At first glance, We Bury the Dead appears to deliver a devastating finale. Daisy Ridley’s Ava Newman reaches the end of her emotional and physical journey only to confirm the death of her husband, seemingly sealing the film as a bleak meditation on loss. However, according to the film’s stars, the ending is not meant to be read as hopeless. Instead, it quietly reframes tragedy into survival, healing, and the possibility of renewal.
Ridley leads the Australian horror film as Ava, a woman navigating the aftermath of a catastrophic military experiment that wipes out hundreds of thousands of people. Joining a body retrieval unit, she travels across the ravaged landscape of Tasmania searching for her missing husband, Mitch. Along the way, she partners with Clay, a local worker played by Brenton Thwaites, who carries grief of his own beneath a guarded exterior.
The Meaning Behind the Final Scene
The film’s conclusion brings Ava and Clay to the resort where Mitch had been staying. Ava finds confirmation of his death, which grants her a painful but necessary sense of closure. Clay, in turn, reveals that he has been mourning the loss of his pregnant wife, drawing a parallel between their shared emotional isolation.
The final moment shifts expectations. Ava and Clay encounter a pregnant zombie that has just given birth, and they take the newborn with them as the film fades out. For Daisy Ridley, that moment was always meant to exist as a counterweight to the devastation surrounding it.
Ridley has explained that the ending reflects the idea that even in total collapse, something worth holding onto can still exist. For Ava, the journey is not finished. She has processed loss, but she has not reached emotional finality. The baby represents a fragile spark of possibility, something that can carry both characters forward beyond the ruins of their past lives.
Ava and Clay’s Bond Mirrors the Film’s Core Themes
Much of We Bury the Dead relies on the slow, organic bond between Ava and Clay. Their relationship begins with emotional distance, particularly on Clay’s side, but gradually evolves into trust and mutual understanding. Ridley has spoken about how that dynamic reflects two people moving in opposite emotional directions. Ava is running toward closure, while Clay is running away from his guilt.
Brenton Thwaites views Clay as a man who initially does not value his own survival. His reckless behavior and emotional detachment stem from unresolved grief, but his journey alongside Ava begins to soften that self punishment. By the end of the film, Clay is no longer just surviving. He is beginning to forgive himself.
That emotional shift is essential to understanding the ending. The newborn does not simply symbolize hope in abstract terms. It reflects both characters reaching a point where they can protect something new rather than remain trapped in what they lost.
Horror That Focuses on Humanity Over Spectacle
While the film contains disturbing imagery and unsettling zombie behavior, its focus remains deeply human. The undead in We Bury the Dead are not presented as mindless monsters alone. Some appear driven by unfinished emotional business, reinforcing the film’s themes of unresolved grief and lingering attachment.
This approach grounds the horror in emotional realism rather than pure spectacle. The ending reinforces that idea by choosing tenderness over shock. Instead of closing on destruction, the film ends with responsibility, connection, and the quiet weight of choosing to keep going.
Why the Ending Works
Rather than undermining the tragedy that comes before it, We Bury the Dead allows its final scene to coexist with sorrow. Ava does not get her husband back. The world is not fixed. But meaning is still possible. According to its stars, that balance is exactly the point.
The film argues that hope does not erase loss. It grows out of it.
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