The Lighthouse Ending Explained: What was the Movie about?

With The Lighthouse, director Robert Eggers gives viewers a follow-up to The Witch that is stranger, more imaginative, and full of farts – all leading to a fittingly crazy ending. In 2015, Robert Eggers made a big impact with his first film, The Witch, a historical horror movie.

Released by A24 the next year, the film earned ten times its $4 million budget and was praised as one of the best horror films of the year, even being considered one of the scariest movies ever made.

Eggers faced a big challenge with his second film, trying to meet the high expectations while making something unique. Thankfully, with The Lighthouse, he has done just that and more.

The Lighthouse premiered at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival in the Director’s Fortnight section, where it won the International Federation of Film Critics prize.

Like his previous film, it was distributed by A24 and received widespread critical praise, making it one of the most unusual and imaginative movies of the year. The film tells the story of two lighthouse keepers who must work together for weeks at a remote lighthouse, far from any other people.

Thomas Wake (Willem Dafoe) is a grumpy, superstitious veteran who drinks a lot. Ephraim Winslow (Robert Pattinson) is new to the job and has little patience for the hard work of his colleague’s company. It doesn’t take long for paranoia, delusions, and a strong fear of seagulls to set in.

Plot of The Lighthouse

The main source of tension in The Lighthouse comes from the relationship between Wake and Winslow, which quickly shifts from friendly to disturbing.

Wake seems a little off but is mostly used to the routine of lighthouse work, while Winslow becomes easily irritated by what he thought would be an easier job.

As time goes on, it becomes clear to Winslow that Wake might be losing his mind during their time together, if he wasn’t already crazy to begin with. Wake appears to worship, even have a strange obsession with, the lighthouse light, refusing to let Winslow get close to it.

This becomes another reason for tension between them. During one of their many drinking sessions, it is revealed that Winslow is not who he claims to be.

He is Thomas Howard, a former lumberjack whose last job ended in a disaster involving the real Ephraim Winslow, and it may or may not have been his fault. His casual attitude toward the truth shows the audience that it might not be Wake who is the insane one.

Of course, neither man can be fully trusted. Wake’s past seems suspicious, and his obsessive behavior toward Winslow/Howard goes between disgust and possibly sexual interest.

The night before they are supposed to be picked up and sent home, Wake gets Winslow very drunk, making sure they miss the ship that was supposed to collect them.

Winslow becomes convinced that Wake is trying to get him fired for being incompetent, meaning he wouldn’t be paid for his work. Wake does use tactics like gaslighting, trying to make Winslow doubt how much time has passed.

But when the audience can’t be sure who, if anyone, is telling the truth, it’s easy to get caught up in the paranoia.

Ending Explained

After Winslow finds out that Wake has been keeping detailed records of his supposed wrongdoings, the two argue fiercely, and things turn violent. During their fight, Winslow sees Wake appear to turn into a sea-god, complete with tentacles and a coral horn.

He seems to have taken the form of Proteus, described by Homer as the “Old Man of the Sea,” the son of Poseidon, and a character often found in the works of writers like Shakespeare, Wordsworth, and Milton.

Proteus is also known for his ability to change shape, which fits well with Wake’s sudden transformation. Winslow kills Wake with a shovel and goes toward the lighthouse light, something Wake had previously forbidden him from getting close to.

Eggers has said that he was inspired by H.P. Lovecraft’s works, suggesting that the lighthouse could be a gateway to another dark dimension or possibly an evil entity itself. It might also be inspired by the Pharos of Alexandria, a lighthouse that was one of the seven wonders of the ancient world.

Whatever the case, when Winslow looks into the light, he loses his sanity and seems to burn, laughing uncontrollably. The mysterious secrets of the light are never revealed to the audience, and what happens to Winslow is left unclear.

Later, Winslow wakes up naked on the shore with birds pecking at his stomach, including the same seagull that has been tormenting him throughout the movie.

Referring to the Greek mythology theme of the story, if Wake is Proteus, then Winslow seems to be like Prometheus, who stole fire from the gods and was punished by having his liver eaten by birds every day.

Winslow tried to take the power of the lighthouse for himself, stealing it from its rightful keeper, and was punished for it. While Proteus and Prometheus never met in Greek mythology, they fit well into The Lighthouse, a story about power, generational differences, and forces beyond human understanding.

If Winslow is Prometheus, the ending might suggest that his fate is to repeat this monstrous cycle forever, either because he looked into the light or because he killed the real Winslow.

It might all just be his guilt for killing an innocent man, or perhaps there are supernatural forces beyond his control. The truth is that The Lighthouse is a strong enough film to leave space for any interpretation the audience wants.

Any of them could be true, or none of them might be, and that doesn’t take away from the compelling experience of being immersed in Eggers’s vision.