The Big Picture
- Director James Wan returns to his roots in the horror genre with the batshit insane and unforgettable ending of Malignant .
- Malignant follows protagonist Madison as she unravels a telepathic connection to a twisted killer named Gabriel and discovers secrets from her past.
- Gabriel is revealed to be a parasitic twin living off of Madison, and the film's bonkers third act showcases his killing spree and Madison's ultimate triumph over him.
For the last two decades, writer and director James Wan has been one of our best and most successful masters of horror. That began in 2004 when he wrote a little movie with Leigh Whannell and directed it as well: Saw. It was a surprise hit that helped bring horror back from the brink, after the clones that came after Scream dried up. The 2000s were all about ultra-violent horror, and that all started with Wan. After Dead Silence in 2007, Wan hit a mammoth one-two punch in 2010 and 2013 with the huge successes of Insidious and The Conjuring, respectively.
After The Conjuring 2 in 2016, Wan took a break from horror to direct Aquaman, but in 2021, he returned to the director's chair to helm Malignant. What started as a giallo-like film different from anything Wan had done before, turned into something completely batshit insane in the best way possible. Malignant's ending made us laugh, it made us scream, and it made our jaws hit the floor. Its unpredictable twist is absolutely unforgettable. Here's a refresher on everything tat went down in this bizarre and beautiful finale.
What Is 'Malignant' About?
Malignant starts with a flashback, taking us back 28 years to 1993, to Simion Research Hospital. We meet Dr. Florence Weaver (Jacqueline McKenzie) in a videotaped recording talking about a patient there named Gabriel. There are vague comments about Gabriel's strength and how it's hard to restrain him. That videotaped recording ends as Dr. Weaver rushes out onto the hospital floor. An alert has been issued because Gabriel is on the attack. We see orderlies and guards being tossed violently from Gabriel's room, and then in a supernatural moment, light bulbs in the hallway explode. Dr. Weaver shoots Gabriel with a tranquilizer, before entering his room to find several of the hospital staff dead. It's here that we get our first look at Gabriel from behind a clear tarp. We don't see him fully, but we can see a screaming thing with a twisted head and limbs that looks at once human and at the same time not human at all. Whatever it is, it's severely deformed. Dr. Weaver then says, "It's time we cut out the cancer." What? Talk about an intriguing opening!
The movie flashes forward to present day when we meet our protagonist, Madison Mitchell (Annabelle Wallis). Madison's life sucks. She's pregnant, which is great, except that she's had a few miscarriages in the past. Her husband, Derek (Jake Abel), is a lazy sack of garbage who'd just rather watch TV. Derek is so awful that he ends up punching Madison, sending her head crashing into a wall. She puts her hand behind her head and when she brings it back there's blood on her fingers. Derek doesn't last long. Later in the night, a slender, long-haired figure in the dark shadows attacks him and breaks his neck. Madison finds her husband's body the next day, his head twisted violently to the side. The killer is still in the house, and he chases Madison up the stairs, knocking her out, unfortunately causing another miscarriage.
Who Is the Black, Shadowy Figure in 'Malignant'?
Malignant starts to take on a giallo-like form with this killer in black, and now the cops investigating, led by detective Kekoa Shaw (George Young). Back at home, Madison notices the dark figure watching her outside. The first twist has Madison revealing to her sister, Sydney (Maddie Hasson), that she's adopted. Worse, she has no recollection of who she was as a small child before being taken in. What does this mean to the story?
Malignant then follows what we know now to be Gabriel, a twisted mess of limbs with long hair covering his face, and wearing a long black coat. He moves almost ninja-like, but in such an odd, contorted manner that doesn't seem real. Gabriel attacks and kidnaps an unknown-to-us middle-aged woman (Jean Louisa Kelly), before tying her up in an attic and communicating telepathically through a radio about how he's waited for this moment. Who is this woman? What in the hell is going on? Malignant at this point is very confusing, but all is about to be revealed.
How Are Madison and Gabriel Connected?
