The end of MaXXXine (2024) is a suspenseful and ambiguous conclusion to Ti West's trilogy, X. It leaves the viewers in shock with a reveal at the end and makes Maxine Minx a complex character study. As the trilogy concludes, the central mystery of who the real killer is and his motives unravel from their personal history to toxic Hollywood.
The final twist is when Maxine finally confronts her dark past and the figure behind the recent spate of murders: her father, Ernest Miller. But again, in typical MaXXXine fashion, nothing is what it seems, even the climax.
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Through the use of family trauma, identity, and fame in the film, the final twist creates the end that Maxine's ultimate antagonist, in being a threat to her body, also is the internal battle she has to overcome between past and present.
In this breakdown, we will see an in-depth analysis of the killer's identity, why Maxine leaves her father, and whether the final conclusion reached in MaXXXine was a dream or some metaphorical reflection of her desires.
Warning: This article has major MaXXXine spoilers, so proceed accordingly.
Who is the killer in MaXXXine?
The dark heart of the conclusion of MaXXXine is the jarring truth that the killer is Maxine's father, Ernest Miller, a Southern televangelist who blames Hollywood for corrupting his daughter. A chronology of brutal murders leaves various friends around Maxine dead as her search for fame leads her into the adult film industry.
This is when, climactically, Maxine stumbles on her father in a remote mansion, peering at an old home video showing Maxine at the age of a child. It circles the movie to its opening, and quiet connections link the twisted motive of Ernest to his attempt at "saving" his daughter from her so-called sinful life.
Ernest orchestrated the murders, working with a private investigator to uncover Maxine's past to scare her back into his clutches. His motivation arises from an amalgamation of love, guilt, and religious fanaticism.
He doesn't want to punish Maxine; he wants to "redeem" her in his eyes. As the movie explains, Ernest's ultimate plan was an exorcism on Maxine; to cleanse her of her supposed wicked ways, filming it all and making it part of a snuff film to be able to expose the corruption in Hollywood.
Why did Maxine leave her dad?
With this background, Maxine's decision to leave her father and cut ties with her past is set against the backdrop of their strained relationship-determining this becomes a central theme in MaXXXine. Maxine's father groomed her for stardom since she was young.
But, their relationship soured when Maxine entered the adult film industry. Ernest, who holds dogmatic religious convictions, cannot agree to his daughter's choice of profession. In his opinion, his daughter has become a fallen woman who left the straight and narrow.
This complicated relationship is revealed further when Ernest is discovered to have hired a detective to track Maxine's history and her involvement in the killing of Pearl. His compulsion to "save" Maxine from what he perceives as life in sin defines his mental conflict.
Read more: Pearl and more date night horror movies
Love for her assures his actions of being guided by an eclectic logic where he appears to believe that he would be able to drag her back onto the track he has envisioned for her. Against this, the allure of fame has decided that it would never let Maxine go; she must have that glamorous life, cost whatever it may.
Was the end of MaXXXine a dream?
It is in the final scenes of MaXXXine that one sees Maxine's real fate. While the whole film charges towards this bloodied showdown between her father, and all that his religious cult involves, Maxine lets her imagination run wild, imagining herself at the top of the world.
She has now managed to become successful as an actress, and she has done this by appearing in The Priest II. This film fantasy, in which she imagines herself glowing with success, ends on the Hollywood sign with "MaXXXine" replacing it, as if she's taking over the industry.
According to Screen Rant, however, the loose ending could mean everything that happened was just Maxine's fantasy. It is hard to believe what has unfolded, and her rapid rise to stardom in the light of all that violence she was surrounded by is impossible.
The movie plays with the ambiguity about reality, leaving it up to the audience whether Maxine lived her dream or she is trapped in another dream, just like the nightmares that are haunting her across the X trilogy. This is, of course, a loose, open-ended conclusion; and, like the films preceding it, open to interpretation.
MaXXXine is exclusive to Apple TV+.
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