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1Fix the driver behind crashes, sound loss and screen glitches2Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problems3Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteMaxine survives. In Ti West’s X (2022), a group of young filmmakers shooting an adult film on a rural Texas farm are caught by their elderly hosts and forced to fight for their lives. Maxine gets away. Pearl, Howard and the rest of the crew do not. The closing discovery of the massacre confirms that the farm’s killings are the story’s final, grim reality. The sections below cover the ending in full, so this article contains spoilers for the film and its companion, Pearl.
Who survives the farm
- Maxine is the film’s only survivor and its central character at the end.
- Pearl and Howard, the elderly hosts, do not survive.
- The young film crew is killed; none of the main group leaves the farm alive apart from Maxine.
A24’s official synopsis frames the setup as a group of young filmmakers making an adult film in rural Texas, whose elderly hosts catch them and force them to fight for their lives. The ending then pivots from survival horror to aftermath, closing on the discovery of the massacre rather than on a resolved confrontation between the survivors and the hosts.
Why Pearl turns on the group
The film does not reduce Pearl’s violence to a single motive, but the reporting around it points to envy, aging and a life she feels has slipped past her. The Los Angeles Times reports that West located the horror in fear of aging, becoming obsolete and living an unfulfilled life, and it describes Pearl as envious of the younger people at the farm.
Brittany Snow, who appears in the film, told the Los Angeles Times on March 23, 2022 that the film works on sympathy as well as fear: “The scariest part of the whole movie is that you feel for the villains because we’re all going to be those people eventually.” That line is the cast’s reading of the film’s design, and it explains why Pearl’s rage reads as recognizable rather than purely monstrous.
#1 Best Overall
Pearl and Maxine as mirror images
Mia Goth plays both Maxine and Pearl. The Los Angeles Times reports that Pearl’s envy and Maxine’s ambition establish both their resemblance and their opposition. Maxine is intent on escaping her background and becoming a star; Pearl sees in Maxine a version of the youth, sexuality and possibility she feels have passed her by. Read together, the two characters work as a pair of possible selves: one who gets out, and one who stays and turns bitter.
The aged Pearl was built with prosthetics and makeup by Weta Workshop, according to the Los Angeles Times. West’s official note specifically praises the challenge of an actor’s “dual performance,” which is the clearest on-record description of why the casting is central to the film rather than a stunt.
The mirror reading is an interpretation of reported facts, not a line West is confirmed to have delivered as a single explanation of the ending.
What Maxine’s escape does and does not settle
Maxine’s survival gives the ending its sharpest contrast. She avoids the fate that consumed Pearl, but the film leaves her future open, so the escape is an ending for the massacre rather than a clear statement about what Maxine becomes next. The closing image of the crime’s discovery reinforces that the victory is partial and that the farm’s violence has already been recorded.
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- Factory sealed DVD
Why the climax is played as slasher excess
The final showdown is deliberately lurid. In a Salon interview published May 1, 2022, West says that the unusual end-of-film events and the showdown are part of the experience. He also warns against reading the film only through its plot: “For me to worry too much about plot is to somewhat miss what is more important about the overall feeling of the movie.”
That is the best guide to the ending’s excess. Its gore, its sudden turns and its tone are not decoration around a puzzle; they are the emotional texture of the film. West did not confirm a single symbolic meaning for every final image, so viewers should treat specific symbolic readings as their own interpretation.
Rank #4
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- Media Format: Blu-ray
- Studio: Universal Studios
- Country of Origin: USA
- Number of discs: 1
West’s own account of the film
In his director’s note, published by A24 on March 18, 2022, West describes the film’s origin in personal terms: “I wrote X for fun, never expecting it to actually get made. It was a way for me to ruminate on some feelings I had about getting older, making films, and my lifelong love of horror cinema.”
He also states the film’s intended blend: “My goal with X was to hopefully somehow capture the best of both worlds.” In context, he is referring to art-film craft and independently produced exploitation cinema. The note makes the film as much about filmmaking and genre history as about the characters’ fates, which is why the ending reads as both a slasher finale and a commentary on the people who make such films.
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Is Pearl needed to understand the ending?
Pearl is the companion prequel that explores the antagonist’s earlier life. A24 calls it an origin story for X’s villain and says Pearl’s ambition, temptations and repressions collide on her family farm. The Los Angeles Times reported that the prequel was filmed back-to-back with X, with Goth playing Pearl decades earlier.
Watching Pearl first deepens the backstory, but it is not required to understand the literal ending of X. The events of Pearl come before those of X, and the two films differ in focus: Pearl is an origin, while X is the farm massacre and its aftermath. Watching X first still gives the ending its full impact; Pearl adds context about the woman who ends it.
In short: Maxine survives, the farm’s other occupants die, and the ending is built as a deliberate contrast between two versions of one performer’s life. For the strongest reading, start with the plot, then pay attention to the performance and the film’s stated interest in aging and genre.
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