The Intense Knock At The Cabin Ending Unpacked

Love, family, fear, and sacrifice – the four horsemen of M. Night Shyamalan’s apocalyptic thriller, Knock at the Cabin.

The intense Knock At The Cabin Ending is everything you hope for it to be and more.

Knock at the Cabin is about a family of three whose cabin vacation home is forcefully invaded by four strangers who claim that the willing sacrifice of one of the three of them is the solution to the rapidly approaching apocalypse. 

The trailer paints the daring premise of this film so vividly and the movie successfully lives up to the hype that the trailer builds. 

Knock at the Cabin will have chills running down your arms. You’ll be imbued with feelings of amusement, horror, bewilderment, unease, awe, and your eyes may brim with tears at some point. 

The beginning of the film is very dialogue-heavy, with the tilted angle of the camera immediately framing the unease as the bulky Dave Bautista who plays Leonard, seeks to befriend the only child of the targeted family, Wen, played by the adorable Kristen Cui.

The tension quickly rises when three additional figures emerge from the menacing woods which were so inviting and alive only moments before. 

Soon after failing to securely bar their cabin against the frighteningly persistent visitors, Wen finds herself in between her two fathers (Eric, played by Jonathan Groff, and Andrew, played by Ben Aldridge) who are tied up on either side of her.

Leonard attempts to explain the reasoning behind their forceful entry saying something along the lines of:

“Your family has been chosen to make a horrible decision. Either you sacrifice one of your family members, and they cannot die by accident or by suicide, or, everyone else on earth dies.”

As the film progresses, you are captivated by the premise wondering, is this real? Is there really an apocalypse? Or are these crazy people up to a wild scheme?

The story is so tastefully told with incredible acting and a clean screenplay. 

Dave Bautista is a stand-out in this film having successfully expanded his acting caliber. He makes it clear that he can be more than the silly, bone-headed big guy. He has these big intimidating muscles but he never uses them to hurt anyone, only to protect.

After tackling a man to the ground, he fumbles to straighten his glasses in a way that is almost comical and completely endearing. 

**Knock at the Cabin Spoilers Ahead**

Knock at the Cabin Ending Summary

The Knock at the Cabin ending is a satisfying one. 

With each refusal to kill a member of their family, one of the 4 home invaders is brutally sacrificed by the remaining invaders in front of Wen’s poor family. Each sacrifice releases a universal plague that summons the total apocalypse of humanity. 

The first sacrifice of Redmond, played by Rupert Grint, unleashes tsunamis and flooding. Next, viral sickness and infirmity are ushered in by the second sacrifice of Adriene, played by Abby Quinn. Planes falling from the sky are ushered in by the third sacrifice of Sabrina, played by Nikki Amuka-Bird. And finally, Leonard’s somber sacrifice brings lightning. 

Once the sky darkens, and lightning strikes, there is no longer any doubt that the apocalypse is upon them and that they’re running out of time to stop it. Eric and Andrew know this as they emotionally reason with each other. 

Eric decides that he should be the one to die. He feels chosen and comforted by a shadow he saw in the light after the first sacrifice. Andrew is very against this decision but before long, a gunshot is heard and only Andrew leaves the cabin. 

Retrieving his daughter from the treehouse where she sought refuge from the madness, Andrew and Wen head down the road as the lightning-stricken cabin burns behind them. 

They stop at a local diner to ensure that Eric’s sacrifice effectively halted the apocalypse. The diner is full of survivors watching the TV where news anchors speak of turning tides and terrors coming to an end. 

Andrew and Wen hop back in the car and as they put on the car radio they’re met with the incongruently upbeat song that they jammed to as a family before that horrifically life-altering knock at their cabin: “Boogie Shoes.”

There’s this feeling of “too soon,” and the radio is turned back off again.

But after another moment of silence, they change their minds and put back on the song, allowing the hope and grief that it signifies. 

Knock at the Cabin Book Ending vs Movie Ending

The movie Knock at the Cabin is based on the book “The Cabin at the End of the World” by Paul Tremblay. 

