WHAT LIES BELOW (2020) Ending Explained

hey what's up everybody and welcome to found flicks on this inning explain we're looking at what lies below not to be confused with what lies beneath with harrison ford and michelle pfeiffer from 20 years ago yeah different thing this one is all about an awkward 16 year old girl who meets her mother's new fiance a man whose charm intelligence and beauty seems too perfect to be human this is a pretty decent sci-fi mystery thriller but isn't without its faults being especially bogged down by some deep-seated familial past wounds that don't really add anything much to the story i don't mind that type of stuff in general but you know at least give me some kind of payoff because what really becomes the driving force of the narrative is what is the deal with michelle's new steamboat boyfriend john the other stuff just isn't that interesting and honestly in the end it feels like the best and most worthy of exploring aspects of this are a bit short-changed potentially due to low budget this is one of those that's all shot in one location with just a couple actor kind of things but it still ultimately feels like there's a lot more to mine from what is set up versus the delivery it's like i'm way more interested in the mystery than the fact that grandpa didn't really love her or whatever you know what i'm saying because the last 10 minutes or so of this is actually really good and opens up the world of the story in a lot of ways but the ending still feels a bit undercooked and is certainly confusing but there is a lot to look at regarding a lot of those big lingering questions and thankfully there's a few more details to fill in thanks to comments from the filmmaker so let's check out what lies below breaking down the story what all we learn about jon and who he really is including what his big plan is along with explaining the ending and what it means there's an orange glowing light penetrating from beneath the water the waves getting stronger and the light overwhelms the frame we then meet 16 year old libby waiting with a bunch of kids reading about lost worlds as her mom pulls up calling her by her pet name baby girl apparently she was at some kind of archaeology camp mom asking if there were any good digs libby seems a bit introverted mumbling back yes what about the boys she inquires raising her eyebrows leading to a few moments of silence michelle considering maybe she shouldn't go to camp next year and besides aren't you getting a little bit too old for it another kind of weird connection thing they do is getting libby to scratch her arm and she does so to michelle's satisfaction even though libby doesn't have a permit or anything she offers to let her drive giving her all the necessary preparations before getting on the road encouragingly telling her she's doing a great job turning off onto a dirt road libby notices a for sale sign thinking it might be for their house but mom explains that it's just a vacant lot although after all her stories aren't selling like they used to and they will need extra cash for her college mentioning a local affordable one she keeps fiddling with her watch telling her it's a gift from who you'll see she smirks pulling up to a quite lovely lakeside cabin michelle runs out calling for her babe we hear a sultry voice say hey and a big beefcake dude smolders his way out of the water libby slackjawed mutters holy crap i know she responds proudly they have a somewhat odd and tentative introduction john hoping him being here isn't a problem and goes to fetch her a present based on her mom's mention of her interest in archaeology it's a bracelet that he says has origins in both the western and eastern worlds dating all the way back to the dawn of civilization the symbol on it he explains represents the goddess of fertility her grumbling thanks if you want he whispers there's a gift receipt in there flashing his pearly whites and asking who's hungry seeing jon must have spurned some confused feelings in the girl grabbing her stuffed dinosaur and throwing it in a drawer she then dons a summer dress and practices flirting in the mirror oh i'm a woman now she catches a sneak of his tummy mom hoping that she's hungry and noticing that she dressed up forced to watch along as they kiss she's curious about how they met michelle relaying that one day when outside on the deck he just kind of appeared out of nowhere he details he's been at the lake studying species working as an aquatic geneticist his intention is to solve problems in nature focused on quite a serious one the earth has a finite amount of fresh water and as the planet's temperature heats up there's not enough supply of freshwater systems leaving the planet with more salt water over time many species can't survive these rapid changes without major adaptation concluding that he's here to speed up mother nature so hopefully these species can survive in a saltwater world michelle moans in awe he's basically saving the world she gloats i'm not he chuckles back modestly he attempts to take a bite of salad and weirdly immediately starts coughing and heaving having to leave the table he collects himself and michelle gives him a big hug unbeknownst to her placing a hand on libby's shoulder causing her to gasp oh my god he touched me she continues to struggle with her complicated feelings about him reaching for where he grabbed her and goes down to touch herself at the memory she then grabs a late night saudi hearing some serious moaning from her mom in her room it gets more intense as she approaches and peeks under the crack there's a thud of someone whooshing by and she bolts back to bed john later passes by her door watching her pretending to sleep and ominously closes the door in the morning the two lovebirds are in their own little world getting him to do the arm scratching thing what a