Cuckoo ending explained: What was Konig’s plan?

A lot happens at the end of Cuckoo, leaving you with some big questions about what happened, who died, and what the character’s motivations were.

Similar to last month’s Longlegs, the new movie Cuckoo shrouds a lot of its plot in mystery to emphasize the horror. By the time the credits roll, you may have some big questions regarding each character’s fate.

To recap the movie up to the third act, Gretchen (Euphoria cast member, Hunter Schafer) is a teenage girl who has moved to the Bavarian Alps with her father, step-mother, and her mute step-sister, Alma. While there, she takes a job at the front desk of a local hotel run by the secretive Herr Konig (Abigail‘s Dan Stevens). 

Throughout the first two acts of the movie, Gretchen is attacked several times by a mysterious hooded woman and comes to suspect Konig knows more than he’s letting on. Spoiler warning ahead for the ending of Cuckoo.

What are the cuckoos?

The titular cuckoos are a semi-human species native to the area who can’t speak but instead emit a high-pitched shriek that disorients those who hear it. They survive by reproducing with a human host.

Much like how cuckoo birds reproduce in the real world (a process known as brood parasitism), the cuckoos implant their eggs into a host by hypnotizing them with their shrieks. While paralyzed, the victim experiences a series of time loops to allow the cuckoo to begin mating with them. Victims can avoid becoming disoriented by the shrieks by wearing headphones to drown out the noise.

Gretchen experiences several of these time loops when she is attacked by the hooded woman, who is herself an adult cuckoo. Examples of when this happens include when she’s in the car with Ed, when in the pool house with the teenage girl, and the record room at the end. 

Once impregnated, the host later gives birth and raises the child as their own for most of their adolescence, until they are old enough to join their true kind. They resemble humans for most of their lives, but the cuckoo traits become more apparent as they get closer to their biological mother. 

Alma is one such cuckoo offspring seen in the movie, as well as the teenage girl seen in the opening and third acts of the movie.

Konig’s plan explained

Herr Konig plans to preserve the cuckoo species through any means necessary. Although his motivations are a little unclear, it’s implied Konig has some form of God complex, and through his experiments at the resort, he can keep the cuckoo species alive. He also appears to have limited control over the cuckoo species with the use of his flute.

When he begins to see Gretchen as a threat to his plan, he decides to use her as his next victim by trapping her in the pool house. By spraying her with pheromones and summoning the cuckoo, Konig plans for the cuckoo to impregnate her with its eggs.

This plan is foiled by Henry, a former cop whose wife was a victim of Konig’s experiments. For most of the movie, Henry acts as an ally to Gretchen. However, when it becomes clear he wants to put an end to Konig’s experiments no matter the cost, he quickly becomes an enemy to her.

By the third act of the horror movie, Konig plans to reunite Alma with her biological mother – the Hooded Woman. This is what spurs both Gretchen and Henry to stop him: Gretchen to save her sister, and Henry to kill both the Hooded Woman and Alma.

What happens at the end?

In the final act of the movie, Gretchen saves Alma from the hospital ward and takes her to a record room where the Hooded Woman follows. After Henry knocks down all the shelves, both Gretchen and the woman are trapped.

Using her shriek to disorient Gretchen, the Hooded Woman breaks free from the shelves and approaches her. In a final confrontation, Gretchen grabs her butterfly knife and stabs the Hooded Woman in the neck, killing her.

After being separated from Alma, Gretchen goes looking for her and finds Henry and Konig in an armed standoff. While both reload their weapons, she takes the opportunity to run through the crossfire and grab Alma from the room at the end of the corridor.

Following this, Gretchen carries Alma out of the room past both men. With Alma shielding Gretchen from Konig, and Gretchen shielding Alma from Henry, both men hesitate to fire.

As they almost reach the end of the room, Alma covers Gretchen’s ears and brings out a huge shriek, similar to the Hooded Woman’s. This disorients the two men for enough time for the sisters to escape. Once they come to their senses, both Konig and Henry shoot each other dead.

The final scene shows Gretchen and Alma leave the hospital and reunite with Ed, a woman Gretchen began a relationship with earlier in the movie.

If you’re in the mood to watch more scares after finishing Cuckoo, check out our picks for the best NEON horror movies. If you want to find something to watch at home, our favorite streaming services and new movies streaming this month will have what you need.