Backrooms Ending Explained: What Happens To Mary And What’s Next?
A24’s Backrooms movie is officially in theaters this weekend. The film, which stars Chiwetel Ejiofor and Renate Reinsve, is based upon the viral “Backrooms” creepy pasta, which originated in 2019. Since then, the Backrooms has taken on a life of its own, becoming the subject of a web series from Sam Parsons, a 20 year old YouTuber who went on to direct the Backrooms movie. The movie follows the story of Clark, a furniture store owner who’s in the midst of a painful separation from his wife. His therapist, Mary, also plays a substantial role in the film as she investigates Clark’s whereabouts as he begins to spend more and more time in the backrooms. From there, Mary uncovers some of the many secrets of the backrooms and discovers what Clark has been up to since he went missing in the real world. It’s a story that’s part tragedy, part horror, and sets up a grand finale between Mary and Clark, who find themselves in a battle for survival in a place they can barely even understand. The ending of Backrooms answers some questions from earlier in the film, while also posing even more questions for the audience. Backrooms is tense, full of scares, and bound to capture the attention of hardcore fans and general movie-going audiences alike.
What Are The Backrooms Really?
Clark wandering in the backrooms in Backrooms
Throughout the film, the question is continually posed: what are the backrooms? It’s something that fascinates Clark, so much so that he spends hours and hours exploring this huge alternate world (for which real sets were built for this backrooms adaptation). When Mary goes into the backrooms in order to look for Clark, she immediately sees the horrors of the place. She meets Clark again and, despite appearing like an ally at first, Clark quickly knocks Mary out. She wakes up at a dinner table, surrounded by Clark and a few people that look almost like real humans, but not quite. Some details are off, just enough to make them look terrifying. It’s at this dinner table that Clark shares what he’s found while living in the backrooms. It’s unclear how long Clark has been there at this point, but it’s clearly long enough to have significantly affected his mental state. Still, he’s able to articulate his findings, saying that the backrooms is “everything that’s ever been.” This makes the backrooms akin to the strange beings in the dining room, who are known as the Still Life. Just like them, the backrooms is an imperfect copy of everything that’s ever been in the real world, including Clark’s furniture store, the house where Mary grew up, and more.
What Is Async’s Role?
Chiwetel Ejiofor as Clark looking into an opening in Backrooms
A strange company lingers in the background of Backrooms. They’re first introduced in the opening scene, with an explorer who’s left behind and eventually killed in the backrooms. Audiences then get brief looks at the company sprinkled throughout the film, with one scientist at the forefront of it all. Mark Duplass, best known for his role as the Peach-Fuzz killer in the Creep franchise, plays Phil, seemingly one of the leading scientists for the company. He works for Async, the company in question, as they attempt to explore the backrooms. Phil explains that Async used to be a manufacturer of MRI machines but, upon the discovery of the backrooms, immediately pivoted to focus on this. Therefore, Async are (somewhat) experts on the backrooms. They have mapped out the place as much as possible, but Phil notes that the backrooms continue to grow in size. Phil explains that both he and the company believe the backrooms is the most important discovery not just in his lifetime, but in all of human history.
What Happens To Mary?
As explained, Mary finds herself tied up in the third act of the film. She’s surrounded by both Clark and several Still Life, and Clark makes her do a role-play of him and his ex-wife, a callback to the duo’s first scene together earlier in the movie. Their role-play is incredibly tense, with Clark getting more agitated as it goes on. Eventually, another Still Life appears, but this one is not like the rest. This Still Life is an iteration of Clark himself, when he was in his pirate suit. The Still Life version is 10 feet tall, with a wacky-looking face and extremely violent tendencies. Pirate Clark kills the real version before Mary runs away to escape. A chase sequence then begins, with Mary running deeper and deeper into the backrooms. She can’t tell if she’s getting closer to the exit or further into the abyss, but at this point, all Mary is focused on is getting away from Pirate Clark. She eventually finds herself back in the furniture store, which, at first, Mary believes is the real world. She then realizes that this is the backrooms version of the furniture store, and sees Pirate Clark following her. Pirate Clark almost catches up with her before Mary runs into a team of Async scientists, who are startled by her presence. They then take both Mary and Pirate Clark back into the real world for further examination.
Mary is then seen meeting with Phil, and it’s in this scene that Phil explains the role of Async. Mary asks what will happen to her, and Phil attempts to redirect her by asking her to focus on just this conversation. Phil eventually states that he doesn’t know what will happen to Mary, as a decision hasn’t yet been made. That’s where the audience last see Mary, with her ultimate fate unknown.
How Backrooms Sets Up A Sequel & What Backrooms Director Kane Parsons Says About The Ending
Kane Parsons and Chiwetel Ejiofor on the set of Backrooms
The Backrooms movie ends with a shot of a Still Life version of Mary, who sits in a poorly replicated version of the room the real Mary spoke to Phil in. As a result, a follow-up for both Mary and her Still Life version is left open, with some potential involvement of Pirate Clark, who was seen being examined in a secure room by Async scientists at the end of the film. Regarding the ending, director Sam Parsons has strong thoughts. While speaking with Esquire, Parsons emphasized his desire for the ending to remain ambiguous, saying:
“I have always felt disappointed when I hear someone I look up to tell me about their work. I don’t really care for that too much, personally, about the stuff that is meant to be narrative or not ambiguous. I could tell you exactly what it means to me and what it was meant to be, but I don’t want that information being out as fact…I want a chance for people to go through [the movie] in an untainted way. I’ve had people take a couple things from it, and I have not decided if it’s best to dictate verbally what that thing is. It’s a classic case of, ‘What do you think it meant?’”
Parsons is willing to clarify one aspect, though, confirming that the events of the film are not a dream. As for whether the story of Backrooms will continue in a later sequel, that remains to be seen.
Release Date
May 27, 2026
Runtime
110 minutes
Director
Kane Parsons
Writers
Will Soodik
Producers
Chris Ferguson, Dan Cohen, Dan Levine, James Wan, Jenno Topping, Kori Adelson, Michael Clear, Osgood Perkins, Peter Chernin, Roberto Patino, Shawn Levy