betrayal she interrupts by loudly taking a seat on the cabinet mom asking if she wants to go hiking later she reminds her that it's august the 28th her saying that they can go after breakfast and invites john along but libby wants it to just be the two of them she gives him a smooch off to make breakfast john giving an intense stare to her but then softens his gaze with a smile there seemed to be quite a bit of boring lingering family drama going on here digging up some canisters from the dirt marked grandpa libby and mom libby stuffs a note into the grandpa one but mom doesn't have anything defending herself that it's been nine years time to let it go she angrily tells her to go back to your boy toy digging the knife in deeper no wonder grandpa gave me the house mom gets really upset as grandpa turns out never really loved her in the divorce agreement that she found giving her away but wanted to keep her brother and stomps off she then wanders into the woods and gets stung by a weird centipede just about to stomp it jon appears and tenderly brushes it under a rock revealing to her it's just protecting its offspring to her embarrassment he warns that it is poisonous and gingerly blows on the wound but smiles she'll be just fine they then discuss how upset michelle was and thinks perhaps that he should leave not wanting to put a wrench in their relationship she questions if he really does love her mom and he is adamant that he does she ruins to let him stay about to go tell her mom about it he stops her maybe give her a bit she wasn't feeling great earlier she goes to check on her anyway finding her groaning in bed complaining that her stomach hurts they patched things up from earlier asking if she found anything cool on her walk kind of well why not show john she asks you guys have a lot in common there's even bigger news that they've been hiding jon asked to marry her and she said yes she loves him so much wanting her to be okay with this again calling her baby girl she aggressively fires back don't call me that but remains diplomatic just wanting her to be happy there's another secret she lied to him about her age she's been meaning to tell him but is worried it might make him leave she comforts her don't worry you won't you're incredible doing a search on the critter that bit her she sees john outside running from a job she goes to the window to leer as he removes his shirt and sucks down the sweat from it she hides away just before being noticed and when looking back he's vanished she does seem to decide to give jon a shot putting on the bracelet that he gave her and knocks on the basement door carrying some olive branch sodas she gets no answer so lets herself in and it's quite dark and spooky down there everything bathed in blue light john pops out exclaiming what a great surprise he offers a soda but he says he can't do the sodium blaming a bad ticker about to leave he invites her to check out his stuff he has several specimens of lampreys in tanks tying to his whole fixing nature thing these creatures are 360 million years old they've survived all kinds of climate changes and of course changing salt levels they are parasites that can attach to a host allowing them to adapt no other species on earth can do that deeming them beautiful kind of freaky looking to me i don't know you're kind of a weird dude she jokes laughing yeah i guess i am but weird is cool right both laughing oddly she brings up the whole marriage thing and he continues expressing how special her mom is to him wanting to check on michelle she says she's fine well in that case want to join me pulling some samples from the lake oh sure out in a little raft she interrogates some more about his past learning that he went to a small private school reaching a buoy he can't quite reach it having to remove his shirt and lean out to grab it wow you really take any chance you get to pop that top eh bud she's pretty smart too revealing that she got early acceptance to a sweet college but it is really far away concerned about what her mom would think about it blood suddenly trails in the boat assumedly libby having her period and he rushes with his shirt to mop it up things immediately uncomfortable he tries to shrug it off we're both scientists right it's totally normal but then he licks the blood off of his hand which is definitely not normal quite embarrassed she hobbles out of the boat and goes to take a shower removing the bracelet she notices it's left a red mark on the skin john knocks on the door asking if she's okay and she doesn't answer unsure of how to respond he sneaks in anyway telling him that she's fine and to give her some privacy he pretends to leave closing the door then getting on the other side of the curtain and takes a big sniff he then grabs her shirt also giving it a big sniff looking quite delighted and decides to take it along with him she finally pulls the curtain back but by then he's already left something weird about this guy she anxiously goes to her mom's room and john is there climbing into bed with her she takes the chance to investigate his basement lab further stop by the door being locked trying a different tactic she attempts to reach out to her bff marley only strangely getting crackling on the phone line she texts her with a 9-1-1 asking for her help and to come tonight but she can't make it until tomorrow she types out that her mom is getting married to a freak of nature she's then startled by a gentle knock at the door seeing a sandwich and note left and offering from john according to her mom it's her favorite oh thanks a lot i don't want to eat that sandwich who knows what you did to that thing libby attempts to get to sleep but the orange light returns stepping to the window she sees its source is coming from the water john's standing right there at the edge he walks in approaching a light