Paradise Ending Explained – What Happens To Elena & Max

While 2023 Netflix sci-fi Paradise’s ending might come as a surprise, the dystopian thriller’s conclusion makes sense. The German sci-fi thriller tells the story of Elena and Max, both of whom are entangled with a shady corporation known as AEON. Set in the near future, Paradise imagines a world where wealthy people can buy years of a donor’s life for cash. Poor people sell decades of their lives, so rich people can live longer. Max works for AEON, a company that facilitates this process.

Max has worked at AEON for years when the movie opens, but his job doesn’t prevent him from falling into financial ruin. Elena sells four decades of her life to get him out of debt after their apartment burns down. Sophie, the wealthy proprietor of AEON, buys these years from Elena. She rounds out Paradise‘s cast as the main villain. Max finds her bargain with Elena barbaric, and he and Elena set out to reverse the procedure. However, Paradise delivers several twists along the way, making their mission morally complicated.

What Happens To Elena & Max After Paradise’s Ending

How Max & Elena Differed On Solving Their Problems

The Paradise ending explained that the anti-AEON group ADAM took Marie, Max, and Elena hostage. They’re opposed to all age-swapping procedures and hope to lure Sophie into their clutches via her daughter, Marie. Unfortunately, the confrontation between ADAM and AEON concludes with ADAM’s leader dead and Sophie escaping justice. Elena takes Marie hostage and takes her to Lithuania, where a doctor transfers four decades of Marie’s life to Elena. Max is uncomfortable with the ethics of this decision.

Elena leaves Max, and he becomes the new head of ADAM. In the Paradise ending, Max sees Elena on a beach where she’s pregnant with someone else’s child. It is not clear why Max and Elena are in the same place. However, Max is likely an ADAM agent. Max is against all age-swapping, while Elena feels she earned Marie’s years after the trauma she underwent. Since ADAM wants to stop the age-swapping procedures once and for all, they may have opted to assassinate Elena. It doesn’t seem Max can go through with this plan.

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Why Elena Took Marie’s Years (Despite Max’s Doubts)

Elena Had A Good Reason For Her Controversial Decision

Max struggles with the idea of Elena taking four decades of Marie’s life, as Marie is technically innocent and opposes the work done by her mother. Since Marie’s mother, Sophie, is the one who stole Elena’s years, Max’s trepidation is understandable. However, Marie tries to shoot Elena when given the chance, so it’s clear she doesn’t care about Elena’s life. Elena reasons she’s right to reclaim her years. She feels that Marie doesn’t deserve them any more than she does. Since Sophie robs Elena, Elena robs Sophie’s daughter. She considers this justice.

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Why Sophie Set Up Elena and Max

Sophie Is Guilty Of Everything Bad That Happens

Like Netflix’s earlier drama The Surrogacy, this story has an evil matriarch at its core. Paradise’s ending revealed that Sophie set up Elena and Max’s entire relationship. She engineered the fire that burned down their apartment and put them into debt. The conniving villain even has someone who bought Max’s years killed so that Max won’t be able to sell more of his life to this man. Sophie needs Elena because Max’s partner is a rare DNA match for her. She uses this to justify the nightmarish ordeal she puts the couple through.

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Why Sophie Refused To Give Marie Her Years

Sophie Made Elena’s Decision Worse

Sophie could give Marie the years she bought from Elena at the end of Paradise. This would complete the cycle by bringing Elena, Sophie, and Marie back to their original, natural ages. However, Sophie only looks out for herself, so she refuses this option. Instead, she tells Marie she’ll find her a suitable donor, even though she knows it will be impossible to do so. The only reason Sophie goes through this trouble is because of how tough it is to match their shared DNA. Otherwise, she could give Marie her years and purchase more.

How Max Joining ADAM Sets Up Paradise 2

Adam Could Lead The Paradise Sequel

Paradise’s clever premise sets up the potential for a series of movies. The film takes place in a world filled with the sort of chilling technological innovations seen in most Black Mirror episodes. Max joining ADAM gives Paradise 2 a great potential storyline. Now that Max has gone from selling age-swapping procedures to rallying against them, the character is primed for a sequel where he discovers how the process works and who is funding AEON. Although Paradise’s story makes it clear that Sophie is an unfeeling monster, she can’t be the only one.

The Real Meaning Of Paradise’s Ending

The Finale Of The 2023 Sci-Fi Movie Exposes Its Message Of The Importance Of Political Action

The Paradise ending shows the ways in which lower-income people have to give up their time and labor for the enrichment of the uber-wealthy. Through wage theft, rent, and other means, the wealthy extract value from workers and lengthen their own lives at the expense of the less fortunate. When Paradise begins, Max doesn’t think there is anything wrong with this system. However, like 2023’s earlier sci-fi satire, I’m A Virgo, Paradise quickly disabuses its hero of the notion that income inequality is inevitable and acceptable.

When Max realizes the system can turn even someone as selfless as Elena into a vengeful, self-centered figure, he joins ADAM to put a permanent end to age-swapping. The Paradise ending explained that simply hoping for change is not enough. As ADAM’s leader, he’ll have to take action against the wealthy elites behind AEON. Paradise’s story pushes its hero to resist unfair and dangerous practices, leaving poor people poorer and making the rich even more powerful. This is a timely message, and it’s not one the film holds back on.

How The Paradise Ending Was Received

Reviews Were Mostly Mixed On The Movie

Paradise seemed to split critics and audience members down the middle when Netflix released it. The critics’ score on Rotten Tomatoes is an evenly split 50% while the audience score was higher at 60%, which makes it look like no one could agree if the movie worked or not, all the way to the shocking ending. Many audience members enjoyed the “unpredictable” nature of the story and how it remained “thought provoking” with moral choices shifting throughout.

When it comes to that ending, Movie Nation critic Roger Moore wrote that the movie meandered to the end but then had an action-packed finale that didn’t quite work based on the story it told. “This isn’t an on-the-run thriller. It’s more about the ethnics of this magical “procedure,” the amorality of those behind it and the people they’re preying upon,” Moore wrote. “That makes for a somewhat dull and meandering build-up to an action finale that’s slightly under-cut by the competing agendas in play.”

On the other hand, Lori Meek from Ready Steady Cut appreciated the message that Paradise set out to tell. “Some scenes of human cruelty are hard to watch, but that’s probably the point,” she wrote. “Aside from the in-your-face inequality message, this movie offers a compelling character study while asking pertinent questions about love and the worth of youth.”