The Girl With All the Gifts was relatively unnoticed when it came out in 2016, but its conclusion brings up various thoughts and interpretations. The horror film, adapted from M.R. Carey’s novel, is set in a desolate post-apocalyptic world.
In this reality, zombies—called hungries—overrun the land, thanks to the widespread outbreak of a fungal disease. Interestingly, a new generation of hungries, still capable of human thought but feeding on people, exists.
The line between cure and sacrifice blurs in this haunting final chapter (Photo: The Girl With All The Gifts/Altitude Film Entertainment, BFI Film Fund, and Poison Chef)These young hungries attend a “school” located at a military base, where a scientist, Dr. Caldwell, hopes to study them and discover a cure. After a horde of hungries takes over the school, a brilliant young hungry named Melanie leads a group of captors through London, hoping to assist in finding a cure for the disease.
Their journey is fraught with danger, as hungry hordes lurk at every corner. The ending of The Girl With All the Gifts reveals many intricate details, illustrating that the film is far more complex than your typical zombie story.
Does Dr. Caldwell Find a Cure?
Dr. Caldwell is certain that Melanie holds the secret to the vaccine in The Girl With All the Gifts. Unfortunately, just as she is about to conduct her experiment on Melanie, a group of hungries breaks into their lab.
Throughout the movie, Dr. Caldwell pushes Melanie to sacrifice herself, believing that Melanie’s intelligence is the missing component for the cure. By the film’s end, Melanie nearly agrees to the doctor’s proposal.
However, at the last minute, she runs away from Caldwell, who chases after her but is captured and killed by a group of young hungries. Once Caldwell is gone, it seems safe to assume that humanity’s chance at a cure has disappeared.
Why Does Melanie Unleash the Pods? Melanie Decides That the Uninfected Have Had Their Time
In the latter part of The Girl With All the Gifts, the group comes across a massive cluster of infected bodies surrounding an old tower. Dr. Caldwell explains that they have reached the next stage of the infection, where the bodies have become infested with seed pods that contain the disease.
The sheer number of pods present suggests that releasing them could infect the remaining humans untouched by the disease. After witnessing so much cruelty from the uninfected, Melanie envisions a future where the hungries take over and the cycle begins anew.
As the film nears its end, Caldwell almost convinces Melanie to let her be used for the cure. But upon reflecting on the pods, Melanie decides that she does not want to be experimented on. She believes that her kind should be the ones to shape the future.
Why Is Helen Spared? Helen’s Kindness Towards Melanie Saved Her Life
The film’s ending paints a grim picture, with Melanie condemning humanity by releasing the pods. Yet, not all humans are subjected to her judgment. One person is spared—Helen, Melanie’s teacher, who has always shown kindness towards her. Helen is the only human to treat the hungries with compassion and respect.
Unlike others at the facility who view the hungries as mere experiments or monsters, Helen sees them as individuals. Because of this, Melanie makes sure that Helen is safe when she sets the tower of pods ablaze.
The movie concludes with Helen in a sealed medical lab, alone but unharmed, continuing to teach the young hungries, offering a sliver of hope for the future.
The Real Meaning of The Girl With All the Gifts Ending
Like many great zombie films, The Girl With All the Gifts focuses not just on survival but also on the human spirit. In times of extreme crisis, people’s true nature comes to the forefront. In this film, the selfish and malevolent individuals do not survive, leaving only those with pure intentions.
London becomes a battlefield for science and instinct as Melanie takes charge (Photo: The Girl With All The Gifts/Altitude Film Entertainment, BFI Film Fund, and Poison Chef)This film offers a fresh perspective, using the hungries to symbolize the youth of the future. Many of them are depicted as children, which reflects the film’s message that the world might be better off with zombies than with humans. Sometimes, the only option left for humanity is to start over.
Unlike other zombie films that warn against societal dangers like consumerism, The Girl With All the Gifts uses the hungries as a metaphor for the future generation. By the end, it’s the infected who prevail.
Did the Movie Ending Change Anything from the Book?
Although the movie The Girl With All the Gifts is an adaptation of M.R. Carey’s novel, and Carey also wrote the screenplay for the film, there are some significant differences between the book and the movie. Some of these differences do not affect the ending but are still interesting to note.
For instance, in the novel, the characters of Melanie and Helen are swapped racially. In the book, Helen is Black, and Melanie is White. A more impactful change involves the omission of Helen’s backstory in the movie. In the book, Helen helps the hungries due to guilt over accidentally causing a child’s death.
This guilt drives her to protect Melanie. While this backstory doesn’t alter the fates of Melanie or Helen in the film, its absence makes the emotional weight of Helen’s survival feel less impactful, which explains why the filmmakers might have chosen to leave it out.
