Blink Twice director Zoë Kravitz revealed her thoughts about the thriller movie's unexpected ending in a new interview.
Kravitz's psychological thriller's plot revolves around a billionaire named Slater King (Channing Tatum) who invites his male business partners and unsuspecting female guests led by Frida (Naomi Ackie) into his private remote island.
However, he and his friends have more sinister intentions since it is later revealed that he uses a perfume dosed with poison that makes the females forget they are being raped every night by the men on the island.
Blink Twice Ending Recap
Blink Twice's ending showed that Frida and Sarah (Adria Arjona) were able to realize that their memories were being erased by the perfume given to them upon their arrival on the island, with snake venom as the cure.
After a chaotic standoff that killed all of Slater's businessmen and the two women victims aside from Frida and Sarah, Frida used the same poison on Slater before saving him at the last minute after the mansion was burned down. It also effectively erased all of his memories.
The movie ended with Frida as the new CEO of Slater's company and it showed Slater by her side, implying that she is still using the poison to control Slater as her act of revenge toward him.
Some have pointed out that the movie cemented an empowering ending for Frida, with fans noting that she rose above her tragic past and her fresh start signifies that she now seizes control of the system that wronged her.
However, it leaves fans with an ambiguous ending where they are wondering if Frida is now part of the same corrupt system.
Blink Twice Director Agrees With Fans About Their Ending Analysis
In an interview with Vanity Fair in August 2024, Blink Twice director Zoë Kravitz agreed that the ending is empowering for Frida, noting that "she wants to be Slater King" since she is attracted to power:
"Probably the ending of the film. Frida doesn’t want Slater King, she wants to be Slater King. Power is this thing that she’s so attracted to, and that’s the reason she goes to this island. To be told to be invisible, and then to be seen by the person that everybody looks at—that’s the thing that it’s about. That’s what she wants. When talking about women, we talk about empowerment and there’s something that feels cuter about that. Power feels masculine and empowerment feels feminine. So I want to start using the word power when talking about women."
Naomi Ackie also said in the same interview that women have the same instincts as men when it comes to power while Kravitz chimed in:
Naomi Ackie: "Not to be shy about power. It isn’t something that solely belongs to men. We talk about men a lot."
Zoe Kravitz: "The powerful man."
Ackie: "They’re power-hungry and powerful—but women have those same instincts."
Kravitz: "And then we’re told, 'She’s difficult. She’s a bitch.'"
Ackie: "Or empowerment and girl power: 'You’re a girl boss.' 'No, I’m a boss.'"
Kravitz: "I literally wanted to put “female-directed by” at the end of the movie because I’m like, 'Why is it [always] female director?' It’s not like, 'Hey, hi, female doctor.' 'Are you a female lawyer?' 'No. I’m not a directress.'"
In the same interview, Kravitz was asked if Frida gained success in the movie's ending. The director admitted that there is no correct answer, pointing out that she's very happy for Frida yet "mortified at what she had to do to get there:"
"That’s a very good question. How do you define success? And was it worth it? I don’t think there’s a right answer. There are versions [of the movie’s ending] where I’m very happy for Frida. I’m happy that she hopefully has a comfortable life now, and I’m also mortified at what she had to do to get there."
As Ackie chimed in, Kravitz said that the look that Frida gives at the end of the movie makes viewers think if she's happy or not and it appears to be up for the audience's interpretation since there is no real right answer:
Ackie: "There’s potentially a future where she doesn’t deal with the trauma. Or does."
Kravitz: "That look you give at the end of the movie, in my mind, is the Mona Lisa of looks: Is she happy? Is she angry? Is she like, 'Fuck, yeah!' Is she sad? It’s all these things at once and it’s so stoic and interesting. I don’t think there’s a right answer."
Speaking with Entertainment Weekly, Kravitz posited that she intended to leave the ending ambiguous since she hoped that it would "spark conversations:"
"There's a lot of open-ended questions that I hope spark conversations. Is this the beginning of something or is this the end of something? Is it the continuation of something? I think those are all up for debate, and I'm curious what that makes people feel."
True enough, Blink Twice's ending left fans scratching their heads about Frida's otherworldly plan to take over Slater King's company. It also begs the question of how long will her plan last.
Circling back to Vanity Fair's interview, Kravitz admitted that there were different versions of the movie where Slater died and an exploration of cannibalism at one point, but the ending where Frida took over Slater's company was "always the same:"
VF: "A lot of people will be talking about the ending. Did you always envision it concluding with Frida as new CEO of King Tech with an impaired Slater as her husband?"
Kravitz: "Well, I actually don’t know if we talk about that. There was a different ending. It changed. For good reason. But the ending-ending was always the same."
Ackie: "There was a different twist, let’s say, before the ending."
Kravitz: "But the ending of Frida taking over and the cycle continuing, but now she’s in Slater’s position, was always the end. Although there was a very, early version of the script where things went down in flames and he just died and that was the end. And [Channing Time] was just like, 'Slater can’t die. It’s too easy.' "There was cannibalism in an earlier version of the script. That shit was crazy. You think this is crazy?"
Why Blink Twice's Ending Is Empowering Yet Troubling
Frida's hostile takeover of Slater King's company at the end of Blink Twice is satisfying to watch that evokes a sense of catharsis for those viewers rooting for her since from the start.
For some, it would be too easy for her to leave Slater behind and simply let him die, especially after everything he'd done to her and all the women he had been victimizing on his island.
While it comes as a shock that she would give Slater a taste of his own medicine (quite literally) by erasing his memories with poison, some would think that he deserved it and Frida's takeover is empowering on the outside.
However, the long-term effect of Frida's revenge is troubling since there is a chance that it is not sustainable and it could easily come back to bite her if Slater ends up regaining his memories since all it takes is one snake bite.
Blink Twice is still playing in theaters worldwide.
