The Crow Ending Explained: Laugh Now, Cry Later

This article contains massive spoilers for “The Crow.”

Ever since creator and artist James O’Barr first illustrated and wrote the graphic novel “The Crow” in 1989, the series in all of its manifestations both on and off the silver screen has been a mash-up of various genres and aesthetics. Pulling together such disparate elements as film noir, dystopian fantasy, horror, action, Gothic romantic literature, and the Goth subculture, it’s no surprise that “The Crow” and each adaptation of its characters and story has varied wildly. The latest cinematic incarnation, this time from director Rupert Sanders and screenwriters Zach Baylin and William Josef Schneider, is simply titled “The Crow,” an indication that this film is intended as a reboot or even remake.

That’s more for marketing purposes than anything else, however; this film could easily fit into the larger “Crow” franchise, which is to say that none of the other “Crow” sequels (save 1996’s “The Crow: City of Angels”) are intended to share strict continuity. Part of the mythos of the series is that the primal forces of Good and Evil, Love, and Anger, and other such spirits, are always finding the corrupt wronging the innocent so badly that a new Crow must emerge from time to time. While most of the prior “Crow” films clearly delineated its characters into groups of right and wrong, this new “Crow” delves deeper into the notion that not everyone good is wholly innocent, and not everyone evil is beyond humanity. In its depiction of death and the afterlife as states of being that can potentially be manipulated or even reversed, “The Crow” posits the idea that such things as love, life, and the struggle of morality are never truly finalized.

“The Crow” opens with a voiceover from Eric (Bill Skarsgård) — whose last name is never revealed, seemingly on purpose — ruminating on how love never dies, over footage of what appears to be a younger Eric, who upon returning one day to his remote farm homestead, finds a white horse that’s been caught up in some barbed wire. While attempting to free the horse, the young Eric gets a deep cut on his hand, and that memory (or is it?) startles him awake. The title sequence that follows this moment of flashback (or potential vision/dream/fugue state) involves images of the adult Eric emerging from a pool of liquid that appears to be blood, imagery that will have more resonance soon.

For now, the film introduces Shelly (FKA twigs), a young, aspiring musician who has become involved with some shady people who operate within the underworld of the deliberately nondescript city she lives in. One of her friends, Zadie (Isabella Wei), warns Shelly that a video shot by a mutual friend of theirs, Dom (Sebastian Orozco), which contains incriminating footage of their criminal benefactor, Vincent, has leaked. Before Zadie can escape, she’s captured by some of Vincent’s cohorts led by Marion (Laura Birn). Shelly, meanwhile, makes a break for it but is stopped by a policeman on the street, her purse spilling to reveal some illegal substances within.

Shelly is arrested and sent off to a rehab facility where Eric is already incarcerated. The soft-spoken yet proudly anti-authoritarian Eric catches Shelly’s eye, and the two begin to bond one day over one of Shelly’s tattoos: a variation on the theatrical drama masks image that reads “Laugh Now, Cry Later.” The two tragic romantics feel seen in that ethos, as they begin to do in each other.

As it happens, Vincent (Danny Huston) is not some run-of-the-mill crime boss. His interests seem to be less about terrestrial issues like money or power, and more about finding innocent souls to capture and corrupt, the better to keep himself alive for centuries as part of a pact he made long ago with demonic forces. After interrogating Zadie as to Shelly’s whereabouts, Vincent whispers a spell in the girl’s ear, causing her eyes to go blank white before she uses a knife Vincent has given her to fatally stab herself. When Vincent is informed that Shelly’s been admitted to the rehab facility, he sends some of his goons to go after her; most troublingly, they’re accompanied by Shelly’s mother, Sophia (Josette Simon), who is in Vincent’s thrall.

Just as Eric is becoming more intrigued by Shelly and her mysterious, tragic past, Shelly notices the crew coming to retrieve her and bring her back to Vincent, causing Eric to show her a way to escape the facility through its laundry room. Impulsively, he decides to join her in escaping, the duo hitching their way back to the City. Once there, Shelly brings them to a friend’s place who’s out of town, some swanky digs where the two finally consummate their growing closeness. Shelly asks Eric if he’s ever truly, honestly loved someone before; like her, he says he hasn’t, and Shelly makes him promise that if she’s ever hard to love, that he’ll love her harder.

