Mother/Android ending explained on Netflix (2024)

Mother/Android was one of the sci-fi hits of 2022 for Netflix, even if it left viewers devastated by its bleak finale.

The post-apocalyptic movie, written and directed by Project Power's Mattson Tomlin, follows young pregnant woman Georgia (Chloë Grace Moretz) and her partner Sam (Algee Smith) as they attempt to survive after an android uprising.

Georgia is just days away from giving birth, leaving the couple facing a perilous journey across an android stronghold to reach safety before she gives birth. And if you think that a happy ending is in store, think again.

"When I first read it I was sobbing, quite frankly," Moretz told Consequence of her reaction to the script, adding that "everyone was not okay" when they filmed the final scenes of the movie.

In order to unpack the revelations of Mother/Android's dark finale, we have to delve into some major spoilers, so look away now if you haven't seen the movie yet.

The movie opens with Georgia in front of a fireplace burning some personal mementos as she says in voiceover: "How do you leave someone? Really, truly leave them. Leave them so far behind that it's like you never met."

In flashbacks, we see Georgia discover she's pregnant on Christmas Eve which is awkward timing. Not only does she want to break up with Sam, but the androids used as household helpers turn violent and start attacking everybody. Even people's smartphones start exploding to add to the danger facing humanity.

Georgia and Sam survive this initial uprising though, and we catch up with them as they're surviving in the forest. She is now nine months pregnant and they're attempting to make it to Boston, where the Family Initiative is taking parents with babies to safety in South Korea.

It's implied that the uprising only happened in the US and the rest of the world is safe, but a war is continuing in the US between humanity and androids. With an EMP set up in Boston, it's a safe place for humans. The problem for Georgia and Sam is that the area outside of Boston is an android stronghold.

Undeterred, the couple make their way to Boston, but after an attack by androids and drones, Georgia and Sam are separated. Georgia is rescued by Arthur (Raúl Castillo), an AI programmer who used to work at Raster Robotics.

Raster was the company that created the androids, although Arthur doesn't know what went wrong. "What went wrong was we built them in the first place," he tells Georgia, before giving her a sort of camouflage cloak that supposedly hides humans from the androids by masking body heat and the like.

Sam has been taken to an android base, where his captors torture him and break his legs. With the help of Arthur, Georgia breaks into the compound and rescues Sam with the cloak hiding her from the androids.

They make it to the army base in Boston where Georgia gives birth to a baby boy that they call Forest. As a result of his injuries, Sam has had his legs amputated, yet that turns out to be the least of their problems.

When Georgia is told by an army lieutenant that the technology doesn't exist to 'hide' humans from androids, she realises the truth. Arthur isn't a human at all... he's an evil android and it was all a ploy to get him into the army base in order to disable the EMP and let the androids attack Boston.

Georgia wasn't hidden in the android base – they purposefully ignored her in order to make the plan work. Arthur goes on a rampage through the base, but Georgia beats him to the EMP. "Boston is going down today, you can't stop us now," he taunts, before Georgia shoots him and activates the EMP.

As Georgia was told earlier at another army base though, this EMP only destroys androids in its range and activating it leaves Boston defenceless. The city will fall eventually, so Georgia and Sam head to the dock and manage to catch the last boat from the Family Initiative.

Unfortunately, they're told that the boat can only take their baby as "the baby's simple, but you're not". Sam also knows that without hospital treatment, he's going to die from his injuries, so he persuades Georgia to let Forest go on the boat: "If he stays here, there's a good chance he'll die. If he's out there, there's a good chance he'll live."

As Georgia writes a goodbye letter to her son, we see the life that she wishes they had play out on screen: "My boy, my son, my love. I didn't want any of this for you. I would have done anything to give you a normal life."

After Forest is taken away to safety, we cut to some unspecified time later and find Georgia alone in Boston. It's the scene we saw at the start of the movie with her burning personal photos of Sam and the photo they took in the hospital of their new family. It's her attempt at moving on with her life after losing her son and her partner.

The movie ends with Georgia agreeing to go with the army to Portland where they're setting up a new base, given that they've lost Boston to the androids.

What's next for her is unclear, but Moretz confirmed to Consequence that she's definitely alone now and Sam is dead. Sorry guys. "That was a question that I always had for Mattson, is whether or not we were going to see that, and he didn't want to," she explained.

"He wanted it to be pretty clear – and that last shot of me staring into the camera and being completely gone in a lot of ways depicted everything that we needed to... When you go through such a harrowing experience and that trauma, you don't react immediately. She probably won't fully process what happened to her for a very long time."

Moretz also revealed that Mother/Android was inspired by Tomlin's own life experience and, as such, it's a hopeful ending despite what it seems like.

"I think there's a catharsis when you look at Mattson and you see the life that he's lived and where he went, from the time his parents gave him up for adoption during the Romanian revolution and who he's become today," she noted.

"I think there's hope ultimately that humanity can move on and humanity and love will conquer all ultimately. We can move forward."

Mother/Android is available to watch on Netflix in the UK.