Damsel on Netflix isn't your traditional fairy tale story as a princess' happily ever after is brutally shattered when she must fight for survival against a fire-breathing dragon. If you're expecting Prince Charming to come and save the damsel in distress — think again.
Damsel follows Elodie (Millie Bobby Brown), a dutiful young woman who just wants to do what's best for her people. To fulfil his duty to his people and ensure their happiness, Elodie's father Lord Bayford (Ray Winstone) and her stepmother Lady Bayford (Angela Bassett) agree to a wedding proposal for their daughter to marry the Prince of Aurea in exchange for gold.
Despite Elodie's hesitancy, they travel to the Kingdom of Aurea and the family are enamored with the royal family's huge palace and riches. Elodie meets the handsome Prince Henry (Nick Robinson) and he manages to win her heart.
However, things go awry when Lord Bayford goes for a meeting with Queen Isabelle (Robin Wright) to discuss some private matters regarding the marriage agreement.
When Lady Bayford quizzes her husband on what they discussed, it's clear he is hiding a secret and something is weighing heavily on his mind. He tells her that the wedding is still going to commence and the bride price was more gold than they could imagine. But when Lady Bayford presses him for more information on his despondent mood, he snaps at her and grips onto her arm.
After seeing some suspicious behavior from Queen Isabelle, alarm bells ring for Lady Bayford and she rushes to warn Elodie that the wedding is a mistake. She tells Elodie that she doesn't trust them and warns her to think twice about getting married to Prince Henry.
Despite her stepmother's warnings, Elodie goes through with the wedding, but the happy occasion takes a sinister turn when Prince Henry takes Elodie to the mountains to take part in an ancient ceremony to honor his ancestors.
She's startled when she sees Queen Isabelle and other members of the family wearing ominous gold masks who are joined together for a clandestine meeting at the top of the mountain.
As they escort Elodie deeper into the mountains, Queen Isabelle informs her of a centuries long tradition. A "beast" inhabited the island before their ancestors settled there and destroyed the village. After the King failed to defeat it, the beast ordered him to sacrifice his three daughters in order to share the island and a kingdom was born.
Now, it's a sacrifice they commemorate every generation and now Elodie must honor that legacy to make sure the kingdom thrives forevermore. After an oblivious Elodie believes she's completed her duty, her nightmare has only just begun when Prince Henry throws Elodie into the dark chasm and sacrifices her to the beast.
So does Elodie survive the fire-breathing dragon? Here's what happens at the end of Damsel...
Damsel ending explained: does Elodie survive the fire-breathing dragon?
After being thrown into the cave, Elodie's cries for help awaken the dragon as she desperately tries to escape.
She soon has a run-in with the terrifying dragon, who asks for her name and vows to kill her. Elodie runs as the dragon's flames follow her closely behind and she comes across a girl's lifeless body covered in blood. The victim is revealed to be the girl Elodie saw the day before in the castle.
A wounded Elodie's fierce fight for survival in the dark cave sees her constantly escape and hide from the dragon, who catches her at her most vulnerable moments.
In a hidden part of the cave, she comes across more princesses who have fallen victim to the sacrifice when Elodie finds their names sprawled across the cave walls. She dreams about the other victims and how they fought for their lives, until she wakes up to glow worms feasting on her wound.
Realising that her wounds are now healed thanks to the glow worms, she finds a map drawn on the cave walls which tells her the way to escape. She follows the route out and climbs up a crystal cave with the help of a tiara left behind by one of the princesses.
She falls and nearly lands into the jaws of the dragon waiting for her below, however, she manages to find her footing and climbs to the top where she can see daylight. Just as she thinks her nightmare is over, she finds herself stuck at the top with no where to go as she faces a sheer drop below and the castle is miles away in the distance.
Elodie sees a group of men riding horses and desperately shouts for help, but her desperate plea is stopped when the dragon ambushes her.
"There is no way out, princess. Not for any of you. Three were taken. Three must be given," the dragon warns. Just as the dragon is about to kill her, she's interrupted when someone shouts Elodie's name and the dragon flies off to investigate.
It turns out to be Elodie's father, who has ventured into the cave to rescue her with the help of a guide. Elodie stumbles across the corpse of three baby dragons and in a flashback, it's revealed that the King and his soldiers killed the dragon's three daughters unprovoked and she did not attack the village. The King begged for mercy, which is when the dragon forced him to give up his three daughters in revenge for him murdering hers.
Elodie later sees Lord Bayford attempt to slay the dragon, but fails and begs for mercy. The dragon tells him that it's not their mercy that he should seek, but his daughter's.
The dragon orders him to call Elodie and he apologizes for trading her life for the good of his people. He then goes against the dragon's wishes and demands her not to come out. The dragon mortally injures Elodie's father, until she's stopped in her tracks when she hears Elodie's horrified cries.
A terrified Elodie hides as the dragon searches for her, but she flies off when she hears the sound of a falling rock, believing it to be Elodie when it's actually from the guide Elodie's father hired.
Elodie goes to her dying father, who tells her that her stepmother and sister Floria (Brooke Carter) are waiting for her at the ship and asks for her forgiveness as he passes away.
After a narrow escape from the dragon, Elodie gets out of the cave by climbing a rope her father left and flees on a horse. The dragon is close behind, but Elodie is one step ahead and hides before the dragon can catch her.
The dragon is on the warpath and sets the kingdom on fire for not getting a sacrifice. A furious Queen Isabelle is determined to save the kingdom and kidnaps Floria to use in Elodie's place, before stabbing Lady Bayford.
Lady Bayford and Elodie reunite and she vows to save her sister. Prince Henry refuses to sacrifice Floria as she's too young, but Queen Isabelle throws her into the chasm anyway.
Elodie climbs back into the cave, while the dragon is holding an unconscious Floria captive in her lair knowing that Elodie is coming for her sister. Elodie creates a distraction with fragments of armour plates left behind by soldiers and when the diversion works, the dragon flies off and leaves Floria behind.
This gives Elodie enough time to rescue Floria, but they're stopped in their tracks by the dragon. While Floria hides, Elodie threatens the dragon with her father's sword and declares that she knows all about the King killing her children unprovoked.
As Elodie tries to make the dragon see sense that the princesses she's been killing are not the King's daughters. The dragon attacks her with fire and Floria throws Elodie the sword to defend herself. The dragon pins her down and plunges her talon into Elodie, but she fights back by stabbing the dragon.
The injured dragon implores Elodie to accept her fate and die. But she refuses and goads the dragon into burning her with fire, which turns out to be another trap as she jumps out of the way and the fire bounces back off the wall and onto the dragon instead.
Elodie tells the dragon that she's been fooled into thinking that the princesses have royal blood and has been killing innocent daughters just like they did. The dragon begs her to end it, but she refuses and instead heals the dragon's wounds with glow worms.
Later on, Elodie interrupts Prince Henry's wedding to a girl who is intended to be the third sacrifice. The bride flees with her family and Elodie issues a warning for the other to do the same. Queen Isabelle refuses and insults Elodie, before the dragon swoops in and sets the palace on fire, killing the family. Elodie walks out triumphant with the island ablaze behind her.
Elodie reassures her stepmother that they have enough supplies to survive the next two winters and calls her "Mother." As they set sail for home, the dragon flies beside Elodie's ship while they both look at each and Elodie smirks.
Damsel is available to watch globally on Netflix now.