Gabriel calls Dr. Weaver at her home, repeating the line she once said of, "It's time to cut out the cancer." Gabriel then goes to Dr. Weaver's house and stabs her to death. Madison sees the whole thing play out in her mind, even though she's back at her house. The first layers are starting to crack. Madison has some telepathic connection with the killer. While Detective Shaw is trying to figure out who killed Dr. Weaver, Gabriel has moved on to his next victim, murdering a colleague of Weaver's, Dr. Victor Fields (Christian Clemenson). Again, Madison sees the whole thing happening in her mind as if she's right there in the room with them.
Madison goes to the cops to tell them about her visions. They think she's crazy, but she gets them to go to the place where she saw the murder of Dr. Fields happen. It's there that they find his body. Madison is later in a bathroom when she gets a phone call from Gabriel. He calls her Emily, telling her that's her real name. This creepy, inhuman killer is somehow part of a past she can't recall. Everything starts to come loose quickly now. An aged drawing taken from a photo of a child at Dr. Weaver's office shows a woman who looks very much like Madison. We now know she was a patient of hers. It appears she and Gabriel were in the hospital at the same time. Madison and her sister visit her adopted mother (Susanna Thompson) looking for answers. She shows them a videotape of a younger Madison (Mckenna Grace) talking to an imaginary friend named Gabriel. Whhaaa?
What Is the Plot Twist in 'Malignant'?
Detective Shaw is able to figure out who the next doctor to be killed will be. Sure enough, as he shows up at the home of Doctor Gregory (Amir Aboulela), he finds him dead. Yet again, Madison watched Gabriel kill him through her psychic bond with the killer. Gabriel attacks the detective before fleeing, jumping down a fire escape, twisting and contorting impossibly to the street below. Shaw follows, tracking Gabriel to a warehouse, and shooting at the killer, who is able to swiftly jump high and climb walls. Desperate, the detectives go to Madison's house with a hypnotist, with memories unlocked of young Madison being terrorized and told to kill her adopted mom by her imaginary friend. It's then that Malignant switches back to the woman kidnapped earlier. She gets out of her constraints, only to fall through the attic floor... and into Madison's living room right in front of everyone. The detectives have no choice but to arrest her for this crime. When they interrogate Madison back at the station, lights explode around Madison and Gabriel calls from her phone, speaking to Shaw.
Meanwhile, as the detectives are discovering that the woman who fell through the attic is Madison's birth mother, her sister Sydney goes to the abandoned hospital to investigate Madison's past. She finds her file and some tapes, then brings them to her mother to watch. They put in a tape of young Madison, who talks to Dr. Weaver about Gabriel making her strong. Then shit hits the fan. The camera turns and there is Gabriel as a conjoined twin on the back of Madison's head. Malignant is now off to the races with one of the most bonkers third acts you'll ever see.
Who Is Gabriel?
Gabriel is described in videotapes made by Dr. Weaver as a parasitic twin, almost like a tumor, that lives off of Madison. He's nowhere close to fully formed, just a face on the back of her head, a ribcage down her upper back, and two short deformed arms. It's silly and terrifying at the same time. The doctors couldn't kill Gabriel without killing his sister, so they cut out the cancer, removing as much of Gabriel as possible and shoving the rest of the tumor back into Madison's skull. It's revealed that Gabriel can take over her vision. When he takes over Madison's body to kill, she is able to see what he is doing. He stayed dormant for years until the moment her husband attacked her, smashing her head into the wall. This released him and his killing spree of revenge.
Gabriel shows himself at the jail, taking over Madison's body. We now know why he moves so strangely. Gabriel is Madison walking backward. He kills everyone in the jail cell, before getting out and attacking several cops, slashing and slicing to death everyone in his path. He attacks Detective Shaw as well, but our hero lives. Gabriel then shows up at the hospital to kill his birth mother, only to be met by Sydney. He attacks her but is stopped by a pursuing Shaw, only to be attacked again. Madison tries to fight off Gabriel's control of her body, now taking control of him and putting him in a prison in her mind. The sisters embrace with Madison's birth mother looking on. Malignant ends with Gabriel not dead, but beaten and held down, at least for now!
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