The Black Phone ending explained: How Finney escapes The Grabber

The Black Phone was one of 2021’s scariest movies, and it’s on Amazon Prime now – but how does it end, and does Finney manage to escape from The Grabber?

Directed by Scott Derrickson and co-written with C. Robert Cargill, The Black Phone is a psychological, supernatural horror movie based on a short story by Joe Hill, the son of Stephen King.

Set in the late 1970s, it revolves around a Denver suburb blighted by “The Grabber” (Ethan Hawke), a serial child abductor and murderer who lures kids in with a magic trick and balloons, before shoving them in his van and locking them in his basement.

Finney (Mason Thames) ends up in his grasp, but he’s not quick to play by The Grabber’s rules, especially when he keeps getting mysterious calls from the dead – so, here’s how it ends.

The Black Phone ending explained: Does Finney escape?

The Black Phone ends with Finney brutally killing The Grabber and escaping his house, finding Gwen and the police waiting outside, before they reunite with their father.

In the movie, we learn The Grabber kidnapped five children before Finney: Bruce, Billy, Griffin, Vance, and Robin, the latter of whom is a close friend of Finney.

An unconnected phone begins ringing in the basement, and Finney soon realizes he’s talking to the souls of those children, all of whom were killed by The Grabber. They give him the tools to escape, whether it’s digging a hole or Robin teaching him how to fight.

After The Grabber kills his brother, who discovers Finney in the basement, he tries to murder Finney – however, he falls straight into his trap. He trips on the cable he pulled from the wall, falls into the hole, breaks his leg, and Finney is able to beat him with the phone filled with sand and strangle him, before snapping his neck.

Finney grabs a steak from the freezer to distract the dog, before heading upstairs and walking outside. It’s then revealed this home is literally across the street from the burial ground, and Gwen sees him standing alone. They embrace, and their alcoholic father asks them to forgive him for how he’s treated them.

As for Gwen’s visions that led the police to the bodies in the first place, Cargill told The Hollywood Reporter: “It’s a balancing act in the beginning as we see Gwen being the one with supernatural powers and helping out her brother.

“But as you put things together, you come to realize that Gwen has essentially half of her mother’s powers and Finney has the other half. It’s just that Finney has never been in a situation where he’s experienced them before, so this is his first experience with these powers.

“And the phone itself is kind of a conduit to those powers, which they both got from their mom.”

The Black Phone is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video now and is a great watch around Halloween. You can sign up here.

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