‘Emilia Pérez’ Ending, Explained: Who Died And Who Surived The Film’s Tragic Conclusion?

Perhaps Netflix‘s biggest awards title this year, Emilia Pérez just may be one of the most talked-about, controversial, polarizing, yet loved films of the year. From French auteur Jacques Audiard, the film stars Zoe Saldaña, Karla Sofía Gascón and Selena Gomez, with Adriana Paz and Édgar Ramírez in key supporting roles.

The movie is a mashup of many genres including comedy, drama and crime– and it is a musical with surreal elements on top of that.

The film has several deaths at the end and it ends pretty sad and tragically, although the ending does have a glimmer of hopefulness. Here’s all that went down in the film and its ending:

How does Rita get involved with Manitas?

Saldaña’s character, Rita Mora Castro, is a lawyer living in Mexico whom we first meet when she is working on as a defense lawyer but is seemingly unfulfilled by what she is doing. She just did the argument for the case of a guilty man who killed his wife, and her team won the case. She soon receives a secretive phone call with an offer. Though she is skeptical and nervous about it, she takes the meeting. When she goes to the meeting, she has a bag put over her head and is taken to a remote location where she meets with Juan “Manitas” Del Monte (Karla Sofía Gascón), a drug cartel leader. And what does he want from her? He wants her to help him get gender-affirming surgery and start a new life, leaving this old one behind.

So, traveling to multiple cities around the world, paid for by Manitas, Rita talks to doctors and finally gets one to do the surgery after he hears Manitas’ story of going through gender dysphoria over the years. Meanwhile, Rita has Manitas’ murder staged and relocated his wife Jessi and their children to Switzerland, telling Jessi that Manitas wanted this for their safety. She then learns on television that Manitas has been murdered. Manitas pays Rita off and wants her to disappear now. Manitas goes into surgery and comes out as Emilia Pérez (still played by Gascón), and she is ready to live her new life.

Rita and Emilia re-enter each others’ lives

Several years later, at what appears to be a work-related dinner in London, Rita and Emilia meet again, and it is not by coincidence. Emilia brought Rita into her orbit once more because she wants Rita to now help her get her children back. Rita agrees, and then has Jessi moved from the Swiss Alps to Mexico City to stay with Emilia, telling Jessi that Emilia is a distant cousin of Manitas. Jessi seemingly does this begrudgingly, and also appears to find Emilia a bit odd, especially how close and touchy she is with her and Manitas’ kids. Meanwhile, we learn that Jessi had an incentive to come to Mexico City because her former lover, Gustavo (Ramirez) lives there and she hopes to reunite with him.

How and why Emilia and Rita start their organization to help people

Emilia convinces Rita to stay in Mexico and help her, and they have an encounter with the mother of a missing child. This makes Emilia reflect on her past life as a drug leader and criminal, and she vows to help people moving forward. She starts a nonprofit, La Luceita. Through the nonprofit, she uses her prior connections with cartel members to find and identify the bodies of cartel victims. However, as Rita points out, since the people funding the organization are still in the drug game, it still makes the work that she’s doing inherently corrupt, though well-intentioned.

Here’s how Emilia’s kids recognize her and how she forms a romance

Emilia continues to spend more time with her children. She puts her son to bed one night and he recognizes her scent as his father’s and calls Emilia “papa.” She also forms a close bond with a woman named Epifanía (Paz) who comes into La Luceita one day to confirm her abusive husband’s death. They then start a romance.

How Jessi and Emilia’s relationship turns sideways

Emilia continues to struggle with not being able to truly be a parent to her children and having to be in this “auntie”/distant cousin role. As this is going on, Jessi is resuming her romance with Gustavo. She then tells Emilia that she and Gustavo are going to move in together and the children will come with her. Emilia says the children are here and grabs Jessi, who is alarmed and confused. After this, Jessi and the children disappear from the house and Emilia begins to spiral. Having access to Jessi’s money, Emilia freezes the accounts and then has one of her henchmen go and threaten Gustavo. Rita tries to play peacemaker, but Jessi becomes more and more upset.

Emilia is kidnapped

Things escalate, and Jessi and Gustavo have Emilia kidnapped and hold her for ransom. They are asking for $30 million and they want Rita to bring the money. Rita prepares to head there with Emilia’s armed henchmen at her disposal. Hoping that there is a chance for peace, Rita tries to broker with Gustavo but a shootout takes place. While they are taking cover, Emilia then reveals to Jessi who she really is by telling her details about how they met and their wedding.

The fate of Jessi and Emilia, as well as what happens to their children

Jessi slowly but surely begins to piece things together. Gustavo orders her to get in the car and they put Emilia in the truck. Jessi then fully realizes what is happening and who Emilia is. She wants to stop the car, but Gustavo doesn’t. She pulls out a gun and the struggle over the gun, which leads Gustavo to drive off of a cliff. The car explodes and Gustavo, Jessi and Emilia are all dead. Rita tells Emilia and Jessi’s children that they have died and she will now take care of them.

The final moment of the film and what it means

The last moment of the film sees people marching in the streets and singing about Emilia and honoring her. Epifanía is in the crowd and is leading the group. There are also people carrying a statue of what looks like a saint. While continuing to sing her eulogy, they also remember and celebrate her legacy and what she did for the community. In the streets, they sing, “Las Damas que Pasan.”

Ultimately, the story is a tragic one, but one of heart. And at the end of the day, Emilia’s legacy lives on, not as her past, but the impact she made before her death.

“Emilia Pérez doesn’t just tell the story of one woman. It’s about four very different women,” Audiard told Netflix’s Tudum. “I had to be able to lend these characters a past, a history, a real maturity. I realized this when I discovered Zoe and Karla almost simultaneously. In a way, they reoriented the script, making it denser. Their own lives fed into the lives of the characters.”