until entirely submersed and the glow fades away to darkness she rushes to her mom's room pounding on the door yet we don't hear anything from the other side and guess what that door is now locked too lots of locked doors around here all of a sudden she ventures back to the water staring into the abyss and jon emerges from the trees behind her he wonders what she's doing down here oh yeah what about you he claims that he just woke up arguing that she just saw him walking into the lake points out while he's pretty dry for that and mentions that he suffers from sleepwalking apologizing if it scared her she fumes oh you always lock the door when you sleepwalk apparently getting no sleep whatsoever she's still up and looking exhausted the next morning she then hears her mom screaming out and rushes to her age she is not looking so good hunkered around the toilet asking her to go into town to get some medicine and a pregnancy test too i'm kind of wondering what kind of thing is brewing up there in her gutty works john can't go either as he's on one of his super long jogs and won't be back for hours in town she bizarrely sees someone that looks quite similar to jon on a stroll with another woman also a redhead and based on his touch going all the way down to her bottom it does not appear to be platonic she was in such a panic that she forgot to pay for the test and the couple drives off was that john or perhaps another john back home marley did show up first giving her mom her supplies she really wants to stay and help her but she wants john to help instead despite her pressing to be involved mom still ain't getting something is off about this guy john then creepily runs his hand up her back to her shoulder promising that he'll take care of her as she leaves john's turns back his eye kind of twitching in a peculiar way libby then rushes to marley we're vomiting about everything that's been going on after processing what she said marley knows that she has to at least bring it up to her mom or call the police but when she brings up the licking the blood thing in the boat that's enough for her to go confront michelle about him libby listens to them indistinctly talking upstairs using a chair to get a better earful although it's uncertain how their interaction went libby later seen tossing in bed she rustles out the next morning to mom and john watching childhood videos of her she's curious about what happened to marley being told that she left a while ago she's confused why didn't you try to wake me they claim that they did but she was passed out hard john then smiles revealing they are pregnant oh she says in a distant tone congrats michelle pleads with her to also be okay with this turning things to what marley told her but she says that that is all just a mistake michelle gets frustrated blaming her for coming up with some bs excuse every time she dates someone putting her foot down that jon isn't going anywhere and feeling that she should apologize libby makes a desperate attempt to literally pull her mom away from him yelling for him to leave she slaps her good and goes to comfort john yep you're losing here girl libby spills the beans about her age thing throwing in hope you don't plan on having any more kids he appears upset michelle asking him to say something he goes to the door and she tries to stop him let go he grumbles his eyes looking bloodshot and strange again michelle has pissed at her for pushing away her bow and by the way john told her about cambridge but if she wants to go there they are gonna have to sell the house later on the couch she starts hearing noises and tries to get a better look around with a flashlight surveying the roof but sees nothing hearing michelle screaming she cautiously approaches the slightly ajar door the couple are in there porking and quite into it seeing strange bumps or kind of scales moving under his skin he growls in an inhuman fashion libby fling in terror yeah some kind of alien guy here obviously right she decides to go back moments later yet somehow the bed is now empty the orange glow flittering along the walls intending to leave she gets the car but forgets to put it in parks sending it careening into the water pretty boneheaded move there yeah that's why you don't have a license yet because you know what you're doing she loses her out of desperation and clicks the lights on seeing something quite strange in the water there's the edge of what looks like a diamond-shaped structure it must be john's spaceship as well as where the orange light came from she again tries to make a call getting the same crackling as before she calls marley's phone hearing the ring coming from somewhere in the house emanating from the basement of mystery in the black light she sees symbols left behind in her skin from john's bracelet and continues down through the plastic barriers finding her mom in a tank her lower half in the water whoa looks like it's baby time noticing that she has the same symbols on her wrist along with more covering the walls michelle comes too telling her to get out of there but the unflappable lily keeps trying to get her loose that is until hearing footsteps above and she's forced to go high jon enters seeing his real feet kind of sizzling in the water on the floor he sniffs and backs away turning to his human form you michelle pants yes it's me he replies in a strange voice you monst she starts before being overtaken by immense pain starting to also screech in a distinctly alien sounding way john coos to the child don't be shy now come on now michelle continuing to scream in agony it can't be he moans no no no and he leaves with a baby he scratches out a part of the window seeing jon holding the child and wretches some kind of blue orb of energy from his mouth into the babies she returns to work on her mom's restraints the orange glow dissipating and