The End (1978) Plot Summary Explained

Sonny learns he has a fatal blood disease with only three months to a year to live, and after visiting a hospital ICU, he sees a patient in the final stages of the disease. The slow, painful death he witnesses convinces him that ending his life immediately is preferable to enduring that decline. He chooses to say goodbye to loved ones on his own terms rather than wait for the disease to take its course.

• terminal illness
• suicide decision
• dying
• quality of life

After Sonny takes an overdose of sleeping pills, his best friend Marty and ex-wife Jessica have him committed to a mental institution against his will. They believe he is suicidal and needs psychiatric help rather than being allowed to die by suicide. Sonny wakes up in the institution unaware that he has been legally committed, discovering his fate has been taken out of his hands.

• involuntary commitment
• mental hospital
• psychiatric ward

Marlon Borunki is a fellow patient in the psychiatric ward who has been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia and dissociative identity disorder. He was committed for murdering his father during a violent episode of rage. Despite his violent past, Marlon becomes sympathetic to Sonny's desire to die and assists him in several failed suicide attempts, though his unstable mental state makes him unpredictable and dangerous.

Foreshadowing: The film hints at Marlon's volatility early in their friendship, showing he is both willing to help and capable of harm.

• Marlon Borunki
• paranoid schizophrenic
• dissociative identity disorder
• violent past

Dr. Maneet is a psychiatrist at the institution who is herself facing a fatal diagnosis. She connects with Sonny over their shared terminal conditions and briefly reawakens his desire to live by suggesting he could find meaning in his remaining time. However, she dies suddenly in Sonny's arms right after this breakthrough, crushing his newly kindled hope and reinforcing his belief that meaningful futures are not guaranteed.

• Dr Maneet
• psychiatrist
• terminal diagnosis
• hope lost

As Sonny swims deeper into the sea intending to drown, he imagines hearing his ex-wife Jessica and daughter Julie discussing him at his funeral. The realization of how his death would affect the people he loves, and the finality of his absence, causes him to suddenly want to live. He fights against the waves and manages to swim back to shore, making a desperate bargain with God to prove his commitment to survival.

Foreshadowing: Sonny's earlier visits with Julie and Jessica plant the emotional seeds for this moment of reconsideration.

• ocean drowning
• change of heart
• funeral vision
• will to live

After Sonny returns to shore having decided to live, Marlon, who has found Sonny's gun, begins firing at him repeatedly to fulfill what he believes is Sonny's original wish to die. Despite Sonny pleading that he now wants to live, Marlon's distorted sense of loyalty and his own mental instability drive him to keep shooting. Each shot misses, and when that fails, Marlon switches to a knife, chasing Sonny along the beach.

Foreshadowing: Marlon's earlier willingness to help Sonny die establishes his resolve to see the act through, regardless of Sonny's changed wishes.

• beach chase
• Marlon attacks
• gun
• knife

Sonny's bargaining with God represents his spiritual and psychological turning point. While drowning, he promises God a share of his future profits if he survives, initially 50%, then reducing to 30% and finally 10% as he gets closer to shore. This gradual reduction reveals his desperate negotiating to live, and the act of bargaining itself signifies his newly found will to survive and his desire to make his life meaningful if given another chance.

• God bargain
• promise
• survival
• spiritual redemption

The movie ends with Sonny still being chased by Marlon along the beach, with Marlon wielding a knife. While Sonny has clearly chosen to live and continues pleading for his life, the outcome remains ambiguous, the chase stops mid-pursuit without showing whether Sonny escapes, is captured, or is killed. The unresolved ending leaves the question of his ultimate fate open.

• ending
• ambiguous
• chase
• survival

Sonny tells only Marty, his best friend and lawyer, about his fatal diagnosis and suicide plan. He deliberately hides it from his daughter Julie and ex-wife Jessica, visiting them for what he knows will be final goodbyes without revealing the truth. He wants to spare them the pain of watching him die slowly and perhaps preserve their last memories of him as healthy and normal.

• secrets
• family
• terminal diagnosis
• protected information

Sonny's suicide attempts fail repeatedly due to a combination of circumstance and intervention. His overdose lands him in a hospital rather than killing him. His jumps from heights and other methods are thwarted by Marlon's clumsy but dangerous help. The gun jams when he tries to shoot himself. The sea initially seems to work until his psychological breakthrough. The pattern suggests either bad luck or an unconscious resistance to dying.

• failed suicide attempts
• coincidences
• survival