First Reformed: What Does The Ending Really Mean?

5. Does Reverend Toller Live Or Die?

The crux of the debate around the film's ending is whether what we're seeing actually happened or not. One school of thought suggests that, yes, Toller was moments away from drinking the toxic fluid before he found salvation in the arms of Mary.

The other meanwhile states that this final scene is merely Toller's dying vision, and he did actually consume the drain cleaner and subsequently die as a result.

And indeed, there's certainly a good amount of evidence pointing to the latter ending being the "true" one.

For starters, it's far more consistent with the movie thematically that Mary is in fact a transcendent vision, and this appears to be backed up by the way in which Schrader shoots the final scene.

First Reformed is an extremely mannered, restrained film from a stylistic perspective: beautifully framed, yes, but mostly static and employing movement as sparingly as possible.

That final scene, however, shows Toller and Mary kissing while the camera spins around numerous times and the melodramatic hymn "Leaning on the Everlasting Arms" blares out in the background. It's practically surreal compared to the rest of the movie, and entirely at odds with its formal tone.

There are also some more practical suggestions that Toller wasn't really making out with Mary. For one, the door was locked when Pastor Jeffers (Cedric the Entertainer) tried to open it earlier, so how could Mary suddenly enter it? And wouldn't the embrace cause Toller major stomach pain as the barbed wire was compressed into his chest?

Schrader himself said, "When you look at it closely, she suddenly appears, the room is much lighter, the footsteps go away." While that's hardly a commitment to confirming the vision theory, it does at least make it clear that Schrader most certainly had this in mind as a possible explanation for what takes place.

But there is also evidence in Schrader's own prior filmography that he intended the movie's ending to serve as an homage to two of his most iconic collaborations with director Martin Scorsese...