Nickel Boys ending explained: What happened to Elwood?

Nickel Boys is an adaptation of The Nickel Boys, which is a 2019 novel by Colson Whitehead. The RaMell Ross-directed historical drama film is written by him and Joslyn Barnes. Starring Ethan Herisse and Brandon Wilson, among others, the film takes place in Florida in the 1960s when two African-American boys are sent to a school for reform.

The premiere of Nickel Boys took place at the 2024 Telluride Film Festival, and it saw a theatrical release on December 13, 2024, by Amazon MGM Studios. The film's ending, in particular, has been something that people have discussed. Let's explore it.

What is the plot of Nickel Boys?

Nickel Boys takes place in 1962 in Tallahassee, Florida when the Jim Crow laws were in effect that ensured people were segregated based on their race. The story focuses on two kids, Elwood and Turner, who are sent to Nickel Academy, which is a reform school. There, the two have to endure abusive behavior from the staff. The makers were inspired by the real-life Dozier School for Boys, which shut down in 2011. This school was notorious for the way it treated its students.

How does Nickel Boys end?

Towards the end of Nickel Boys, both Elwood and Turner have endured a lot of mistreatment for a while. The two then feel like escaping from the school. Meanwhile, Elwood has been writing all his experiences in a diary, which he gives to a senior person. Instead of helping, they hold Elwood as a prisoner and decide to kill him so that the news doesn't leave the school.

Luckily, Turner manages to save him, and the two escape into a field. Elwood is shot by one of the guards, and he succumbs to the wound. Turner manages to escape and meets Elwood's grandmother. He then takes on the name of Elwood and decides to live as him throughout. This is established by the non-linear cuts in the film, which showcase an adult Turner who is living as Elwood.

As a grownup man, Turner is looking into all the murders that took place in the Academy. By taking over his dead friend's name, Turner also manages to honor his life. Later, we realize that the academy was shut down, and the reason is not revealed. While the film is fictional, it takes its inspiration from the real-life Dozier School that ran for nearly 100 years. Through the story of the two boys, the makers shed light on the plight of African Americans in those times.

Ross also shot the film in the first person POV, and spoke about it in an interview with Entertainment Weekly. He said,

“There's so much unlearning that everybody had to do but for me, it was just learning, because this was my first fiction feature. So I didn't overemphasize the film’s POV — it's written into the script, obviously, in every scene, but on the day it was just like, ‘All right, guys, the camera is the character and you need to look exactly right here.’ In hindsight from later conversations, I know it was a bit of a psychological game they had to play with themselves, but each of them turned that isolation and lack of connection into feeling for their character."