Longlegs ending explained: Who dies in Nicolas Cage horror?

Longlegs is finally here and you might want to remember to “say your prayers,” as it’s got an ending that packs a lot in while spilling plenty of blood along the way. 

Before then, the story begins with FBI agent Lee Harker (Maika Monroe), whose superior, Agent Carter (Blair Underwood), assigns her a bizarre case that’s been plaguing the authorities for decades.

An elusive figure known as Longlegs (Nicolas Cage) is linked to a string of supposed murder-suicides – all of them gruesome and all of them connected by a letter left at the scene of the crime, written in code and signed ‘Longlegs’. 

These aren’t the only coincidences; all of the cases involve the death of a nine-year-old daughter whose birthday is on the 14th of the month. As Lee digs deeper, she uncovers evidence of the occult and starts to believe there are other forces at play. Warning: major spoilers ahead!

What happens at the end?

Lee’s suspicions were correct, although not in the way she’d thought. In the final act, it’s revealed that Longlegs, real name Dale Cobble, has been working for the devil, hand-crafting lifelike dolls to infiltrate families and possess them. 

The dolls are made to look like the nine-year-old daughter of each family, with metal orbs in place of the brain.

When Longlegs gives these dolls to families, claiming they are a “gift from the church,” the demonic orbs possess the family members. This drives the father to gruesomely murder his entire family before taking his own life, allowing Longlegs to remain hands-off.

But here’s the twist: Longlegs targeted Lee when she was a child. Although Lee thought her single mother, Ruth Harker (Alicia Witt), had lost her mind over the years, it turns out she had made a deal with Longlegs in exchange for her daughter’s life. 

At the start of the horror movie, a chilling scene shows Longlegs interacting with a young girl at her home – which we now understand to be Lee. Prior to the final act, after the feds capture Longlegs, Lee interrogates him about his accomplice, and he cryptically hints at his past visit to her home.

He reveals that his accomplice was the seventh woman “to be given the same choice as all the others.” Lee continues to quiz him further, not knowing what he means, but he simply says, “Ask your mother,” before killing himself.

Lee, accompanied by Agent Browning (Michelle Choi-Lee), heads to her mother’s house to confront her. While there, she searches the home, only to find an area she hadn’t noticed before – Longlegs’ lair, where he creates his dolls. 

When Lee returns to tell Browning, she finds her mother has beaten her to it. Dressed in a nun’s outfit, Ruth shoots Lee’s counterpart. But the horrors don’t end there – in the garden, she finds her mother pointing a gun at the doll version of herself as a child. “What is that thing?” she asks. 

Ruth tells Lee that Longlegs has freed her and shoots the doll, causing Lee to collapse as the spell it held over her is released.

Through a voiceover, we learn the sinister truth: years ago, Ruth begged Longlegs to spare Lee. To save her child’s life, she began working for Longlegs, delivering the possessed dolls to targeted families.

Ruth describes the dolls as “terrible magic” and “the work of the devil, with a little bit of him in every one.” The reason Lee doesn’t remember any of this in her adult years is because the doll made her forget, and told her “what not to see.”

Ruth’s ultimate sacrifice was to ensure that Lee could grow up, even if it meant perpetuating the cycle of horror. And the next target? Agent Carter and his family.

When Lee gains consciousness, she remembers it’s Carter’s daughter Ruby’s birthday party. She rushes to their house, only to find her mom already there, having gifted them their doll. 

Ruth tells her that the Carters have to die, or else she’ll be doomed to eternal torment. Lee tries to talk the family out of it, but it’s no use – they’re all under the doll’s spell. Carter takes his wife away and murders her. 

He returns holding a knife and refuses to stop his rampage, giving Lee no other choice but to shoot him dead before killing her mother. However, when she attempts to save Ruby by shooting at the doll, her gun fails.

In a chilling final scene, it cuts to Longlegs, singing ‘Happy Birthday’ before saying “Hail Satan” and blowing a kiss. 

A theory is that now Longlegs and Ruth are dead, the evil forces at play are transferred into Lee to continue the cycle of horror. But this is nothing more than speculation and certainly not shown on screen.

Ultimately, Longlegs finishes on an ambiguous note, leaving it up to the viewer’s imagination on what happens next. 

Who dies in Longlegs?

Other than the various families who died in what are known as ‘The Birthday Murders’ – you can find the list here – the character deaths include Agent Fisk (Dakota Daulby), Carrie Anne Camera (Kiernan Shipka), Browning, Ruth, Carter and his wife Anna (Carmel Amit), and, of course, Longlegs. 

Fisk is the first to go, being killed in an incident that isn’t related to the Longlegs case. On the first day on the field, Lee and Fisk are trying to find a suspect, with Lee managing to identify the house using what appear to be psychic abilities.

What she doesn’t foresee is that, when they knock at the door, the suspect shoots at Fisk, making him the first casualty. 

Next up is Carrie Anne – the sole survivor of Longlegs’ first massacre. Lee visits her earlier on in the film, hoping to find some answers, but Carrie Anne isn’t mentally sound after what happened to her family. 

When Lee interrogates Longlegs later on, it’s revealed that Carrie Anne took her own life, jumping off the roof of the psychiatric hospital she’d been admitted to. During the interrogation, Longlegs takes his own life too by bashing his head on the desk. 

As said, Browning is killed by Ruth, Anna is killed by Carter, and Carter and Ruth are shot by Lee.

Is there a post-credits scene?

There isn’t a post-credits scene in Longlegs, meaning once the credits start rolling, that’s it. This isn’t all that surprising, given it’s not that type of horror. Alongside an ending that is open to interpretation, there’s been no indication of plans for a sequel or prequel. 

As director Osgood Perkins told Dexerto, “Let’s see how it does at the box office… I think that, yes, of course, once you’ve settled on something that seems to work and people enjoy it, there’s the nagging impulse to think, ‘We could probably do that again and stretch it out a little bit.’

“But there’s also something glorious about leaving things alone, right? That’s harder to do, isn’t it? Isn’t it harder to leave something alone than it is to try to do it again?”

Longlegs is out in cinemas now. Why not also take a look at the other new movies coming out this month, as well as the films arriving on streaming? And if it’s horror you’re interested in, here’s everything you need to know about Terrifier 3, Smile 2, and 28 Years Later.