In the book, the family never gets to see each sacrifice play out. Instead, Andrew breaks free from his ropes before the second sacrifice can take place.

After the first sacrifice of Redmond, Andrew is able to escape and grab his gun.

Wielding the gun, Andrew shoots Adriene, the second sacrifice, and in the process of Leonard trying to disarm Andrew, Wen is accidentally shot and killed as well.

Because she was an accidental death, Wen’s death did not count towards stopping the apocalypse.

Shaken by the unforeseen turn of events, Sabrina, the third sacrifice, aborts the mission, shoots Leonard, and then shoots herself.

With all of the plagues at full force, Eric and Andrew debate sacrificing themselves but decide that they wouldn’t want to abandon each other in a world led by a god that wouldn’t accept their daughter as sacrifice enough. 

And that’s where the story ends.

A much darker, less hopeful ending there than the one in the movie.

The movie postponed Andrew’s escape from the ropes until after the second sacrifice was completed. He did end up shooting the third sacrifice but, thankfully, nothing hurt precious Wen. And in the end, the family sacrificed one of their own but not without much to gain from it.

The hope of the movie lies in Wen’s future and her ability to have a life that’s as fruitful as possible.

Why Did Shyamalan change the Knock at the Cabin ending?

Shyamalan changed the Knock at the Cabin ending because he wanted to see the consequences of each refusal to sacrifice a family member play out. In Knock at the Cabin, we’re able to see the outcome of each “no” up until they couldn’t say no anymore, yet, we still know what “yes” looks like.

Shyamalan agreed to take directing the film version of The Cabin at the End of the World only if he had the opportunity to rewrite the ending. He wanted to fulfill the promise of the strong choices presented in the narrative.

When discussing his proposed changes to the movie’s ending with Paul Tremblay, the book’s author, Tremblay too admitted that he considered Shyamalan’s ending as an alternate route for the book.

Knock at the Cabin Ending Explained

The four strangers who visited Wen’s family were not a random selection. The higher power that chose them and gave them visions of the impending apocalypse, as well as their role in stopping it, chose them for a reason.

They were to represent the four horsemen of the apocalypse: Malice (Redmond), Nurture (Adriene), Healing (Sabrina), and Guidance (Leonard). Those four strangers represented those four qualities and were sacrificed in that order. 

These four sacrifices, these four people, were chosen as examples to show Wen’s family what they would be missing if they allowed humanity to die in the apocalypse.

Why was Wen’s family in particular chosen to make the sacrifice?

Throughout the film, the audience is shown bits and pieces of Eric and Andrew’s life together to display the prejudice they faced as a same-sex couple. 

They faced malice from a bigoted man at a bar who slammed a beer bottle over Andrew’s head while he was out with Eric. We see Eric and Andrew healing in the hospital as the nurse stitches physical wounds while they seek comfort in each other to mend emotional wounds.

Together, they nurtured and guided Wen from the day they met her at the hospital to the moment they jammed out to “Boogie Shoes” on their cabin car ride. 

The fullness of their life gave them the ideal perspective to see what they would miss if humanity was gone. 

And the death of each horseman gave them the opportunity to understand the severity of what a humanless world would look like.  

As Andrew and Wen drive off in the final scene, we see sun rays peaking through gray clouds, the bright beams of light like stairways for angels descending to earth. The perfect picture of hope and brighter days ahead.

Common Questions

In Conclusion…

Knock at the Cabin tells a haunting, compelling story that has you reeling with fear and tension. What would you do if sacrificing a member of your family was the only solution to the continuation of humanity?

What a crazy question to consider, a crazier story to write, and the craziest outcome to see. 

With the wealth of choices lining the narrative, the Knock at the Cabin ending had many potential directions that it could go. Choosing to rear off the dreary road laid by the novel was much to its advantage. 

With a plot that pulls on the ends of your nerves and raises your heart rate, the ending is the perfect calm down to give you a little hope before you enter the world again where thankfully, no planes are spontaneously falling from the sky. 

Rating: 9/10

What do you think of the ending to Knock at the Cabin? Let me know in the comments below!

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Peace, love, and lots of popcorn,

IMO