Boy Kills World’s Ending Explained

Over the course of the past decade, revenge-action thrillers have been seeing a huge resurgence in cinema. John Wick, Atomic Blonde and Mr. Nobody are some notable examples. Early in 2024, Dev Patel’s Monkey Man also crafted an emotional story about justice for one’s family.

Another 2024 spring release, Boy Kills World, is treading the same ground as its predecessors. The movie stars Bill Skarsgård as Boy, a deaf-mute man looking to take out elites and avenge the family they murdered. It builds to a harrowing finale that is filled with violent twists and plenty of gore.

Boy Kills World’s Revolution Is Bloody & Deadly

Since childhood, Boy has been trained by a freedom fighter known as the Shaman. He was rescued after elites executed his family. The Shaman healed him in order to turn him into a weapon to kill the Van Der Koy clan, a wealthy group of people who have used capitalism, the media and commercialism to control their impoverished city. Boy teams up with Andrew Koji’s Basho, hoping to use Glen (played by Monkey Man’s Sharlto Copley) to get to the clan’s mansion.

Glen married into the family through Melanie, but Basho accidentally kills him. Nonetheless, they work with another resistance member named Benny and infiltrate the mansion as the family gets prepared for the “culling.” This is an event they broadcast to the city, having their agents put on a show as they kill 12 tributes. They condition the public to think these people are dissidents and terrorists. Unfortunately, Boy is captured and paraded, too.

Strangely enough, he gets help from Melanie’s brother, Gideon (Brett Gelman from Netflix’s Stranger Things) to go free. Gideon has grown tired of his family’s arrogant games. It results in Melanie shooting him in the back. However, her broadcast backfires as Boy and his allies cut a bloody path through her men. Melanie uses her shotgun to kill Benny and leave Basho with a bullet in his gut — a wound he eventually dies from. The resilient Boy captures her, however, and smashes a camera into her head.

It’s his message to the viewers who enjoyed watching innocents die. It’s dark karma for Melanie, as she perishes thanks to the tool she used to brainwash the uneducated masses. Boy takes pride in this, knowing the revolution has been televised and that content consumers have seen their overlords fallible and bleeding.

Boy Kills World’s Hero Gets Help From June 27

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Boy finds Gideon, who gives him a pass to the bunker that the other sister, Hilda (Famke Janssen of the X-Men movies), is in. She is protected by her bodyguard, June 27 (aka June). Boy accepts, but he beheads Gideon with his blade, adamant he cannot show mercy or forgiveness. All movie long he has been hallucinating the sister he lost, Mina, so with this act, he dispels her. He doesn’t want her ghost encouraging compassion and empathy.

With this stroke, she disappears, which, to him, means his weakness is gone. Boy doesn’t get a grimy war with Hilda, however. She invites him up after recognizing a drawing he keeps with him. He and Mina hated being rich and snobbish, so they had a drawing about escaping the elite life. When Hilda confronts him, she admits he is her son. The Shaman tortured and brainwashed him after kidnapping him. The Shaman hated how Boy was used to slaughter his own family, so he decided to rub salt in the wounds by turning a Van Der Koy on his own. The shocking twist is that June is actually Mina.

When Hilda senses Boy isn’t the same child she once tried to convert into a lord, she orders June to murder him. June, however, acted as head of security for years, hoping she would someday find Boy. When he holds up his hand to her, showcasing five “middle fingers” they often displayed near statues of their mother, June is triggered. She kills Hilda and makes it clear they need to leave now. A firefight ensues, which takes out many soldiers. But June, of all people, would know there are more to come.

Boy Kills World’s Hero & June 27 Kill The Shaman

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Boy and June end up in the basement of the studio, only to discover they have a final boss to kill. This is the Shaman, who wants to end the bloodline by taking both out. A brawl ensues, fit for fans of MMA, anime and combat, in general. The Shaman slices up June and leaves her bleeding out in a fight that John Wick fans would love.

He then cuts up Boy badly, but Boy does the same. Boy garners enough strength to slice the man’s throat and kill him. It’s very ironic because, while Boy kept seeing Mina’s ghost, the Shaman saw the young version of Boy he abducted, abused, drugged and brainwashed. It speaks to his own inner-demons, what he lost as a husband and father, and how he became the very thing he hated: a hypocritical monster.

It is divisive because while the Shaman was a cold terrorist, he was also a victim. This makes his story sympathetic. With that tragic chapter closed, Boy ignores June’s requests to leave her behind to die. She does feel guilty over the death and destruction she enacted. All she wants is to know is if Boy will live on. He refuses to let her go again. He takes her away, feeling a sense of peace.

The movie flashes back to an arcade, which is where they made their pact to stick together and protect each other years back. These games are what informed Boy’s warrior mindset. He remembered fighting techniques from them. But most of all, he held onto the memory of his sister, with the final shot showing them as children playing a game with wonder and endearment in their eyes. It’s a very sentimental note to end on.

Does Boy Kills World Have a Post-Credits Scene?

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Boy Kills World has a post-credits that shows the bruised and battered Boy and Mina (no longer June) hiding out, eating cereal together. This was their hobby in the past. This compounds how much they hated that rich lifestyle. But they are tense, knowing they have other twisted family members, like Grandmother Beatrice, who could hunt them down. It’s easy to envision them wanting to kill the traitors after the bloody ending. They would have a big army, lots of funds and resources to do this.

A Boy Kills World sequel can even find the elites placing bounties on the heads of their kin. It would be very intriguing to see the general population eager to cash in, not realizing they are doing the dirty work of overlords who don’t care about them. Another direction can find more rebels around who won’t like knowing the bloodline is roaming the streets that the rich own and exploit. Their mission, as Basho and Benny proved, was to eliminate all Van Der Koys. Ultimately, this can lead to Boy and Mina fighting off warriors on both sides who won’t understand they just want to be free.

Boy Kills World is now playing in theaters.

Boy Kills World

A dystopian fever dream action film that follows Boy, a deaf person with a vibrant imagination. When his family is murdered, he is trained by a mysterious shaman to repress his childish imagination and become an instrument of death.

Director

Moritz Mohr

Release Date

April 26, 2024

Cast

Bill Skarsgard , Famke Janssen , Jessica Rothe , Michelle Dockery , Brett Gelman , Isaiah Mustafa , Yayan Ruhian , Nicholas Crovetti

Writers

Tyler Burton Smith , Arend Remmers , Moritz Mohr

Runtime

115 Minutes

Main Genre

Action