'Gone Girl' Ending Explained: How Does Amy Come Back? (2024)

David Fincher's 2014 thriller Gone Girl is one of those movies that, to fully explain the ending, one basically has to go over the entire story. After all, the plot of the cinematic adaptation of the Gillian Flynn novel of the same is so complex, so full of little twists and turns that to leave any detail out feels almost criminal. Initially, the story seems to be pretty simple: failed writer-turned-bar owner Nick Dunne (Ben Affleck) returns to his Missouri home on the day of his wedding anniversary to find his living room in disarray and his wife missing. He calls the cops, and as soon as the investigation begins, signs that Nick might have actually killed his wife start popping around all over the place. There's an insurance policy that was recently boosted, blood splatters poorly cleaned up on the kitchen floor, credit card debts for things that poor Amy Dunne (Rosamund Pike) would never buy for herself, and, of course, an affair. Though Nick frequently remarks that he has not killed his wife, his actions begin to look more and more suspicious, and cherry-picked moments such as his smile next to his wife's missing poster are used by the media to create the perfect picture of a monster.

To make matters worse, Amy is no regular housewife. During her childhood in New York, she served as an inspiration for her parents to create Amazing Amy, a character in a series of children's books that have won over the hearts of millions. For years of her life, Amy has been overshadowed by this improved version of her, who got a dog when she wasn't allowed to have one and got married before Nick even popped the question. Thus, everyone is more than a little inclined to believe that Amazing Amy herself was the victim of a terrible, possibly abusive husband, and these suspicions only gain credibility when the police uncover a semi-burned diary in Amy's writing from the house of Nick's father. In it, the former childhood muse describes a relationship in shambles with a cruel husband that beats her when she mentions the possibility of them having a child. When Detective Rhonda Boney (Kim Dickens) finds out that a positive pregnancy test has recently been added to Amy's medical record, Nick seems to be pretty doomed.

Throughout this ordeal, the only person that Nick truly has by his side is his twin sister, Margo (Carrie Coon). Together, they begin to suspect that Amy might have forged her own death with the sole purpose of destroying her husband's life. It sounds like a stretch, something that they came up with due to Margo not liking Amy and Nick being on the brink of asking for a divorce. However, it all becomes pretty plausible when Amy's annual anniversary treasure hunt leads Nick to a shed in which all the things that he allegedly bought with their credit card are stashed alongside a pair of Punch and Judy dolls, characters in a traditional puppet play in which a husband kills his wife and baby.

Gone Girl

R

Drama

Mystery

Thriller

With his wife's disappearance having become the focus of an intense media circus, a man sees the spotlight turned on him when it's suspected that he may not be innocent.

Release Date

October 3, 2014

Director

David Fincher

Cast

Ben Affleck , Rosamund Pike , Neil Patrick Harris , Tyler Perry , Carrie Coon , Kim Dickens

Runtime

149 minutes

Amy Fakes Her Own Death in 'Gone Girl'

This all happens around the one-hour mark, and that's precisely where the movie's big revelation hits. The film suddenly cuts to Amy driving an old car down a road, her left arm showing a bandage over a recent wound. Delivering her now famous "cool girl" monologue, a staple of the good for her cinematic universe, Amy explains how she forged a crime scene in her own home, as well as how she lured Nick into boosting their insurance policy and bought things that only he would enjoy to make him look like a bloodsucking husband. Tired of having spent her life putting on a show, first as Amazing Amy, and then as the perfect girlfriend and wife to a man who paid her back with nothing but contempt and an affair, Amy decided to take back control of her existence. Well, either that or she just decided to get back at Nick no matter the cost. In the monologue, she talks about killing herself so that the police will find her body and trace it back to Nick, but we later see her remove the "Kill self" post-it from her planner, suggesting that seeing her husband get destroyed on national television is just too good to pass on.

