What happens at the end of Knock at the Cabin? The Knock at the Cabin release date is here, and audiences who’ve seen the movie are going to have a lot of questions.
The latest M. Night Shyamalan thriller movie sees a small family under attack by a group of intruders who tell them that an apocalypse is coming and that the family can stop it if they sacrifice one of their own. The new movie is full of surprises and is carried along by mounting tension, making it one of the director’s best movies of recent years.
While being more straightforward than some of his previous pictures, every M. Night Shyamalan movie still has its ambiguities, and it’s always worth recapping exactly what we all just saw. Thankfully, we’re here to de-mystify events with our explainer on the Knock at the Cabin ending explained.
Knock at the Cabin ending explained
Throughout Knock at the Cabin, the four intruders attempt to convince Eric and Andrew that they can save the world from an impending apocalypse by sacrificing a member of their family.
While Eric and Andrew start out completely convinced that the intruders are lying and that it’s all either a homophobic attack or simple delusions, the footage that the intruders show them very slowly begins to convince the family that the oncoming apocalypse might be real.
After Leonard has sacrificed the other intruders to delay the apocalypse and it’s just him remaining, the family begin to see great storms in the sky and airplanes dropping from the air. Leonard says they have only minutes to make their choice, imploring them to make the right decision. Once Leonard kills himself, too, the apocalypse threatens to plunge the world into darkness with nothing left to prevent it unless the family sacrifice one of their own.
Eric, who has been closer to believing the intruders throughout the movie, tells Andrew that he thinks it’s real, and Andrew comes to the same realisation too. The pair discuss what it would be like to walk the Earth alone with Wen in the aftermath of the disaster, but Eric tells Andrew that he wants to see Wen fall in love and see Andrew continue to support her.
He offers himself up as the sacrifice, telling Andrew that he isn’t scared of dying, knowing that he’s doing it to save his family. While Wen is away in the treehouse, Andrew shoots Eric and kills him.
As Leonard and the intruders said, this sacrifice does stop the apocalypse from continuing to progress. Andrew and Wen watch a news report in a diner and see that the disaster is subsiding with people recovering in hospital and planes no longer dropping from the sky. Andrew and Wen get into their truck, and the radio begins to play the song Boogie Shoes, which is a song the family used to listen to together.
The Knock at the Cabin ending shows that the apocalypse was always real, subverting the idea that the intruders were crazy cultists. Instead, they were selfless people who had accurate visions about the imminent destruction of humanity.
There is never an explanation for why they had the visions or what started the apocalypse, but Eric and Andrew come to the conclusion that it was the purity of their family’s love that enabled them to stop it with a sacrifice.
That’s all we have on the Knock at the Cabin ending. For more on the movie, take a look at our guide on how to watch Knock at the Cabin, learn more about the Knock at the Cabin cast, and you can also read our Knock at the Cabin review, as well as our Knock at the Cabin interviews with director M. Night Shyamalan and Rupert Grint, and Ben Aldridge.