When director Guillermo del Toro took on his masterful retelling of Mary Shelley’s classic Frankenstein, he rebranded the iconic character The Monster as The Creature (Jacob Elordi) – setting up the twist and turns of the new movie’s plot to lead up to a much more positive ending.
The 2025 Netflix adaptation of Frankenstein premiered globally on November 7, 2025, introducing a new generation of sci-fi horror fans to Shelley’s 1818 novel that tells the story of what happens to a man when he decides to play God.
Us explains the ending of Frankenstein below. WARNING: Spoilers ahead.
What Is the Plot of Netflix’s 2025 Retelling of ‘Frankenstein’?
The story follows scientist Victor Frankenstein (Oscar Isaac) on his quest to make a mockery out of death by successfully reanimating a corpse, which eventually becomes The Creature.
It is retold in a series of flashback scenes as Victor, who is being chased by The Creature in the North Pole, takes shelter aboard a Danish ship trapped in ice. When asked what he is running from by the ship’s Captain Anderson (Lars Mikkelsen), a slowly dying Victor tells his harrowing tale.
Driven by childhood trauma — the tragic death of his beloved mother, Baroness Claire Frankenstein (Mia Goth), the subsequent emotional abandonment from his abusive father, Baron Leopold Frankenstein (Charles Dance) and separation from his younger brother, William Frankenstein (Felix Kammerer) following Baron Leopold’s death — Victor dedicates his life’s work to finding a way to bring back the dead.
His grotesque presentation of his experiment during a lecture at The Royal College of Surgeons of Edinburgh led to his firing, but he found support in Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz) — an arms merchant who is the uncle of William’s fiancée, Lady Elizabeth Harlander (Mia Goth).
Henrich offers to fund Victor’s work by giving him unlimited resources to build a laboratory inside of an abandoned tower. Victor enlists the help of William to oversee the renovation of his lab and the creation of his equipment — partially as a way to keep William busy as so he won’t realize Victor is growing smitten for Lady Elizabeth.
Under the pressure of Henrich, Victor harvests body parts from hanged men and war casualties to use body parts to create The Creature and plans to reanimate the body using lightning during a storm. As Victor prepares to conduct the experiment, he learns of Henrich’s ulterior motive: dying of syphilis, Henrich asks Victor to transfer him into The Creature. Victor refuses, explaining that Henrich’s body parts have already been infected by the disease. A tussle leads Henrich to fall to his death from the tower and leaves Victor able to complete his experiment, though he doesn’t seem to successfully bring The Creature to life.
Netflix has seriously upped its game in the original movie department these last few years. Last year brought us the excellent rom-com anthem Man starring Glen Powell and the thrilling action flick Rebel Ridge, but those movies pale in comparison to what the streamer has in store for the rest of 2025. As a part […]
The following morning, Victor awakens to The Creature standing over his bed. Victor attempts to teach The Creature to speak, but his impatience grows as The Creature can only speak his name. During a visit to the tower with William to check on Victor and Henrich, Lady Elizabeth bonds with The Creature and, with her gentle nature, teaches it how to say her name.
It’s only then that William and Lady Elizabeth learn that Henrich is dead, with Victor blaming The Creature. Growing more impatient and frustrated with the progress of his experiment, Victor tries to kill The Creature by setting the tower on fire.
The film then jumps back to present day, and The Creature finds its way onto the ship. At that point, Victor and Captain Anderson realize The Creature can speak so the Captain asks The Creature for his side of the story.
The Creature explains how he survived the fire and how he learned English — by finding shelter with a nearby family and listening in to an old blind man’s lessons as he taught his granddaughter to read.
Encouraged by the old man to find his origins, The Creature returns to the ruins of the tower and learns the address of Victor’s new estate, then sets out to finally confront his creator.
The Creature arrives at the estate, which happens to be the night of William and Lady Elizabeth’s wedding.. The Creature asks Victor to make him a companion, but attacks Victor when he refuses. The Creature is found by Lady Elizabeth, who attempts to calm it down but gets shot accidentally by Victor who is aiming for The Creature. In a fit of rage, The Creature attacks the rest of the guests who came in to fight it off, accidentally killing William. The Creature carries a dying Lady Elizabeth out of the estate and into a nearby cave where she passes. The Creature then begins his hunt for Victor, who manages to evade him until they reunite on the ship.
How Does Netflix’s 2025 Version of ‘Frankenstein’ End?
As Victor lays dying, he is finally confronted by The Creature one last time. Victor apologizes to The Creature for what he has done and The Creature is able to forgive his creator. After Victor dies, The Creature leaves the ship and is ready to accept his immortal fate. He pushes the ship back toward the water so the crew can return home before he sets off into the sun as it rises over the icy horizon of the North Pole.
Does The Creature Die at the End of ‘Frankenstein’ 2025?
No, The Creature does not die. The film has a much more positive ending for The Creature, which was del Toro’s goal.
“The movie has sort of a circular structure. It starts with the sun rising on the captain on the ship, and ends up with the sun rising on The Creature,” the director explained in an October 2025 interview with Man of Many. “And I thought, ‘Well, if the idea is that he’s going to live forever, can he still welcome the sun? Can he still welcome being alive?’”
“Imperfection is the condition of life,” del Toro continued. “You will lead an imperfect life. And I think the movie makes peace with that and forgiveness and what it is to be human, which is to be capable of seeing the other.”
He added that it was these themes that propelled the movie toward a much more “different” ending than the one in Shelley’s original work. He concluded, “It’s probably one of my most hopeful endings, in a strange way.”
About the Author
