A Complete Unknown ending explained: What happened at the Newport Folk Festival?

A Complete Unknown, directed by James Mangold, tells the story of legendary singer Bob Dylan. The biographical musical is adapted from the 2015 novel Dylan Goes Electric! Timothée Chalamet plays the lead role while Edward Norton is Pete Seeger.

Written by Mangold and Jay Cocks, A Complete Unknown was released on December 25, 2024 by Searchlight Pictures. It grossed over $100 million at the box office and received several Oscar nominations. Here's the official synopsis:

In 1961, an unknown 19-year-old Bob Dylan arrives in New York City with his guitar and forges relationships with musical icons on his meteoric rise, culminating in a groundbreaking performance that reverberates around the world.

What is the plot of A Complete Unknown?

A Complete Unknown traces the journey of Bob Dylan (played by Timothée Chalamet) as he became a successful artist in the folk music scene. He faced backlash from that community once he started using electrical instruments.

The storyline begins in the 1960s when Dylan reaches New York at the tender age of 19. After making it big in the folk music scene, Dylan decides to make a switch that causes a major ripple across the globe. During his rise to stardom, he also forms a bond with Pete Seeger which is also explored in the story.

How did A Complete Unknown end?

A still from A Complete Unknown | Image via Searchlight Pictures

The ending of A Complete Unknown features Dylan performing at the Newport Folk Festival with an electric guitar, which audience members do not like. At one point. Some people also try to cut the wire cable to stop the performance. Dylan is forced to leave the area after performing a few songs. He then meets Woody Guthrie, who is admitted to the hospital. The film ends as Guthrie watches the singer leaving on his motorbike.

The festival was a milestone moment in Dylan's career, as shown in the film. He had been singing folk songs to that point but opted to go for an electric guitar, which the audience did not want.

However, the reality was a bit different than the film. As per Screen Rant, several people booed at Dylan possibly because of the inferior quality of the sound. The film ends with Dylan riding on his motorbike, which touches on his real-life accident that took place in 1966 and resulted in some of his neck vertebrae getting damaged.

The ending also signifies the close of Dylan's era in the late 1960s since he stepped down from everything and rarely appeared publicly. While he continued to make music, he took a long sabbatical right after the accident. Interestingly, it took Dylan several decades to return to the Newport folk festival in 2002, where he performed again.

The title of the film is taken from the chorus of one of Dylan's songs and depicts who he was when he started out a complete unknown. But over the years, he became a star in the folk music scene and then began to transition to electric equipment. Like Dylan himself, the film's ending has a hint of mystery.