While Eric and Shelly enjoy their newfound love, gallivanting off to a lake with friends and attempting to make music together, the darkness of Shelly’s past can’t be fully left behind. Eric is troubled to learn that she can’t even play the piano like she used to, something that has more unsettling resonance as Vincent trains a new female piano prodigy while continuing the search for Shelly. One night, when the couple are at a club, Shelly spots Dom, who warns her that Vincent’s goons have found her. Shelly insists that she and Eric leave town, and they rush back to their place to pack and get ready.

Sadly, the bad guys are already there, and Marion has the thugs throw plastic bags over their heads. Eric watches Shelly slowly suffocate to death before he, too, succumbs to the void. However, that void does not appear to be the afterlife that he might have expected. As he helplessly watches Shelly’s soul sink to the bottom of a dark, foreboding lake — essentially the film’s version of Hell — Eric swims up to the surface, finding himself in an eternal way station, one of an apparent series of abandoned train stations.

There he encounters Kronos (Sami Bouajila), a mysterious figure who is intentionally vague about his spiritual affiliation. Kronos tells Eric that sometimes, when a soul is too burdened by sadness and injustice, it’s too heavy for a crow to bring to its final resting place, and it must be sent back to put right what went wrong. As Kronos explains, Vincent’s demonic deal has upset the balance of Good and Evil, which means that he must go back not only to avenge his and his lost love’s murders but also to fight on the side of Good to set things right. If he completes his mission, Kronos promises that both he and Shelly will get their lives back. That mission? As Kronos succinctly puts it: “Kill ’em all.”

Upon returning to the real world, Eric discovers that although he can still feel pain, he cannot be killed — at least, not as long as his love for Shelly remains pure, which Kronos is quick to point out. After killing a corrupt cop on Vincent’s payroll, Eric goes on the hunt for the rest of the crew. After finding a few (and leaving a couple of their bodies in his wake), he discovers that they’ve found where Dom lives, and heads to him first. Upon talking to Dom, Eric finally learns about the video, and how it contains footage that not only incriminates Vincent but Shelly as well. Believing he knows where to find the video, Eric returns to his and Shelly’s place, finding her phone in a secret stash within the wall.

The video is of a party that Vincent was throwing with himself, Dom, Zadie, and another girl in attendance. At one point, as Shelly is playing piano, Vincent places a knife in front of her and whispers in her ear. Immediately, Shelly picks up the knife, walks over to the other girl, and stabs her to death. Although we understand that Shelly had been put under a spell by Vincent, Eric cannot see her possessed eyes in the video, leading him to suspect that Shelly must’ve been a murderer herself.

Meanwhile, Sophia, who had been visited by Eric briefly earlier, is now so distraught over her daughter’s death that her wealth and fame (as evident by the many professional photos of herself adorning her home) are no longer sufficient payment for her bargain with Vincent. Thus, Vincent puts Sophia under a spell, making her throw herself out her window. As if that weren’t dark enough, as Eric confides in his friend Chance (Jordan Bolger), more of Vincent’s goons show up, shooting Chance in the head and Eric in the stomach. Much to Eric’s surprise, his stomach does not heal, and he falls into a bathtub, dying.

Now that Eric’s love for Shelly is no longer pure due to his doubting her character, Kronos informs Eric that his Crow powers have become null and void. Yet Eric senses that there is a secret third option, spurred on by his memory (or dream) of his beloved white horse returning to life once he’d removed the barbed wire. Eric declares that he’ll give up his soul for Shelly’s, and although Kronos gently reminds him that this means he and Shelly can never be together again, crows in the way station begin to swarm around Eric. They accept his terms. Kronos cuts his hand and Eric’s, then dabs Eric up, making a blood pact. Eric’s blood turns black as his eyes bleed, giving him a more traditional Crow look and indicating that he’s now forever changed.

He returns to Chance’s apartment, making quick work of the remaining goons before learning that Vincent should be in attendance at a performance of Rubinstein’s “The Demon” at the local opera. Painting his face and arming himself with some weapons (including a katana), Eric makes a night at the opera one to remember, massacring a slew of thugs in a variety of brutal and inventive ways. This explicit violence is intercut with the opera itself; a common technique, but one which Sanders uses effectively to underline both the disparity and the similarity between highbrow and lowbrow entertainment. As with much in “The Crow,” this sequence has some nuance to it, in addition to being just a good old-fashioned hack-and-slash.

