Foe Movie Ending Explained-Escape And Humanity Collide In This Twisty Sci-Fi Thinker

Foe is a bleak look at a couple in crisis and the things that make us human.
A massive twist in the middle of the film reveals who we had been watching was the human substitute and the real Junior had already left for space when the film began.
Hen finally claimed the life and adventure she craved by creating a version of herself for Junior that provided her freedom and him the woman he always wanted her to be.

Based on Ian Reid’s novel, Foe is a bleak look at the lies we tell ourselves and the importance of embracing change. Science fiction should be thoughtful. They don’t all need to be self-serious ruminations on the state of humankind, but in this case, Foe is both gravely serious and a commentary on what it means to be human. Director Garth Davis’ film captures the same nihilistic and oddly hopeful tone of Reid’s novel. The world is ending, but we still have a choice to be who we want, even if it requires forethought and courage to do so.

Paul Mescal’s Junior and Saoirse Ronan’s Hen are an unhappy married couple living on an isolated farm and going through the motions. In the near future, a devastating climate change event nearly decimated the Earth and forced everyone to retreat to rural settings or seek new homes in space. A company called Utermore has developed a Climate Migration Strategy program that tests the viability of human settlements in space and AI versions of humans called human substitutes to populate Earth.

Hen and Junior work on a secluded farm that has been in Junior’s family for generations. It’s a quiet, solitary life thrown into chaos when a stranger comes knocking late one night. Terrance(Aaron Pierre of Old) comes with an offer that upends their peaceful life and changes everything. Or so we think until an hour into Foe when we realize who we thought we were watching is the AI version of Junior. We watched as Terrance discussed intimate details of Hen and Junior’s lives, thinking we were watching Terrance gather information to create a human substitute when, in reality, the real Junior had already left. Terrance was testing the viability of the AI.

The big twist of Foe

When Junior returns from space, the AI Junior is callously and shockingly dismantled. The harsh reality is that no one but AI Junior and Hen considered this android a person. He had no autonomy, and before he even realized what was happening, he was stripped bare and decommissioned, leaving Hen depressed and alone with the human version of Junior, who she no longer loved. The AI version of Junior had adapted and changed because of his experiences. He wasn’t just a copy of Junior. he had his own thoughts, feelings, and dreams. Ironically, he proved that human substitutes aren’t just robot copies. They are sentient beings.

The beginning of Foe was actually the middle. Hen crying in the shower was after human Junior had left. She was crying because he left her with AI Junior, and she was scared. Everyone but poor AI Junior was aware of it. Everything we see plays out from that point forward is the courtship of AI Junior and Hen. She rejected him in bed that first night, not because she was angry with him but because she literally didn’t know him. It would be reasonable to not want to share a bed or be intimate with someone who was effectively a stranger to you.

Additionally, the Junior who left for the space mission that Hen was married to could be small-minded and cruel. He didn’t want anything different for his life. Junior hated her piano playing and focused on his needs and wants rather than any of her desires. He also refused to acknowledge that she had changed and their marriage should change accordingly. After living for a year with AI Junior, Hen was forever changed. She did not want to continue the same sad life she had on the farm with Junior. She wanted something different. Her time with the AI helped her understand that she couldn’t stay with human Junior anymore and there was an alternative.

The ending of Foe explained

Hen decided to pursue a new life and destroyed her piano. The piano symbolized what she wished she could have and the person she wished she could be. She ruined the keys because she knew she could not have them with Junior on this farm. By destroying it, she broke free. She left Junior with a single blank sheet of paper on the kitchen table. There were no words left between them. She had tried to talk to him. Hen communicated her needs and experiences over the past year, but human Junior didn’t want to listen.

He insisted that there was nothing for her out there. We know he came back alive, so it isn’t necessarily true that there is nothing out there. He didn’t want her to leave even though he was as unhappy as she was. To Junior, Hen was like a human substitute. She was a possession no different than a pet. He wanted her only because he wanted companionship and had been with her all this time. We know they were in love once, but his anger and their desolation eroded their love until nothing but despair remained.

To his surprise, later, she shows up for dinner. It is not her, though. It is her human substitute. We then hear the real Hen say she had been told her whole life what to like, feel, and be. She was told she needed to be something different, be someone else. In the final shot, we see Hen on an airplane, and she says, “But now I know. There is only one of me”. While Hen was absent from the farm, she had given all her memories and thoughts to create the AI Hen that returned to Junior. From Junior’s expression, it can be assumed he knows and is hopeful that this version of Hen will be what he has always wanted her to be. She will be content and obedient. Meanwhile, human Hen is free to seek the life she has always longed for.

It’s a strangely melancholy and hopeful ending. Hen can finally be the person she has wanted to be, and Junior will have the wife he has always wanted. Poor AI Junior gets no happy ending, though. We can only hope that AI Hen does not suffer a similar fate.

Foe is now streaming on Prime Video.