Warning: full spoilers ahead for Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein (2025).
In short, the film ends not with revenge, but with forgiveness. Dying aboard Captain Anderson’s ice-bound ship in the Arctic, Victor Frankenstein finally calls his Creature his son and asks to be forgiven. The Creature forgives him, helps free the trapped ship, and walks away into the sunrise — alive and choosing to live.
That hopeful close breaks from Shelley’s novel, where the Creature vows to destroy himself after Victor’s death. Del Toro keeps the Arctic reunion, but changes its meaning: the question is no longer whether the Creature can die, but whether he can bear to live.
The story in brief
Victor Frankenstein, played by Oscar Isaac, grows up under a cold father, Leopold, who favours his younger son William. After his mother Claire dies — a loss Victor blames on his father — he dedicates his life to defeating death. Funded by arms manufacturer Heinrich Harlander, he assembles a being from corpses and brings it to life.
The Creature, played by Jacob Elordi, wakes able to speak only Victor’s name. Disappointed and frightened, Victor chains him in the tower and treats him cruelly. Elizabeth Harlander, William’s fiancée, is the exception: she speaks to him kindly and teaches him her name. When Victor tries to burn his laboratory with the Creature inside, the Creature escapes, costing Victor a leg in the explosion.
In the countryside, the Creature secretly helps a farming family, who thank their unseen helper as the “Spirit of the Forest.” A blind old man befriends him and teaches him to read and speak. That peace breaks when the old man dies after a wolf attack and the returning family drives the Creature away. Now fluent, grieving, and certain he cannot die, he returns to Victor with one demand: create a companion so he need not face eternity alone.
The ending, scene by scene
The wedding-night confrontation. The Creature interrupts William and Elizabeth’s wedding and demands a companion. Victor refuses. In the chaos that follows, Victor fires at the Creature — and hits Elizabeth instead. She dies in the Creature’s arms, and William also dies in the ensuing turmoil, calling Victor the real monster. Victor, refusing to accept his own part in the tragedy, vows revenge and pursues his creation north.
The Arctic pursuit. The film returns to its opening frame: Anderson’s ice-trapped ship, where the dying Victor has told his story. Victor chases the Creature with dynamite, determined to destroy him. Even that fails. The Creature cannot be killed — a discovery he made himself when bullets and falls did not end him.
The deathbed reconciliation. With nothing left to fight for, Victor stops fighting. He apologises for his cruelty and calls the Creature his son, urging him: if death is not to be, then he must live. The Creature forgives him and holds him as he dies. The creator who ran from death finally accepts it; the creation who sought death finally accepts life.
The sunrise. Before leaving, the Creature helps free Anderson’s ship from the ice, then walks toward the rising sun beneath a red-lit sky. The film closes on Lord Byron’s line: “And thus the heart will break, yet brokenly live on.” Anderson, who began the film driving his crew toward the North Pole, turns his ship home.
What the ending means
Victor dies human; the Creature becomes human. Del Toro’s central reversal is that monstrosity is a behaviour, not a body. Victor, handsome and brilliant, behaves monstrously — abandoning, chaining, and trying to burn his child. The Creature, feared on sight, learns compassion from Elizabeth and the blind man and practises it, even toward the father who hurt him. Forgiveness is what finally makes him human.
Immortality is the curse, not the prize. Harlander wanted the work to cheat his own illness; Victor wanted it to prove his father wrong about death. The Creature’s fate argues the opposite: a life without end, without love or company, is a punishment. His final walk is powerful because it is not triumphant — it is a decision to endure anyway. Del Toro has noted the film opens with the sun rising on the captain and ends with it rising on the Creature: hope as a direction, not a destination.
| Character | Final fate |
| Victor Frankenstein | Dies aboard Anderson’s ship, reconciled with his Creature |
| The Creature | Survives, forgives Victor, walks into the Arctic sunrise |
| Elizabeth Harlander | Killed on her wedding night, caught in Victor’s attack on the Creature |
| Captain Anderson | Abandons the North Pole quest and turns his ship home |
Frequently asked questions
Does the Creature die?
No. Unlike in Shelley’s novel, where he plans to burn himself on a pyre, del Toro’s Creature survives, forgives Victor, frees the ship, and walks into the sunrise.
Who kills Elizabeth?
Victor, accidentally. During the wedding-night confrontation, he fires at the Creature and strikes Elizabeth instead.
Why does Victor ask for forgiveness?
His revenge has cost him everything. Facing death, he finally accepts responsibility for abandoning his creation and calls him his son.
How does it differ from the novel?
In the novel, Victor dies still chasing the Creature, who intends to end his own life. In the film, they reconcile, and the Creature chooses to keep living.
What does the sunrise symbolise?
Fragile hope: the Creature cannot escape life, so the sunrise is his decision to face it, broken-hearted but still living.