The Last Duel (2021) Ending Explained – Final Scene & Meaning

Jean de Carrouges wins the duel, defeating and killing Jacques Le Gris. Despite Jacques maintaining his innocence until his final breath, Carrouges emerges victorious, though the film makes clear this does not definitively prove Marguerite's accusations were true.

Foreshadowing: Earlier scenes establish Carrouges as a skilled but financially struggling knight desperate to restore his honor through combat.

• jean de carrouges
• jacques le gris
• duel outcome
• winner
• death

The film deliberately leaves this ambiguous. While Marguerite accused him, the conflicting accounts and unreliable narration suggest multiple possibilities: he may have been guilty, mistaken for someone else, or falsely accused. The narrative presents several theories without confirming any.

Foreshadowing: Witness Adam Louvel's hesitation to speak and the conflicting testimony throughout the film plant seeds of doubt.

• jacques le gris
• innocence
• guilt
• accusation
• truth

Marguerite survives the duel and is technically vindicated by her husband's victory, but the film suggests she carries a heavy burden. Her fate beyond the duel is left ambiguous, though historical accounts indicate she later became a nun after Carrouges died in war.

Foreshadowing: Marguerite's limited agency and the social pressures against her throughout the film set up her uncertain future.

• marguerite de carrouges
• fate
• survival
• aftermath

No. The film argues that trial by combat was an unreliable arbiter of truth. Carrouges' victory proves only that he was the better fighter, not that his wife told the truth. The narrative critiques how medieval justice often resulted in brutal outcomes unrelated to actual guilt or innocence.

Foreshadowing: The film's three-part structure showing conflicting perspectives establishes early that truth is subjective.

• trial by combat
• justice system
• honor
• truth
• medieval

The film presents this as an open question. Some interpretations suggest she may have falsely accused Jacques to protect her own secrets or due to mistaken identity, while others believe she was a genuine victim whose truth was finally validated. The ending refuses to settle definitively on either interpretation.

Foreshadowing: The differing accounts of what happened in the bedchamber create fundamental contradictions that never fully resolve.

• false accusation
• marguerite
• lie
• truth
• sexual assault

The Rashomon-style structure reflects the film's central theme: truth is elusive and shaped by perspective and bias. Each character's account serves their own interests, demonstrating how stories are weaponized in conflicts. This structure forces viewers to actively question rather than accept any single narrative.

Foreshadowing: The opening titles establish this as a story about how history is written by the victors.

• perspective
• narrative structure
• truth
• rashomon
• subjectivity

The ending is bittersweet at best. While Carrouges wins and the immediate antagonist dies, the film emphasizes doubt, ambiguity, and systemic injustice. The victory comes through brutal violence, and the question of true justice remains unresolved. Historical context adds further weight, Carrouges later dies in war, leaving Marguerite to survive with her uncertain legacy.

Foreshadowing: The somber final narration and dark tone throughout establish that triumph here is hollow.

• ending
• mood
• bittersweet
• resolution
• emotional

The film argues that medieval justice systems were deeply flawed, capable of delivering brutal outcomes without establishing actual truth. Power and combat skill, not evidence or fairness, often determined who survived. The ending leaves viewers questioning whether justice was truly served or if the system simply produced another tragic victim.

Foreshadowing: The opening credits establish the historical context of a society where women had virtually no legal recourse.

• justice
• truth
• message
• theme
• systemic injustice

The ending emphasizes that regardless of what truly happened to Marguerite, she was ultimately silenced by the system. Even in victory, her voice was just one account among many, and the male power structures determined her fate. The film highlights how women in that era had no reliable path to justice, only the slim hope that a husband's combat victory might validate their claims.

Foreshadowing: Throughout the film, Marguerite is rarely believed on her own testimony alone.

• women
• medieval society
• voice
• silencing
• patriarchy