Florence Pugh already had one head-scratcher of a movie in 2022 with Don’t Worry Darling, but here she is again with The Wonder. From the opening credits, The Wonder puts you on notice it's going to be a different kind of costume drama than you may have expected. Even so, The Wonder ending may have left viewers scratching their heads over what happened and what it all means.
The Wonder is based on the book by Emma Donoghue of the same name and is directed by Sebastian Lelio. The story follows an English nurse, Lib Wright (Pugh), who travels to Ireland to observe a young girl who claims she has survived four months without eating, receiving only "manna from Heaven." Lib, along with a nun, are tasked with watching the girl, Anna (Kíla Lord Cassidy), to see how this is possible. Pugh leads The Wonder cast, along with Cassidy, Tom Burke, Toby Jones and Ciaran Hinds.
We're going to get into spoilers for The Wonder as we answer some of the movie's biggest questions, so if you don’t want to know what happens, we suggest you go watch The Wonder on Netflix.
The Wonder ending explained: does Anna die of starvation?
Lib is immediately convinced it’s impossible that Anna could have survived without eating. However, after observing Anna for days and seeing her relatively healthy and in good spirits, she becomes frustrated, unable to find how Anna may be sneaking food without anyone knowing.
This ultimately leads Lib to forbid Anna's family from touching her, as a way to try and control the situation. After this, Anna becomes weaker and weaker, finally showing the effects of her long fast.
This gives Lib her eureka moment. Anna's mother (Elaine Cassidy) fed her daughter regurgitated food every morning and night when she kissed her, much like a bird feeds its babies. Lib tells the council who organized the watch, but when none of Anna's family, or even Anna herself, admit to it, they say the watch must continue as planned.
At one point, Anna does confesses to Lib why she is fasting, revealing her older brother, who has now passed away, sexually assaulted her and secretly married her. Through tears, she says she loves her brother and she is doing this to try and save him, and herself, from Hell.
This is the final straw for Lib, who makes a plan to try and take Anna away from her family, asking for journalist Will Byrne (Burke), who she has gotten close to, to help.
Her plan takes place when Anna's family goes to mass and Lib is left alone on her watch. She asks Anna if she could have a new life as a new little girl before anything bad happened, would she want it? Anna says yes, and that this new girl would be named Nan (what Lib had playfully called her earlier).
Lib takes Anna to a hidden area away from the house and tells her it's time for Anna to die, but then Nan will wake up. Anna closes her eyes and a few moments later opens them again. Lib gives her a bit of bread and she eats it.
To help cover her tracks, Lib burns Anna's house (along with the baby boots of her own child who died before the story). Though the council scorns Lib, saying she was responsible for the death of their miracle child, no charges are brought as no body could be found. The nun (Josie Walker) also serving on the watch, tells Lib she came back from mass early and saw "an angel on a horse" carrying Anna away. All she asks is if Anna is in a better place, to which Lib promises her she is.
What happens at the end of The Wonder?
Lib walks through the streets of Dublin looking for an address when she hears a tap on the window, looking up to see Anna. Lib, Anna and Will now pose as a family. Boarding a ship, they give new names, including Anna officially calling herself Nan. At dinner on the ship, Anna/Nan eats her dinner.
The camera then continues to pan, revealing this scene is taking place on a set (similar to the beginning of the movie). It stops on Niamh Algar, who played Kitty, in modern clothes and saying "in, out, in, out," which Anna had said repeatedly when looking at the bird in a cage toy that Will gave her.
The Wonder stresses throughout that everything is about the stories we tell ourselves. The people of the town convinced themselves that Anna was a miracle, while Lib saw it as neglect and abuse. Even after being presented the facts by Lib on how Anna could have survived, people chose to view the situation based on how they wanted the story to go. As Will said when he gave Anna the toy and she asked if the bird is in or out of the cage, it's up to how you see it.
Is The Wonder based on a true story?
The Wonder is based on Donoghue's book, but the book is not a retelling of a specific event. However, there is a history of fasting girls, teenagers from the 16th to early 20th century who claimed they didn’t need food to survive.
Some of these young girls would become heroes or figures of praise in their communities, like in The Wonder. Also like in the movie, it's believed some of these girls fasted as penance for their sins. Today, many of these cases may have been diagnosed as a type of anorexia.
Donoguhe told Newsweek she was inspired by the case of a Welsh girl in the 19th century, Sarah Jacobs. Jacobs claimed she had not eaten for two years, but when she was put under watch by nurses at a hospital, she died a week later from starvation. This proved that she had secretly been consuming food. Her parents were convicted of manslaughter.
"I came across that case in the late 1990s and I remember thinking, 'okay, even I have my limits.' It's just desperately sad but much later, I finally thought I could do a fictional case, which wouldn't be as shattering and which I could choose how to shape and draw on the kind of spooky realities of these cases, but not actually be shackled to how the case ended."
The Wonder is available to stream on Netflix.
