Year: 2022
Runtime: 117 min
Language: Norwegian
Director: Eskil Vogt
During a bright Nordic summer, a group of children uncover extraordinary abilities. As they explore their powers, a disturbing darkness emerges, threatening their innocence and exposing a sinister presence hidden within their seemingly idyllic surroundings. The children must confront the escalating danger and the terrifying reality of their newfound abilities.
Warning: spoilers below!
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Read the complete plot breakdown of The Innocents (2022), including all key story events, major twists, and the ending explained in detail. Discover what really happened—and what it all means.
Lonely young girl Ida and her older sister Anna have recently settled into a new apartment with their parents. Anna, who has nonverbal autism, relies on Ida for support and care. One fateful day, Ida meets Ben, and the two quickly form a friendship. To Ida’s astonishment, Ben reveals he possesses telekinetic abilities, enabling him to move small objects with his mind.
Things take a turn when Ida is tasked with taking Anna to the playground. However, she leaves Anna unsupervised for a bit to enjoy some football with Ben. Their fun is interrupted when a bully snatches their ball. Later, out of curiosity and perhaps a dark whim, Ben picks up a stray cat he noticed in the woods, and the two decide to drop it from the top of their apartment complex. While they find the cat unharmed initially, a horrific moment follows: at Ida’s urging to leave the cat alone, Ben kills it by crushing its skull with his foot.
The day becomes darker as Ida searches for Anna, only to find her playing with another child, Aisha, who lives in their building. Astonishingly, Aisha communicates with Anna through telepathy, revealing that Anna has her own latent powers of telekinesis. As Ida observes this newfound connection, it becomes clear that Anna, Aisha, and Ben thrive together in their supernatural abilities, while Ida finds herself devoid of such gifts.
With practice, the trio’s powers grow stronger, and to everyone’s delight, Anna begins to form words with Aisha’s encouragement. However, tensions rise when Ben becomes enraged at being teased and retaliates by knocking Aisha over telekinetically, leading to an unintended injury for Anna during the chaos. At home, Ben faces the wrath of his abusive mother, and in a moment of aggression facilitated by his powers, he knocks her unconscious. Shocking developments unfold when Aisha’s mother becomes a target, and tragedy strikes with Aisha’s untimely death.
As fears mount, a stranger warns Ida’s family of Ben’s manipulations. Despite that, Ida invites Ben to play with a toy glider, but their plans lead to more danger as Ida tries to thwart Ben by pushing him off the overpass where his bully was previously harmed. This reckless decision results in Ida being hit by a car, awakening her powers in sheer desperation.
Amidst the escalating conflict between Anna and Ben, Ida finds herself at a crossroads. When Anna is outmatched by Ben, Ida surprises herself by healing her broken leg through sheer willpower, unlocking her own telekinetic abilities. The battle intensifies, drawing captivated onlookers who witness the frantic energy exchange between the three children. Ultimately, a powerful surge leads to Ben’s demise, leaving a tranquil silence in its wake.
With the chaos subsiding, Ida and Anna return to their apartment, where Ida, now imbued with newfound courage, embraces their mother. The scene closes on Anna, who appears to be on the verge of expressing herself, raising hopes of a brighter connection between the sisters moving forward.
Last Updated: November 16, 2024 at 16:22
Still wondering what the ending of The Innocents (2022) really means? Here’s a spoiler-heavy breakdown of the final scene, major twists, and the deeper themes that shape the film’s conclusion.
The ending of “The Innocents” presents a haunting culmination of the children’s supernatural powers and the chaos they unleash. As Anna and her sister Ida confront Ben, who has now become a dangerously vengeful figure driven by his own anger and remorse, their final battle takes place at the edge of a large pond in the playground. Ben, overwhelmed by Anna’s psychic attack, begins to weaken, and Ida, finally breaking free from her own guilt and fear, joins her sister in combating him. Together, they unleash a powerful, almost mythic force against him, which results in Ben collapsing and becoming motionless. This climactic moment is ambiguous—whether Ben truly dies or simply is incapacitated by the children’s combined supernatural assault is left intentionally unclear. Following this, the sisters return home, with their mother informing them that paramedics have arrived to care for a supposedly dead child in the playground, emphasizing the tragic and unresolved nature of the events.
In the aftermath, Ida notices Ben watching their house from afar, and she becomes increasingly paranoid, feeling that he might still pose a threat. Her fears are confirmed when she finds Anna missing, and she suspects Ben is still lurking nearby. The sisters eventually face Ben once more near a pond, where both are able to summon their powers—Anna through her supernatural control of water, and Ida through her determination and courage. Their combined strength appears to finally subdue Ben, who falls to the ground as the water around him ripples violently. When they go home, their mother is unaware of the true extent of what happened, and as Anna resumes her drawings, the film leaves their fate somewhat open-ended, hinting that the supernatural struggle between these children—representing innocence, guilt, and evil—may continue beyond what is shown on screen.
The ending is deliberately ambiguous, blending the supernatural with the psychological, leaving viewers pondering whether the children’s powers are real or simply imagination, and whether their actions resulted in genuine death or are symbolic of their inner struggles and fears. The conclusion ultimately underscores the complex and unsettling nature of childhood innocence corrupted and the thin line between good and evil in the realm of the supernatural.
Last Updated: June 25, 2025 at 08:57
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