The latest movie from Gareth Evans, director of The Raid: Redemption, sees the filmmaker move away from spectacular action into the realms of horror. Apostle is a dark, gory tale set in the early 20th Century in which a man called Thomas Richardson (played by Legion star Dan Stevens) attempts to rescue his kidnapped sister Jennifer from a sinister religious cult on a British island. What begins as a tense mystery slowly transforms into full-blown nightmarish horror, as terrifying secrets about the community are revealed.
There's a lot to unpack in the final 30 minutes of Apostle. Evans keeps things deliberately vague for much of the 130 minute running time, which helps to build the sense of mystery and unease. It does, however, mean that when the true secrets of the island are revealed that it's easy to miss some details, especially as Evans has several subplots to tie up at once. So here's the ending of Apostle explained--and obviously, there are spoilers ahead!
The entire climax of Apostle ultimately centers around the "god" that the community worships, known as Her. In a flashback, we see Malcolm (Michael Sheen) and his friend Quinn (Mark Lewis Jones) arrive on the island of Erisden, where they discover a woman, seemingly in possession of supernatural powers. When she consumes blood, the natural world grows around her--grass, flowers, plants, and crops burst into life. Seeing a chance to create their own self-sufficient community, Malcolm and Quinn imprison Her and start to feed her animal blood, with the help of a scary masked gimp-like man known as The Grinder. Soon the crops are thriving and a close-knit community, beyond the reach of the King and his laws on the English mainland, has flourished.
Unfortunately, the animals cannot last forever, and with the land starting to perish, Malcolm is forced to look for other sources of blood. The members of the cult are told to leave offerings of their own blood outside their doors every night. But it is not enough. Animals are born diseased and dying, and a real threat of starvation emerges. In desperation, Malcolm kidnaps the daughter of a wealthy family from the mainland--Thomas's sister Jennifer--and holds her for ransom.
While Her is dependent on Malcolm for her blood, she is free to roam the village, and we see glimpses of her in the early parts of Apostle. But the first full reveal occurs while Thomas is crawling underground in attempt to find Jennifer; Her rises scarily from the water and lurches toward him. Soon after, Malcolm confronts Her in her lair, demanding to know why she revealed herself to Thomas and telling her "He won't worship you as I!" He then tells her that he will starve her of blood until she starts making the land grow once more.
But as we discover, Her doesn't want Thomas to worship her at all--she wants him to end it all. By the end of the movie, Quinn has assumed control of the cult, killing his own daughter and her lover and attempting to murder Malcolm. He holds Jennifer and Malcolm's daughter Andrea prisoner, and tells them they will both bear him a sacrificial child every year to feed to Her.
Thomas is kidnapped and almost killed himself, but manages to overcome The Grinder and staggers into Her lair. She tells him "I have waited for you my son."At which point she places her hands upon him and transmits her memories into his mind, through which we learn of her backstory. As she releases him, she says "Free me, my child."
Thomas steps away and throws a torch into the lair, engulfing Her in flames. The fire spreads rapidly through the community and the villagers flee to the boat waiting on the coast. While rescuing Jennifer and Andrea, Thomas is stabbed several times by Quinn, who the three of them then kill. Thomas falls, fatally wounded, while taking Jennifer and Andrea to the boat, and tells them to leave him on the island. As he lies dying on the hill overlooking the coastline, Thomas is joined by Malcolm, who is wounded but has survived. The pair silently watch the boat leave.
As Thomas lies there, dying, we see his blood drip onto the ground. Suddenly, a stalk emerges from the mud. Thomas looks down as sees the grass start to grow as his blood hits the earth. He smiles and lies back as the grass continues to grow all around him. His eyes change colour, resembling those of Her, as vines reach across his face and pierce his skin, while Malcolm looks on. Thomas now seems to possess the same powers as Her, the implication being that she passed them to him when she touched him earlier, and now his blood is replenishing Erisden.
For more on Apostle, check out GameSpot’s review here, and our interview with Gareth Evans.
