The Substance Ending Explained, It Has More Substance Than Is Obvious: Demi Moore may just be in Oscar contention for this one. The dark body horror is not just about the substance Demi chooses to inject herself with; writer-director Coralie Fargeat’s story talks about a whole lot of inner substance. The substance is now running in theatres across the States and has received great reviews about the story, acting, and just about everything in the movie. Fargeat has spun the story with her own experiences as a woman in her forties, with first-hand knowledge of show business and dealing with the personal, physiological changes of a woman in her forties. She has deftly carved a deep narrative on screen, and the ending is explosive and dramatic, which will stay with the audience for a very long time. Spoilers coming your way ahead!
The Substance Cast
Main Cast
- Demi Moore
- Margaret Qualley
- Dennis Quaid
Writer Director
Coralie Fargeat
The Background Story of The Substance Explained
Elisabeth Sparkle, played by Demi, is a fading Oscar-winning actress. She is a fitness video host who is doing pretty well, buton her 50th birthday, her boss, Harvey(Dennis), and other senior executives of her production company tell her that she cannot continue as the host anymore and that she does not fit in with the vision they have for the show. One of the initial shots also shows her rundown Star on Hollywood’s Walk of Fame, implying her losing sheen in the industry that does not want her anymore.
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What is The Substance?
Elisabeth finds it very difficult to reconcile with her fading looks and acceptance in the business. She watches workers removing her billboards, and that affects her to no end. She gets into an accident, and while she is in the hospital, she comes to know about a new drug that can transform her into a younger version of herself. Desperate by now, she is ready to try this unknown drug, aka “The Substance.”
This substance will regrow a new version from her spine. The condition for this transformation is that only one of them can be conscious at a time; the other one will be unconscious. The maximum time a version can be conscious is seven days. The conscious version sustains itself for seven days by using “ The Stabilizer” drawn from the other person’s spine.
Elisabeth agrees to this, and we see Sue(Margaret) being born from Elisabeth’s spine.
Sue Takes Control
Sue soon lands Elisabeth’s job as the fitness video instructor; Harvey is all gaga over this young beauty. Sue loves seeing her billboards across the city, and she wants to stay for more than a week at a time. Soon, she starts drawing more and more stabilizer from Wlisabeth’s spine and overstays her time limit.
Meanwhile, Elisabeth’s body starts deteriorating, and first, a finger turns black, and then her joints become immobile. When Elisabeth asks the Company, they tell her these changes are irreversible as Sue has overstayed. Elisabeth decides to end Sue and gets “ The Terminator” from the company. Matters soon reach a head when Sue overstays for more than three months, and Elisabeth has changed beyond recognition.
The Creation of A Monster
Sue has landed a gig as the New Year’s host, and she wanted to continue till that. But, on the day just before that, she started to lose her ear and teeth. Sue senses that her persona could be in trouble on stage, so rushes back and revives Elisabeth after three months. Elisabeth is furious to see herself as a bald creepy creature and decides to terminate Sue, but in the middle of this termination, she has a change of heart and tries to revive Sue. Sue wakes up and realizes Elisabeth was trying to kill her, and in anger, she kills Elisabeth. In the scuffle of injecting the terminator and reviving Sue, a new creature is born, Monstro Elisause, with multiple eyes, arms, and Elisabeth’s face protruding on its back.
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Monstro On The Stage
With no other option, Sue takes to the New Year’s Show stage as Monstro, with Elisabeth’s face as a cutout. Soon, the cutout falls away, and the audience sees Monstro’s face. That moment when Monstro decides to go on stage and tell the audience that she is, Elisabeth is one of the profound moments of the movie. It tells us, the audience, that when she lost her face entirely and the expectations that came with looking a certain way, Elisabeth felt freer than ever before in showing what she was. The audience is stunned, but someone tries to kill her, and then there is just blood and gore everywhere; on the stage, the audience as Monstro keeps on exploding and regenerating into something new because of all the serums in her body.
Monstro’s Last Moments
Monstro reaches the Hollywood Walk of Fame in the last moments. With nothing left of it except Elisabeth’s face, the last moments see Elisabeth reaching her star one last time and diminishing into pieces, from where a worker sweeps the debris away the following day.
The Substance – Ending Explained
The director depicts a story about a woman’s looks as a horror story, which is the most telling aspect of this movie. All women face this constant scrutiny of their looks, whether they are in the entertainment business or not. There is pressure to look perfect all the time, and ageing is considered very unfashionable. It is worse for women under the spotlight where they have been labelled with a best-by date, whereas men do not seem to have this problem. Elisabeth’s struggles with her identity, acceptance of herself, and diminishing career because of age bring forth the struggle of an everyday woman to the fore.
It is when she becomes Monstro that she loses all her fears and accepts herself for who she really is. The blood on the audience also seems symbolic, as the blame lies with all of us for perpetuating these beauty standards. The last bit of laying down on her star says it all: in the end, it will be what we were on the inside that truly matters. The Substance is a movie worth the hype.
