Last year gave us some pretty great movies, one of them being a touching and heartbreaking exploration of grief and love.All of Us Strangersfollows a lonely British TV writer as he attempts to open his heart to the affections of a younger male in the same building. At the same time, he also revisits his past to come to terms with the deaths of his parents when he was younger. In accomplishing both tasks, the movie uses paranormal elements to travel across periods to deliver heartfelt scenes and carry the story to an emotional conclusion that completely blindsided audiences.
No one knew what to expect going into this movie. They could clearly see in the trailer that Andrew Scott’s character, Adam, would interact with his deceased parents (played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell), but it was unclear if it was his imagination or if it was a special ability that he possessed.All of Us Strangersis a slow unraveling of the truth for all parties involved and sets up for a devastating ending, but not all answers were clear for everyone involved. So, it’s here that we break down what happened at the conclusion of2023’s best romance movie.
What Happens in All of Us Strangers?
All of Us Strangers
InAll of Us Strangers, Adam is a lonely screenwriter withdrawn from the world, so it catches him off guard when he is noticed by Harry in their apartment complex. Later, a slightly drunk Harry,played by Paul Mescal, makes advances towards the wary Adam, who reluctantly turns him away, but after visiting his childhood home to see his parents, he later returns his advances. Adam’s parents, only referred to as Mum and Dad, died decades prior, so anytime Adam sees his parents, they are only apparitions. It’s unclear if he is imagining seeing the dead, but it’s clear that they are dead. Adam and Harry become more intimate as Adam continues to visit his parents to achieve the closure he never got as a boy. On his second visit, he comes out to them both and gains acceptance, and Dad apologizes for not comforting him, knowing he was hurting from the bullying that it brought him.
Adam and Harry later go to a club, where they both do ketamine, but Adam has a bad trip and wakes up at his parents' house, getting into bed with them and telling his mother that he was sent to live with his grandmother after her death. This is also where the lines of reality start to become skewed, because he later sees Harry in their bed, too. Adam later takes Harry to visit them, worrying him as Adam had previously told him that they had died. Upon entering the empty childhood home, Harry catches a glimpse of the couple in the window and runs away, visibly shaken.
In their last meeting, Mum and Dad explain that Adam will never experience happiness unless he lets them go and moves forward with Harry. Unfortunately, this is where the morbid twist inAll of Us Strangerscomes in: Adam enters Harry’s apartment, and finds the young man’s decomposed body, holding the same bottle of alcohol he had when Harry first knocked on his door, implying that Harry died soon after they met. This becomes clear to Harry’s ghost, who is shattered by the revelation, but Adam comforts him, taking him back to his apartment, where they lie together to the sounds of “The Power of Love" by Frankie Goes to Hollywood.
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ThroughoutAll of Us Strangers, it is never explained how Adam can see the dead. Audiences can only intuit that it’s an ability that only he has. When he first meets Harry, the latter is not his best self, looking a bit disheveled, down-trodden, and clearly not in his right mind. It’s inferred that this is the only time the two men meet while Harry is alive. The next time, when Adam reciprocates his affections, Harry is more put together and in a better state. The first instance in which it’s shown that he may no longer be among the living is when Adam trips on ketamine.
He sees Harry at his parents’ house before taking him there and in flashes on the subway. This can be interpreted as the drugs playing tricks on his mind, because in the sequence when Adam is having a bad reaction, viewers see that time and space start to fracture (as explained in thisVulturearticle that breaks down the terrifying sequence). Adam loses Harry on his way home, but he sees him later in sporadic flashes. This scene shows Harry as out of his reach when he sees him on a separate train and disappearing in the crowd.
Harry’s death is more solidified when he goes with Adam and sees the apparitions of Mum and Dad, who see him back. This frightens Harry enough to leave in a hurry. Before this, he was starting to wonder about Adam’s mental state because he had told Harry that they had died. The three being able to see each other, with Adam being the only one who can see his parents, places Harry in the afterlife with them. Director Andrew Haigh has said in interviews that he wanted to leave the twist open for interpretation regarding how long Harry was dead, leaving it for audiences to connect the dots themselves. It’s only when Adam enters Harry’s apartment floor for the first time that we feel that something is off, and reality sets in.
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That Final Shot
All of Us Strangersends with Adam and Harry in Adam’s bed, snuggled together. Like Mum and Dad, Harry urges Adam to open his heart to others. In the closing moments, he snuggles Harry to the tune of “The Power of Love” by Frankie Goes to Hollywood as the two fade into a small beam of light among the stars and the screen turns black. This is another moment left open to interpretation. It can be inferred that Harry passed on, but there are also theories that Adam was dead the whole time as he spends a fair amount of the film isolated as well. However, it’s easier to deduce that Adam was alive from beginning to end.
On the significance of the song choice, Haigh explains toTIME Magazinethat he has loved the song since he was a child. Gay artists wrote and released it at the height of the AIDS epidemic; the song instantly hooked the young Haigh. It was always his plan to include it inAll of Us Strangers, but its pertinence towards the central characters is clear. Love lives strong in the losses of the young gay men. It may not be the same circumstances, but as the film explores Adam’s sexuality and loneliness, love shines through — even if it is, by the end, fleeting. It’s enough to give a survivor hope to move forward.
All of Us Strangersis now playing in theaters
