Chris Washington sits in the grass. He's bleeding. He's exhausted. He just survived a literal house of horrors in upstate New York. Then, the red and blue lights flash. For a split second, everyone in the theater back in 2017 held their breath because we all thought we knew exactly what was coming next. We thought Chris was done for. But Jordan Peele didn't give us the cynical ending we expected; he gave us Rod Williams.
The ending of the movie Get Out isn't just a plot resolution. It's a cultural Rorschach test.
Most people remember the relief of seeing that TSA vehicle pull up, but the path to that moment is paved with some of the most intricate storytelling in modern horror. To really understand why this finale sticks in the brain, you have to look at the "Sunken Place" not just as a spooky basement trick, but as a metaphor for systemic erasure. It's heavy stuff. Honestly, it’s probably why you’re still thinking about it.
What actually happens during the ending of the movie Get Out?
Let’s break down the mechanics. Chris has already escaped the chair by using the most "low-tech" solution possible: stuffing his ears with chair cotton. It’s a genius move by Peele. He literally uses the tool of his enslavement—the cotton—to tune out the "Bingo" hypnotic trigger.
Once Chris is out of that basement, the movie turns into a survival thriller. He has to navigate the Armitage family one by one. Dean gets impaled by the antlers of a deer—a callback to the deer they hit on the way up, which Dean mocked so relentlessly. Jeremy gets taken out in the foyer. Then there’s the kitchen showdown with Missy.
But the real emotional weight of the ending of the movie Get Out hits when Chris makes it to the driveway.
Georgina, who we know is actually Grandma Armitage, gets hit by the car. Chris, haunted by the memory of his mother’s hit-and-run death, can't just leave her there. This is his fatal flaw—or his greatest strength—depending on how you look at it. He puts her in the car, she attacks him, and they crash.
The confrontation with Rose and Walter
Rose is out there with a literal rifle. She's cold. She’s hunting him. Then Walter (Grandpa Armitage) runs Chris down with terrifying speed. Because Chris used his flash earlier in the movie, he knows it momentarily "wakes up" the host. He flashes Walter, and for a brief second, the real Walter returns.
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He doesn't run away. He doesn't help Chris directly. He takes Rose's gun, shoots her in the stomach, and then turns the weapon on himself. It’s a brutal, tragic moment of reclaimed agency. Walter chose death over being a passenger in his own body.
Then, the sirens.
The Alternate Ending Nobody Wanted (But Jordan Peele Filmed)
You might not know this, but the ending of the movie Get Out was originally much, much darker. In the initial version, the police who roll up aren't Rod. They are actual police officers.
In that cut, Chris is arrested on the spot. He ends up in prison. When Rod visits him to ask for details so he can help build a case, Chris is defeated. He tells Rod, "I stopped it. That's enough." He's resigned to his fate because he knows the system won't believe a Black man found over a pile of white bodies in a wealthy suburb.
Peele eventually realized that the audience needed a win. 2017 was a heavy year. Real-world headlines were already bleak enough. By switching the ending to Rod’s heroic arrival, Peele shifted the movie from a tragedy to a subversion of the "final girl" trope. Rod is the hero we didn't deserve, but definitely needed.
Why the "Sunken Place" is the key to everything
To understand the ending of the movie Get Out, you have to understand the Sunken Place. It’s not just a dark void.
It represents the marginalization of Black voices. In the Sunken Place, you can see what’s happening. You can scream. You can cry. But you are paralyzed. Your body is being steered by someone else. The Armitages weren't just killing people; they were stealing their perspective, their "cool," and their physical advantages while discarding their personhood.
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The Coagula procedure is the ultimate form of gentrification. It's the colonization of the self. When Chris escapes, he isn't just saving his life; he's reclaiming his consciousness.
The symbolism of the Silver Spoon
Remember Missy Armitage clinking that silver spoon against the tea glass? That’s the trigger. The "silver spoon" is a classic symbol of inherited wealth and privilege. In the ending of the movie Get Out, Chris has to physically break through the barriers that privilege has built around him.
The fact that Rose is looking for her next target on a laptop while Chris is dying in the other room shows just how transactional the Armitages' evil really is. To them, Chris was just a "product" that didn't fit right.
Is the ending actually a "Happy" one?
It's tempting to call it a happy ending. Chris gets away. Rod is a legend. The bad guys are mostly dead.
But look at Chris’s face in the final shot.
He’s staring out the window of the TSA car. He doesn't look like a guy who just won. He looks like a guy who is fundamentally broken. He just had to kill a family. He watched a man commit suicide in front of him. He realized that his girlfriend, who he thought he loved, was a sociopathic predator.
The ending of the movie Get Out leaves us with the reality of trauma. Sure, he survived the house, but he’s never going to be the same. The "horror" of the movie isn't just the surgery; it's the realization that this kind of predatory behavior is masked by "polite" society.
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Common misconceptions about the finale
- Rose actually loved Chris: No. She didn't. Some fans try to find a "spark" of regret in her, but Peele has been clear. Rose is a hunter. She keeps the pictures of her victims like trophies in a box. Her "searching for the keys" act was just a way to stall for time.
- The police would have been "fine": Given the original ending, no. The movie builds a specific tension around the police from the very first scene with the ID check. The arrival of the lights is meant to trigger a specific fear in the audience.
- The "Bingo" scene was just a game: That was actually the auction. They were bidding on Chris’s body. The ending is the direct result of that "sale" falling through.
How Get Out changed the genre
Before this movie, "social horror" wasn't a term used by the average moviegoer. Peele used the ending of the movie Get Out to prove that you can have a high-concept genre film that also functions as a blistering critique of "post-racial" America.
It paved the way for movies like Us, Candyman (2021), and Parasite. It showed that audiences are smart. We don't need a monster under the bed when the monster is sitting across from us at Sunday brunch asking about our political views.
The nuance here is incredible. Look at the color palette. The Armitages wear blues and whites—supposedly "calm" and "pure" colors. Chris is often in red or neutral tones. By the end, the colors are stripped away. It's just the cold blue of the police lights and the dark of the night.
What to do next if you're still processing the ending
If you've just rewatched it and that ending of the movie Get Out is rattling around in your brain, you aren't alone. It’s designed to be uncomfortable.
First, go back and watch the first 15 minutes again. Now that you know how it ends, every single line of dialogue from the Armitages feels like a threat. When Dean says, "I would have voted for Obama a third time," he’s not being a liberal ally; he’s performing for his "product."
Second, look up the cinematography of Hoyte van Hoytema or similar artists who deal with "trapped" spaces. The way the ending is shot—tight close-ups on Chris's face—makes the final relief of the wide shot in the car feel like a literal breath of air.
Third, check out the commentary tracks. Jordan Peele is a nerd for details. He explains the significance of everything from the choice of the deer to the specific way Rose eats her cereal (keeping the milk separate, which is a subtle nod to her desire for "purity" and control).
The movie doesn't just end when the credits roll. It lives in the way we talk about race, safety, and the performative nature of kindness. That’s the real power of the ending of the movie Get Out. It forces us to look at the "lights" and wonder who is actually inside the car.
To deepen your understanding of the film's impact, your next step should be to watch Jordan Peele’s follow-up, Us. It handles similar themes of "the double" and "erasure" but through a completely different lens of class and American identity. Comparing the two will give you a much clearer picture of why Peele’s specific brand of horror has redefined the last decade of cinema. Once you see the parallels between the Sunken Place and the Tethers, the ending of Get Out starts to feel like just one piece of a much larger, scarier puzzle.