Spoilers for the entire 2024 film. Ruth was Longlegs’ accomplice: after he threatened Lee when she was a child, Ruth made a bargain to spare her daughter and helped deliver the dolls to other families. At the Carter home, Lee shoots Ruth to stop the final attack—but cannot destroy the remaining doll. The film ends without resolving what happens next to Lee, the surviving Carter daughter, or the doll.
Why did Ruth help Longlegs?
Ruth’s cooperation began as an attempt to protect Lee. When Longlegs came into Lee’s life as a child, Ruth bargained to spare her daughter. She then helped him carry out the murders by delivering dolls to the families he targeted. The film ties those dolls to a supernatural influence that pushes the households toward violence.
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Longlegs [Blu-Ray] | $16.79 | Buy on Amazon |
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That bargain makes Ruth both a mother trying to save her child and an accomplice in other families’ destruction. Her motive does not undo the consequences of her choices: Lee eventually has to stop her.
How do the dolls work?
The dolls resemble the daughters in the targeted households and contain an orb in the head. In the film, they serve as the route by which Longlegs’ supernatural influence reaches the families. The story establishes their role in the killings, but not a precise technical explanation of the orb or its sound.
#1 Best Overall
- Longlegs [Blu-Ray]
Writer-director Osgood Perkins declined to explain the mechanics, describing them as part of “the playfulness of the devil.” Treating the dolls as a conduit is supported by the plot; claims that explain exactly how the mechanism works go beyond what the film settles.
Why does Lee shoot her mother?
At the Carter home, Ruth has helped set the final attack in motion. Lee shoots her to stop it. She cannot bring herself to destroy the remaining doll, so the act ends the immediate threat without providing a clean resolution to the supernatural one.
Rank #2
- Longlegs [4K UHD]
Perkins told Variety that “the ending was meant to be tragic.” He called Lee’s final shot “the worst thing that can happen to her”: Lee has to kill her mother, whose choices began with an effort to save her.
What does the ending mean?
Perkins has described the devil’s victory as small and personal, not an apocalyptic triumph: a family is wrecked, and Lee is left to live with having shot her mother. Den of Geek’s interview with Perkins likewise connects the chain of crimes to the position Lee is forced into at the end.
Rank #3
- Horror
The film’s family drama also gives Ruth’s bargain a painful ambiguity. Perkins has called Longlegs a “parenting movie” concerned with parental choices. Ruth’s attempt to shield Lee through a bargain and concealment protects her from one immediate danger, but draws Ruth into other families’ destruction and culminates in Lee’s unbearable choice. That is a reading grounded in the mother-daughter story, not a definitive symbolic explanation for every image.
Independent reader supportYour contribution helps us test, update, and keep practical guides available for everyone.Does the film explain what happens to Lee?
No specific later fate is confirmed. Perkins said, “The story of Lee Harker ends with the ending of the movie.” The final image returns to Longlegs, while the film leaves Lee’s future, the surviving Carter daughter’s fate, and the remaining doll unresolved. It does not confirm that Lee becomes a new accomplice, that the curse is permanently broken, or that any character dies after the cut to black; those are possible audience interpretations, not established outcomes.
Quick Recap
Rank #4
- Longlegs Maika Monroe (Actor), Nicolas Cage (Actor), Osgood Perkins (Director)
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