Warning: The following contains spoilers for Fountain of Youth's ending.The Fountain of Youth cast and director explain Owen, Luke, and Charlotte's fates at the movie's end. Released on Apple TV+ on May 23, the new Guy Ritchie movie stars John Krasinski as treasure hunter Luke Purdue, who teams up with billionaire Owen Carver (Domhnall Gleeson) to track down the long-lost Fountain of Youth. Luke also ropes his sister, Charlotte (Natalie Portman), and her son, Thomas (Benjamin Chivers), to help decode the clues.

In an interview with Entertainment Weekly, Gleeson, Ritchie, Krasinski, and Portman broke down what Fountain of Youth's ending means for each main character. The director explained that while the fountain itself can heal all wounds and restore what's broken, it's also the "inevitable temptation," where most will "drink more than you should," and Owen's fate, where what he consumes ends up consuming him, is the consequence. Read the director's comments below:

There's an idea that it wasn't the first bite of the apple, but the reactive bite of the apple in the Garden of Eden that caused all the trouble. It is all well and good if you can taste something, if you don't then have to go back and inhale the stimulating elixir that the fountain offers. The principle of the fountain is that the reason it's concealed is because the inevitable temptation of having to drink more than you should is a temptation which few can resist.

Gleeson shed some light on why Owen, the cautious billionaire, lost himself to the Fountain of Youth. The actor stressed that Owen decided to "fully commit to it" because his character isn't someone who would step back at the last minute, and, sadly, that also means he'll be the one to pay the price. Check out his comments below:

He went into some sort of a void where he had to make a big decision, which was to fully take it, to fully commit to it, or to step back? He's not one to step back. He keeps going forward. So, he dives in headfirst, and there's a price to be paid for that. And it seems that he pays it.

Krasinski's Luke didn't take from the Fountain, despite being tempted. The actor highlighted the philosophical aspect of the fountain when the energy was inside Luke and how his character's bond with Charlotte grounded him at that moment of decision-making. As for what happened to Owen, he believes that the billionaire is trapped in the fountain for eternity. Read his comments below:

It's a very human desire to always want something more than you already have. Guy talked about that all the time and said, "What if the fountain of youth was inside you? What if it's just a metaphor for the light inside you that you can either make brighter or dimmer? And what if you worked really hard to pull out all the things that made you joyful, rather than the things that you were wanting? What could you do to make people around you happier?"

I thought that philosophical angle was really beautiful. Charlotte showed me that the bond that we have is rarer than any artifact that I could have. Guy said, "It will be your sister that convinces you that you have the access to everything you could possibly want right here." And I thought that was pretty heavy.

The fountain is everything that you could possibly want, but if you get everything you want, then you have to live there and you have to remain there. You can't have both things. So, he's being dissipated into whatever that is back under the ground.

Portman saw the promise of eternal youth as a loss of identity because, in the process, one has to give up "all of the gifts of age." As for where the Fountain stands at the movie's ending, Ritchie stressed that he would like viewers to think that the fountain is now permanently sealed until humanity finds the ability to take but not "drown in it." Check out their comments below:

Natalie Portman: If you go back to being young, you lose your identity, which is built of everyone you love and all the experiences that you have, which are the evidence of age and experience, so that's the trade-off that you make when you are trying to get youth. You are giving up all of the gifts of age. You lose yourself.

Guy Ritchie: Forever is quite a long time. When mankind finds the ability to drink the fountain and resist the temptation to drown in it, so to speak, then it will reveal itself once more.

What This Means For Fountain Of Youth's Ending

Fountain Of Youth's Ending Can Be Interpreted In Different Ways

Krasinski and Portman's comments shed some light on what Luke really saw in the Fountain of Youth, while Gleeson's comments explain why the billionaire made a different decision. In the scene when the Fountain was healing Luke, he saw Charlotte and Thomas, who would be the ultimate choice. While Luke has put his loved one's life on the line multiple times during the treasure hunt, it seems that the Fountain served as his ultimate wake-up call when he realized who he loved the most and what the cost was.

Since the Fountain only takes what the person loves the most, and since Owen only loves himself and his enterprise, losing himself and what he built was the price, but as Gleeson explained, Owen's commitment and dedication were what fueled his chase for treasure, money, and power in the first place, even knowing the consequence, the billionaire still chose to embrace it. Krasinski's comments offer an intriguing take on what really happened to Owen, which aligns with the philosophical aspect and the deeper meaning Ritchie tried to convey through the movie.

Our Take On Fountain Of Youth's Ending

Fountain Of Youth Revealed Itself For A Reason

The Fountain of Youth's ending serves as a lesson. As Ritchie explained, the treasure only reveals itself when humanity finds the ability to resist its power, which seems to explain why Luke and Charlotte were able to find it in the first place, while many have failed for thousands of years. Luke can resist the temptation because of his love for his family, and it's heartwarming to see that he walked out of the pyramid, healed and transformed.

What happened to Luke serves as an inspiration, but Owen's fate, on the other hand, is a tale of caution. Despite its magic and beauty, Esme (Eiza González) had to seal it underneath the pyramid to protect humanity from destroying themselves. On the surface, Ritchie's Fountain of Youth tells a tale about a treasure hunt, but it's so rich in metaphors that it can be interpreted in many different ways.

Source: EW