arnie break free from Christine's influence throughout the story.

• leigh
• dennis
• survivors
• chase scene
• bulldozer

The film explicitly removes Arnie's redemption moment that exists in the novel. In the book, Arnie fights off the possession and tries to help destroy Christine. The movie instead shows him fully consumed by the car, choosing Christine over his friends with no last-minute moral turnaround. This change emphasizes the tragic cost of succumbing to obsession, highlighting how deeply Arnie has become intertwined with the car's murderous nature.

Foreshadowing: The film progressively shows Arnie's moral decline as he prioritizes Christine over everyone else.

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Yes, the ending strongly implies Christine could return. The subtle twitching of the car's grille after being crushed, combined with the recurring '50s rock and roll, suggests the evil spirit remains active. This open-ended conclusion leaves the possibility of the car returning in future stories, aligning with the Stephen King source material's recurring themes of lingering evil.

Foreshadowing: Christine has repeatedly survived destruction attempts throughout the film.

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The ending delivers a warning about the destructive nature of material obsession, particularly how adolescents can become consumed by superficial things like a powerful car. Arnie's choice to value Christine over his friends and his own life represents the tragic loss of innocence. The film emphasizes valuing genuine human connections over material possessions, showing how obsession with objects can lead to devastating consequences.

Foreshadowing: Early scenes establish Arnie's fascination with Christine as more than just a car, he treats it as a living entity.

• theme
• materialism
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Christine continues attacking because the car's malevolent spirit is independent of Arnie's life. Even with Arnie dead, the demonic force within Christine remains alive and active. The car pursues Leigh and Dennis on its own supernatural accord, demonstrating that the evil within Christine is not dependent on its driver, it is an autonomous, sentient force that seeks to kill regardless of whether Arnie is alive.

Foreshadowing: Throughout the film, Christine acts on its own volition, attacking people even when Arnie is not in the driver's seat.

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The key difference is Arnie's fate and redemption. In the novel, Arnie fights off the car's possession at the end and helps destroy Christine, showing a last-minute moral choice. In the film, Arnie is fully consumed by Christine's evil and dies while trying to kill Leigh, with no redemption moment. Both versions end with Christine's spirit potentially surviving, but the film emphasizes the tragic, inescapable nature of the car's influence.

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