she locks the door hearing the creature snarling outside she retrieves marley's phone encountering the same roadblock but this time sees the culprit the call causing lights to blink on some device created by jon to block their signal she smashes it to bits as a monstrous arm breaks through the window she makes a call to 9-1-1 explaining their dire situation crying to police hurry he's dangerous hearing some clattering she realizes that he's here then uncovers the tragic fate of her friend dead in a tank with lamp rays feeding on her well that's not good jon appears grabbing the phone away and lifts her by her neck a long animal-like tongue flicking out of his mouth well you did say i was a little weird he jokes she gets him with some salt croaking weirdly in reaction it dumps the whole thing on him jumping in the tank finally saving her mom jon still appears incapacitated and tries to get her mom awake and when she does the arm scratching thing that does the trick michelle gasping and apologizing as jon starts to get his bearings they make their way outside the tree is glowing orange and john is everywhere it appears michelle coughs and collapses weakly to the ground seeing her face is covered in rashes she tries to get her up but jon reaches them first movie regains consciousness back in the basement bound and gagged jon sulking down the stairs he grunts and punches at the walls revealing someone else behind it then more johns come down revealing even more tanks hidden in the walls libby flips screaming for help the main one comes to her and puts a hand on her face sighing that he doesn't have a lot of time and removes the gag shushing her he growls hacking up the same blue energy blob thing and shoves it down her throat libby's suddenly going quiet just swallow it he commands he covers her mouth and nose leaving her no choice but to choke it down then going limp she awakens once more in what must be the belly of john's spaceship under the water now at her own watery prison she screams for help unable to hear anything on the other side the shot pulls out seeing other women in their own cocoons notably all redheads her tank starts to fill up with liquid and she suddenly starts smiling in a kind of deranged way and that's it first of all the strange reaction she has here is libby realizing that she can breathe underwater i actually thought those blue balls were for something else entirely but apparently they allow anyone given the ability to breathe underwater well that's one big question out of the way so even if it is quite vague in many ways there's no question that jon is indeed some kind of extraterrestrial entity i mean we saw his real feet and arms at points and his purpose on earth must be to find a way to carry on his own species via mating with human females as well as collecting more for other experimental purposes when it comes to his proclivity towards redheads the idea is that this gene is a genetic anomaly something that makes us different code wise as humans somehow john has learned he can only procreate with this particular anomaly it seems the intention is an invasion of his species as well as i would imagine preservation if we go back and reframe some of his earlier conversations in particular about his work now knowing who he truly is they take on a different context he discusses saving species from mother nature and accelerating that greater design so it must also be trying to find a way to continue the survival of his own species he's going for so as experiments on earth are to find out exactly how to do so perhaps his own home planet is growing inhospitable and that is the thrust for his research and we saw that salt hurt him too so clearly that's part of the whole thing too as for the mini versions of john scene they're said to each be kind of exoskeletons over their original form each with their own unique kind of personality but still kind of the same basic thing all to appeal to more people and collect more specimens they then converge at the end before the cops get there to leave less of a footprint they're faster stronger and more intelligent than us a much more advanced species as the filmmaker details this helps us understand the blood shirt sniff as due to his heightened sense he can actually smell the details of libby's genetics just from this and the bracelets seem to act as kind of a way to mark his new potential candidates as he mentioned it features the goddess of fertility which certainly is appropriate considering everything so who knows what happens next we don't even see michelle's ultimate fate things just kind of end on an inconclusive note now there are plenty of interesting things they could do if the story is to be continued but maybe leave all that moldy family drama out of it next time because that literally added nothing at all and had no payoff whatsoever does grandpa love me or what that wraps it up for this any explain on what lies below and don't forget before we go you can request any tv shows or movies you'd like to see me explain by sending them my way on any of my social media accounts at foundflix we got that every time at social media it's like texan comes out what did you guys think of what lies below and it's ending would you be interested in seeing things flushed out a bit more in a sequel let me know your thoughts down in the comments below make sure to like subscribe and follow thanks for watching found flicks see you next time

Channel: FoundFlix

Views: 1,318,271

Keywords: what lies below, what lies below ending explained, ending explained, ending, explained, explanation, monster, what lies below netflix, netflix, meaning, alien, trailer, clip, final scene, end scene, mena suvari, spaceship, foundflix ending explained, foundflix, what lies below monster

Id: g555rGBpF94

Length: 20min 17sec (1217 seconds)

Published: Tue Apr 20 2021