Boy Kills World ending explained

Boy Kills World is a new action movie that stars Bill Skarsgård as a human weapon avenging the death of his parents. Here’s how that story plays out, plus whether his character succeeds in the end.

Boy Kills World features an acting tour de force from Bill Skarsgård as the boy of the title, who is deaf and mute. He starts the movie training for a mission, which is revealed to be fuelled by revenge, as Boy sets out to kill the despotic ruler who murdered his family.

You can read our review of the movie here, where we compared it to both The Running Man and Hunger Games, and wrote: “At its heart, Boy Kills World is an action movie, and on that front the film delivers, both in terms of jaw-dropping set-pieces, and the brilliance of Bill Skarsgård’s lean, mean, killing machine, heralding the arrival of an exciting new action star.”

Below you can find our breakdown of the Boy Kills World ending, so beware of SPOILERS ahead…

Boy Kills World ending explained

Boy Kills World ends with Hilda Van Der Koy being killed, meaning Boy accomplishes his mission. But not before a cruel twist through which he discovers that Hilda is his mother, and that it was their family who killed the shaman’s loved ones, putting Boy on a collision course with his mentor in the final few reels.

For most of his life, Boy believed that Hilda killed his parents and sister in cold blood. He escaped to the jungle, where the shaman trained him in martial arts so he could get revenge. But when Boy confronts Hilda, she says: “It’s me, your mother!” And his world comes crashing down.

As it turns out, Boy is a Van Der Koy, and Hilda put the gun in his hand during the culling, urging him to kill her enemy: the shaman’s family. The shaman himself escaped when Boy hesitated, and tried to strangle him when he caught Boy in a nearby forest. But then an idea popped into his head.

The big twist

The shaman decided to orchestrate his own revenge by using the child. So he mentored and trained Boy, while brainwashing and reprogramming him. Turning Hilda’s son against her, then sending him to kill her.

So in a flash, Boy discovers that Hilda is his mother, and his helmet-clad assailant is his sister. Hilda dies, so his mentor’s mission is accomplished. But the shaman isn’t done there, as he enters the Van Der Koy compound, and squares off with Boy himself.

Brother and sister team-up, making it two-on-one, but the shaman quickly takes her down, so the climax becomes mentor vs mentee. And it’s a barnstorming brawl, made all-the-more impressive by the fact that the shaman fights in flip-flops.

His toe-nails carve Boy up, as does a talon that’s passed back-and-forth. But Boy eventually kills the shaman, though having just watched the poor man’s family being murdered onscreen, it feels like a somewhat hollow victory.

Then brother and sister depart, endeavouring to get as far away from the film’s totalitarian state as they can. The movie then flashes back to their childhood, playing arcade game Super Punch Dragon Force 2. Which announces “Player 2 has entered the game,” suggesting that the siblings will now move through life together. The credits then roll.

Boy Kills World is in cinemas now, while for more new movies hitting screens this month, head here.