It continues as Eric makes his way to Marion, who informs him that his prey is literally at another castle. Knowing her end is near, Marion explains just how easy it is to become corrupted by Vincent, in ways that the victim doesn’t even realize until it’s too late. She taunts Eric by pointing out his own murderous nature, claiming that at least Vincent hides his repugnant brutality better. After slaughtering her, the Crow takes the severed heads of two of his victims and throws them into the audience, directly protesting the complacency of the masses. He sees a vision of Shelly in the audience, the latest instance of several visions of his lost love that he’s had after her demise. It’s not only a reminder of what he’s doing this for, but that there may still be hope to save her.

When Eric arrives at Vincent’s place, the villain is only too happy to see him. He hasn’t been trying to stop the Crow or finish the job on Eric per se; he’s aware that Eric has been brought back by the forces of the afterlife, and thus carries the power of immortality with him. To be fair, Vincent has already lived for centuries due to his sending souls directly to the devil, but this greedy man wants to be able to heal from all potential injury, as well. To obtain this goal, Vincent attempts to corrupt Eric, telling him that his spell over Shelly in the video couldn’t have happened if there wasn’t a “seed” of Evil within her for him to take root in. This distraction lasts long enough for Vincent to whisper his spell in Eric’s ear, allowing him to cut the man’s flesh and get some of that black blood for himself.

Fortunately, Eric breaks the spell before Vincent can get away with his theft, and Eric sends both himself and Vincent into the way station purgatory world, where the two fight viciously. After trading blows for a while, Eric gets the upper hand, shoving Vincent into the muddy ground. It’s there that numerous demonic spirits reside, hungry to capture the corrupted soul that’s eluded them for so many years. As various hands and tentacles grasp at Vincent, he’s slowly pulled down into the mucky, murky depths of Hell. The Crow is left victorious, but knows it’s at a cost; before pushing Vincent into Hell, the villain taunts him by exclaiming “You don’t know what kind of hell awaits you.” Eric snapped back “Yes, I do,” revealing that he’s aware that he has to face a long, torturous purgatory of his own.

Eric’s efforts have not been in vain. As promised, Shelly’s soul rises from the hellish pit, and the couple have a happy reunion, however brief. It’s long enough for Shelly to realize that Eric cannot come with her for his own dark reasons, ones that she intuits in order to have her own loss of purity when it comes to her love for him. Still, the two are inseparable from the moments they have together before Shelly is brought back to the real world. Most surprisingly, she wakes up on the floor of her and Eric’s old place, moments after they’d been suffocated to death. As she sees Eric’s lifeless body next to her, a paramedic who looks exactly like Kronos tells her, “He fought for you.”

As Eric’s final voiceover describes how his victory is “almost enough” to satisfy him, we see Shelly’s life continue and flourish, ending up with her performing her music on stage to an attentive crowd. Eric, meanwhile, appears to be a new permanent resident of the way station, his soul damned to stay. This conclusion, along with much of the film, isn’t tied up in a neat bow, as there are a number of lingering questions. Chief among them: does Shelly’s return and Eric’s death mean that all the people Eric (and Vincent) slaughtered subsequently are still alive, or are they gone in some other fashion? Was Kronos merely taking the guise of the paramedic who tried to save Eric and Shelly, or has he crossed over and escaped purgatory due to Eric’s pact with him? Is Kronos (or a version of him) still in purgatory with Eric, or is Eric doomed to be alone in there? Does Eric’s status as the Crow mean that he’ll be called upon to dispense justice from beyond again? Were the events of the film real, or just a dying dream?

“The Crow” leaves us with all of these questions and more, and sure, that could be chalked up to issues with the filmmaking. Yet it seems that Sanders intentionally wants to lean on the story’s most primal and spiritual emotions, eschewing logic for mystery and letting the audience fill in blanks rather than spoon-feeding it to them. “The Crow,” as a movie and a franchise, is cyclical, just like life and its endless struggles. Love, Anger, Despair, Justice, and so many other forces are not elements that can ever be fully resolved. What the Crow represents more than anything is their eternality.