Longlegs Ending Explained: Who Dies in Nicolas Cage’s Horror?

Longlegs is finally here and you might want to remember to “say your prayers” because it has an ending that packs a lot in while spilling a lot of blood along the way.

Before that, the story begins with FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), whose superior, Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), assigns her to a bizarre case that has plagued the authorities for decades.

An elusive character known as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage) is linked to a series of suspected murder-suicides – all gruesome and all connected by a letter left at the crime scene, written in code and signed “Longlegs.”

These aren’t the only coincidences: all the cases involve the death of a nine-year-old girl whose birthday falls on the 14th of the month. Digging deeper, Lee uncovers evidence of the occult and begins to believe that other forces are at play. Warning: Major spoilers ahead!

What happens at the end?

Lee’s suspicions were correct, but not in the way she thought. In the final act, it is revealed that Longlegs, real name Dale Cobble, works for the devil, handcrafting lifelike dolls to infiltrate and possess families.

The dolls are designed to look like each family’s nine-year-old daughter, with metal orbs in place of brains.

When Longlegs gives these dolls to the families, claiming that they are a “gift from the church”, the demonic orbs possess the family members. This causes the father to murder his entire family in gruesome ways before committing suicide, allowing Longlegs to stay away.

But here’s the catch: Longlegs targeted Lee when she was a childAlthough Lee thought her single mother Ruth Harker (Alicia Witt) had lost her mind over the years, it turns out she had made a deal with Longlegs in exchange for her daughter’s life.

Early in the horror film, a chilling scene shows Longlegs interacting with a young girl in her home—who we now understand to be Lee. Before the final act, after the feds capture Longlegs, Lee questions him about his accomplice, and he makes cryptic allusions to his previous visit to her home.

He reveals that his accomplice was the seventh woman “who had the same choice as all the others.” Lee continues to question him, unsure of what he means, but he simply replies, “Ask your mother,” before committing suicide.

Lee, accompanied by Agent Browning (Michelle Choi-Lee), goes to her mother’s house to confront her. Once there, she searches the house and discovers an area she hadn’t noticed before: Longlegs’ lair, where he creates his dolls.

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Longlegs made dolls in Ruth’s basement

When Lee returns to tell Browning all this, she discovers that her mother has beaten her to it. Dressed as a nun, Ruth shoots Lee’s counterpart. But the horrors don’t stop there: in the garden, she discovers her mother pointing a gun at the doll version of herself as a child. “What is that thing?” she asks.

Ruth tells Lee that Longlegs freed her and shoots the doll, causing Lee to collapse as the spell he held over her is released.

Through a voiceover, we learn the grim truth: years ago, Ruth begged Longlegs to spare Lee. To save her child’s life, she began working for Longlegs, delivering the possessed dolls to targeted families.

Ruth describes the dolls as “terrible magic” and “the work of the devil, with a little bit of him in each one.” The reason Lee doesn’t remember any of this as an adult is because the doll made him forget and told him “what not to see.”

Ruth’s ultimate sacrifice was to ensure Lee could grow up, even if it meant perpetuating the cycle of horror. And the next target? Agent Carter and her family.

When Lee regains consciousness, she remembers that it is Carter’s daughter Ruby’s birthday. She rushes to their house, but finds her mother is already there, offering them their doll.

Ruth tells him that the Carters must die or she will be condemned to eternal torment. Lee tries to dissuade the family, but to no avail: they are all under the doll’s spell. Carter kidnaps his wife and kills her.

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Ruth had helped Longlegs deliver the dolls

He returns with a knife and refuses to stop his actions, leaving Lee with no choice but to shoot him before killing her mother. However, when she attempts to save Ruby by shooting the doll, her gun misfires.

In a chilling final scene, Longlegs is seen singing “Happy Birthday” before saying “Hail Satan” and blowing a kiss.

One theory is that with Longlegs and Ruth dead, the evil forces at play are transferred into Lee to perpetuate the cycle of horror. But this is nothing more than speculation and is certainly not shown on screen.

Ultimately, Longlegs ends on an ambiguous note, leaving it to the viewer’s imagination to figure out what happens next.

Who dies in Longlegs?

In addition to the various families who died in the so-called “birthday murders” – you can find the list here – Character deaths include Agent Fisk (Dakota Daulby), Carrie Anne Camera (Kiernan Shipka), Browning, Ruth, Carter and his wife Anna (Carmel Amit), and, of course, Longlegs.

Fisk is the first to leave, killed in an incident unrelated to the Longlegs case. On their first day in the field, Lee and Fisk attempt to find a suspect, with Lee managing to identify the house using what appears to be psychic abilities.

What she doesn’t anticipate is that when they knock on the door, the suspect shoots Fisk, making him the first victim.

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Agent Carter eventually falls under Longlegs’ spell

Next up is Carrie Anne, the sole survivor of the first Longlegs massacre. Lee visits her earlier in the film, hoping to find answers, but Carrie Anne is not mentally healthy after what happened to her family.

When Lee later questions Longlegs, he learns that Carrie Anne committed suicide by jumping off the roof of the mental hospital she had been admitted to. During the interrogation, Longlegs also commits suicide by banging his head against the desk.

As stated, Browning is killed by Ruth, Anna is killed by Carter, and Carter and Ruth are shot by Lee.

Is there a post-credits scene?

There this is not a post credits scene in Longlegsmeaning that once the credits roll, that’s it. This isn’t all that surprising, considering this isn’t that type of horror. Aside from an ending that’s open to interpretation, there’s been no indication of plans for a sequel or prequel.

As director Osgood Perkins told Dexerto: “Let’s see how it does at the box office… I think, yeah, of course, once you pick something that seems to work and people like it, there’s this nagging impulse to think, ‘We could probably do it again and stretch it a little bit.’”

“But there’s also something glorious about leaving things as they are, isn’t there? It’s harder to do, isn’t it? Isn’t it harder to leave things as they are than to try to remake them?”

Longlegs is out now in cinemas. Why not check out the other new movies coming out this month, as well as the movies coming to streaming? And if it’s horror you’re after, here’s everything you need to know about Terrifier 3, Smile 2 and 28 Years Later.