The Substance

In the end, Elisabeth’s obsession with youth and beauty drives her to use the mysterious Substance to create a perfect, youthful version of herself. Her transformation results in the emergence of Sue, a flawless but emotionally detached clone who quickly becomes her own person—yet someone who is increasingly hungry for power and validation. As Sue’s greed grows, she begins to violate the rules of the matrix, taking more stabilizer fluid from Elisabeth and accelerating her body’s deterioration. Elisabeth, once proud of her beauty and success, finds herself losing her vitality and sense of self; she becomes more like a shell of her former self, hiding her aging and deformities behind a glamorous facade.

Toward the climax, Elisabeth’s desperation leads her to try and stop the process by injecting her own fluid back into herself and contemplating termination of her existence. However, Sue, in her relentless pursuit of continued relevance and admiration, beats Elisabeth to death during a chaotic, surreal confrontation — symbolizing how obsession with superficial perfection can ultimately destroy itself. As Sue’s obsession consumes her, she creates a grotesque, monstrous version of herself called Monstro Elisasue, which is a distorted, nightmarish reflection of her and Elisabeth’s desires and traumas. Elisasue, a broken and deformed entity, escapes and disintegrates on the sidewalk, marking the end of the cycle of self-destruction.

Finally, Elisabeth’s consciousness merges into her star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, symbolizing her fading presence and the brutal reality that the pursuit of eternal youth and beauty is inherently doomed. The star, once a symbol of her fame and aspirations, becomes her final resting place—a metaphor for how society’s obsession with surface appearances reduces individuals to fleeting, disposable images. The film’s bleak tone underscores that the world rewards illusion rather than true humanity, and that the cycle of obsession, exploitation, and self-destruction will persist as long as society continues to value superficial beauty over genuine self-worth. In this tragic ending, Elisabeth’s quest for eternal youth ends in her erasure, a reminder of the destructive power of societal standards and the fleeting nature of fame.

Last Updated: June 25, 2025 at 09:02