The ending of Barbie opens an exciting new door for both the titular doll (played by Margot Robbie) and Ken (Ryan Gosling). Here's what happened at the end of Greta Gerwig's latest film.
Barbie ending explained
Warning: Spoilers ahead for Barbie
Early on in Barbie, the titular doll has a conflict of mortality. She dares to ask the question “Do you ever think about death?” in a perfect world like Barbie Land. This results in her being tasked with a quest from “Weird Barbie” (Kate McKinnon) to go to the real world and find the person who's playing with her. Ken joins her, and the two make their journey out to the real world.
Once there, the two are met with a harsh reality check. Men aren't as kind and objectify Barbie, and Ken has his eyes opened to the idea of patriarchy and believes the world is run by men. He brings that newly-found knowledge back to Barbie Land and begins reworking it while his “girlfriend” is still in the real world.
Meanwhile, Barbie is meeting Gloria (America Ferrera) and her daughter Sasha (Ariana Greenblatt). It turns out that it wasn't the child who was playing with her, but her mother. Gloria is currently going through the roughest time of being a mother given that her daughter is now a teenager and growing into her own. That made Gloria resort back to the comfort of her toys only this time, with adult emotions (hence why Barbie is suddenly feeling human emotions).
Upon returning to Barbie Land, the titular doll is greeted with the newly-renamed Ken Land. They've created a patriarchy and begun oppressing women; making them watch The Godfather and do nothing more than please men. Barbie, now deflated, wants to just give up on everything. It takes Gloria reminding her that she is a strong woman to get her out of her funk and they begin developing a plan (with “Weird Barbie”) to snap the others out of it.
In an Ocean's Eleven-like scheme, the Barbies are extracting each woman one by one from their funk. Once they assemble all of them, they move to the final phase of their plan: Pitting the Kens against each other. It works, and they have a beach showdown and dance-off as the Barbies reclaim their homes.
When Ken finally confronts Barbie, he learns that he has to discover who he is. Up until this point, he always thought his life was destined to be Barbie's partner, but she tells him that he's got to learn who he is without her. He then gives his jacket to Kingsley Ben-Adir's Ken and becomes his own person.
And everyone has a happy ending. The Mattel CEO played by Will Ferrell and his group of yes men make their way out of hiding and agree to terms with Issa Rae's “President Barbie.” They return back to the real world along with Gloria and Sasha, but that leaves one person without a happy ending: Robbie's Barbie.
That's when Ruth Handler (Rhea Perlman) resurfaces. When Barbie was running from the Mattel crew in their headquarters, she encounters Ruth without knowing who she is. Now, she literally meets her maker and goes on a walk with her. They reach some inter-dimensional space where Barbie confesses that she wants to find true meaning in her life and be a part of the world that makes decisions, and not just being the result of decisions made by others. While supportive of her ambition, Ruth reminds her that “ideas live forever, people don't.”
Nevertheless, Barbie decides to go to the real world. She takes on the name of Ruth's daughter (who inspired the doll's name), Barbara Handler, and is seen being driven somewhere by Gloria, Sasha, and Gloria's husband. She walks inside and checks in for an appointment with her gynecologist.
Where the franchise goes from here is open-ended. Greta Gerwig's film will be a hit, and Margot Robbie has already discussed returning for sequels, so perhaps it becomes a Toy Story-like story where Ken has to bring her back to Barbie Land. Or, you could continue exploring Barbie in the real world (something that doesn't get quite enough time in the film).
Barbie will be released on July 21.
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