Except Amy's new, wonderful life isn't exactly going as planned. Hiding in a cheap motel, pretending to be a runaway, battered woman, she eventually gets beaten and robbed by her so-called friends as Nick lawyers up and tries to find other men in Amy's past that might help him prove that his wife is not who people believe her to be. He finds one guy, Tommy (Scoot McNairy), who claims that Amy falsely accused him of rape after they broke up, but he doesn't have the same luck with another ex-boyfriend of hers: her high school sweetheart, Desi Collings (Neil Patrick Harris). Accused by Amy of being a stalker, Desi is still very much hung on his ex and even corresponds with her regularly. When Nick asks him for help, he merely turns his back on him and shuts the door.

Now, Amy knows that she has an ally in Desi. And, so, with a self-inflicted black eye, she goes looking for him, begging for help. Desi takes her in, of course, driving her to his super-secure lake house, with all entries protected by cameras. Amy is evidently uneasy with him, but she doesn't know what else to do to get out of her situation. She can't just pack up and leave, as that wouldn't look right: she's an abused woman who desperately needs a safe haven, that is her story, and she better look the part. However, things take a turn when Amy sees Nick on TV, giving an interview in which he acknowledges the affair and all of his mistakes. It's all part of his lawyer's media strategy, of course, but Amy doesn't care. Nick has said all the things that she wanted him to say, and now it's time for her to return home. There's just one problem: Desi.

Amy Kills Desi to Return Home in 'Gone Girl'

It would leave a hole in her perfectly concocted plan to simply go back to her abusive husband after everything she has told Desi about him. What would Desi think of her? Worse, what would he say about her, and what would that make others think? To get away from this conundrum, Amy's brilliant criminal mind comes up with a new plan. When Desi is out, she ties up her own legs and fakes despair at his door, making anyone that watches the security footage believe that she is a kidnaped woman trying to escape captivity. She masturbat*s with a bottle of wine to create rape-like injuries in her vagin*, and then she seduces Desi. As they are having sex, she takes out a box cutter and slits Desi's throat. Covered in his blood, she leaves the lake house and returns to Nick.

Nick, Margo, and Detective Boney all have a myriad of questions about what exactly happened to Amy, the most pressing of which is how did she even manage to get a box cutter to kill Desi in the first place? But, once again, Amy uses optics against them. While Nick is criticized for not being happy enough that his wife is home, Boney is accused of being too incompetent to handle the case. With ease, Amy slithers back into her old life. Afraid of what others may think of him, Nick finds himself unable to leave his wife, much to Margo's despair.

Oh, and there's also the matter of the baby. That pregnancy test that Detective Boney uncovered back in the beginning of the film might've been faked, but, this time, Amy is pregnant for real. Or, at least, so she says. This is yet another reason for Nick to remain with her, for what would society think of a man that abandons his pregnant wife that has just returned from being held captive by a jealous ex-boyfriend? Furthermore, as suggested by his conversation with Margo, Nick wants to stay with Amy. He wants to give their marriage another shot. He will put on a mask and play a role for her, as long as she keeps her "cool girl" mask on as well.

What Does 'Gone Girl' Have to Say About Marriage?

In the end, that's what Amy wants. She has spent years putting on a facade for Nick, she wants him to extend her the same courtesy. She wants them to put on a facade together. And right there is where lies the true meaning of Gone Girl. Fincher and Flynn paint the most twisted picture of a relationship possible to criticize traditional marriage and how we treat our so-called romantic relationships. Are we all, like Nick and Amy, wearing costumes of happier versions of ourselves? Are all happy couples pretending to be happy, not for the sake of the children or anything, but just for the sake of appearances? "Appearances" is the keyword in Gone Girl. The movie is all about how we are perceived and to what lengths we go to remain on society's good side. After all, the ostracism that might come with looking bad is simply unbearable.

This all circles back to Nick's initial monologue, in which, while caressing his wife's hair, he wonders what she's thinking and fantasizes about cracking open her skull. It's a vengeful thought, of course: he's afraid that she might be planning something else against him, and he literally wishes he could kill her after what she's done. However, he also truly wants to know what lies beneath the Amazing Amy facade, he wants to tear her costume open and see the truth that it hides. Alas, that is not possible: all we can know of each other are our masks.

Gone Girl is available to rent on Amazon in the U.S.

Watch on Amazon