The Ring Ending & Deeper Meaning Explained

Summary

• The Ring
  ‘s ending offers a bleak existence for the survivors, with Samara ultimately winning regardless of their choices.
• Rachel saves Aidan’s life by condemning someone else, perpetuating a dark cycle of death and vengeance.
• The subsequent movies in the franchise offer varying endings, from happier resolutions to even bleaker outcomes.

The Ring‘s ending provides one of the most memorable scares in horror movie history, but that often distracts from the bleakness of the story’s conclusion. Based on Koji Suzuki’s novel and Hideo Nakata’s Japanese adaptation of the same name, Gore Verbinski’s The Ring was a hugely influential horror film of the early 21st century that inspired a flood of Hollywood projects that took influence from the booming Japanese horror movie industry. Apart from that legacy, The Ring is able to stand on its own as a terrific entry in the genre with an unforgettable ending.

The movie follows Rachel (Naomi Watts), a journalist looking into the legend of a mysterious videotape that is said to cause the death of anyone who watches it within seven days. Rachel explores the history surrounding the tape and, ultimately, watches it herself. Unfortunately, just as it becomes clear that the legend is no mere ghost story, Rachel’s son, Aidan (David Dorfman), also watches the tape. Racing against time, Rachel discovers that the origins of the curse are related to the death of a girl named Samara (Daveigh Chase), and suspects helping her spirit find peace will end the curse.

Rachel & Aidan Pass Samara’s Curse On

Making A Copy Of The Tape Is The Only Way To Save Aidan

After retrieving Samara’s corpse from the well and arranging a proper burial, Rachel tells Aidan that the curse has been lifted because she has saved Samara and laid her to rest. However, a distressed Aidan tells Rachel that “Samara never sleeps,” meaning that she will be continuing her murder spree to quench her thirst for vengeance. In a particularly chilling sequence, Rachel’s soon-to-be-ex-partner, Noah (Martin Henderson), is murdered by Samara, who crawls through the TV screen. Rachel realizes that she wasn’t spared because she helped Samara, but because she made a copy of the tape.

Aidan asks his mom what will happen to the next viewer — but Rachel doesn’t answer him.

Earlier in The Ring, Aidan watched that copy of the tape, thus saving his mom from Samara. In order to save Aidan, Rachel applies the same logic and instructs Aidan to make his own copy of the tape to give to an unsuspecting stranger. In a truly haunting moment, Aidan asks his mom what will happen to the next viewer — but Rachel doesn’t answer him. After everything, she focuses on protecting her own child, even if someone else will suffer. Noah’s death remains a shocking subversion of the apparent “happy ending,” and sets a much darker conclusion into motion.

Samara Wins At The End Of The Ring

The Cycle That Spreads Samara’s Evil Is Unending

The act of passing on the curse to save oneself is exactly what Samara wanted: The resentment and rage she felt for seven days before her death transformed her into a Yūrei, a spirit who could never experience a peaceful afterlife. That said, continuing the chain of murderous mayhem would ultimately grant more power to Samara’s spirit, magnifying her ability to imprint her rage onto the physical world. The ending of The Ring presents the dilemma of whether to accept the fate these characters have coming to them or to let someone else take their place. Either way, Samara wins.

Samara Possessed Abilities That Tormented Her Parents

The Morgans Aren’t Samara’s Biological Parents

By finding the Morgans’ home, Rachel learns more about Samara’s past.

The Ring’s Ending Offers A Bleak Existence For The Survivors

Rachel Saves Aidan’s Life By Condemning Someone Else

The ending of The Ring implies that Rachel can save Aidan if she makes a copied tape and passes it on to someone else, thus dooming that person instead. It then creates a dark and disturbing cycle of either being killed because of the curse or following the same path of dooming someone else. Those who choose to live are cursed in another way, spreading the harm of the tape and Samara’s vengeful spirit. Similar to the Entity in It Follows, the curse becomes a virus to be spread.

The metaphor of the tape being akin to a virus has been explored in great depth in Koji Suzuki’s novels, in which the tape manifests a mutated version of smallpox into the physical body of the viewer. This is deemed possible as Samara is a nensha, a being with psychokinetic powers to burn images, feelings, or memories into objects with her mind. The novel also states that the tape manifests a tumor in the viewer’s heart, which kills them on the seventh day.

In Suzuki’s sequel novel, Spiral, the virus mutates further, infecting people through written accounts and other audio-visual means. When applied to 2002’s The Ring, the ending points to the fact that death is inescapable and always around the corner, whether one is ready for it or not. While life can be prolonged by replicating the tape and passing on the curse, it is only a matter of time before guilt and remorse trap them over time, making death a preferred alternative over selfishly passing on the legacy of a vengeful spirit.