Summary

• Swallow portrays a woman's journey to autonomy and control through a dangerous habit of swallowing inedible objects.
• Hunter's escape from her controlling marriage and traumatic past is explored in a satisfying ending of the film Swallow.
• Critics applaud Swallow's ending for showcasing Hunter's transformation and reclaiming of her body autonomy and freedom.

This article contains mentions of sexual assault.

The Swallow movie, written and directed by Carlo Mirabella-Davis in his directorial debut, is a stunning portrait of mental illness, control, and personal autonomy. The film follows a young housewife named Hunter (Haley Bennett), who develops Pica, a rare psychological disorder that causes her to develop an appetite for inedible objects. In the film, Hunter is stuck in a controlling marriage and spends most of her day alone and unfulfilled in a remote upstate New York home. Hunter's main tasks appear to be decorating their decadent house and embodying her husband's view of the perfect wife.

Her secluded circumstances begin to take an emotional toll on her, and Hunter seeks out a sense of self through an increasingly dangerous habit. Trapped emotionally and physically in her routine, Hunter yearns for autonomy and control. She manifests this by developing a habit of swallowing dangerous objects, beginning with a small marble but quickly escalating to a thumbtack. In a body horror movie, her new craving threatens physical harm, but Hunter appears ambivalent about the side effects, focusing only on the feeling of swallowing.

What Happens To Hunter In The Swallow Ending?

Hunter Finally Escapes Her Husband & Finds Freedom

Hunter seems lukewarm when she discovers she is pregnant but the news quickly consumes her husband, who eagerly tells his parents, making it theirs rather than Hunter's. Not even the child growing inside of her feels like her own; her body feels more controlled than ever. Hunter remains thrilled to have an intimate, raw secret - the process itself of swallowing, keeping an object inside of herself, and then expelling it. The cycle is freedom from her husband and health while the baby does not offer that feeling.

Hunter's doctor discovers her disorder and diagnoses her with Pica, a psychological disorder that drives people to consume the inedible. Her husband and in-laws insist Hunter see a therapist and subsequently hire Luay, a family friend and Syrian immigrant to watch Hunter during her isolated days at the house. Hunter reveals to the therapist that she is the product of rape but learns her therapist is divulging the contents of their sessions to her husband.

...Luay helps Hunter escape through a window.

Panicked, Hunter swallows a screwdriver and undergoes emergency surgery. Her husband and in-laws plan to have her committed to a psychiatric hospital until the baby is born, but Luay helps Hunter escape through a window. After tracking down her biological father, she approaches him and finally relieves herself of her past trauma. With a new sense of freedom, autonomy, and control, Hunter visits a clinic and obtains pills to induce an abortion.

The Real Meaning Of The Swallow Ending

Hunter Regains Body Autonomy & Earns Her Life Back

The entire focus of Swallow shows a woman who has no control over her life, body, or emotions. With a husband who is consumed with his work and social standing, she lives with him as nothing more than his wife, someone who is there to maintain his home, ensure his meals are made, and eventually provide him with children to carry on his name and family line. His parents are as controlling as he is; they all believe Hunter is there only to provide for her husband.

The ending of Swallow has Hunter swallow the screwdriver, which can not only kill her but also harm her pregnancy. Her husband and his parents plan to institutionalize her to force her to carry out the pregnancy against her will. There is also a very good chance they will abandon her after the baby is born, leaving her there and moving on without her. However, Hunter needed to find herself before she could finally break the chains these people bound her with.

The reason that Hunter sought out her biological father was because she needed to reconcile the trauma from her birth since it was via rape. She finds a man who is remorseful and tells her that he is in no way ashamed to be her father and is not disappointed in her at all. With that out of the way, Hunter realizes her life is hers to control, as is her body. At the end of Swallow, with sole power over her body and a newfound stability in herself, Hunter can start over and begin a life of her own.

Swallow's Ending Is Part Of Its Success

Hunter Discovers Herself, Making The Ending Work Better

The ending of Swallow is very important and is a big reason critics praised the movie, giving it a certified fresh rating of 88% on Rotten Tomatoes. The ending goes a long way in showing how Hunter was able to achieve her autonomy and freedom from her restrictive marriage and the sense of nothingness she seemed to feel inside. That was needed so that the movie could feel like it told a complete story with a satisfying ending.

This couldn't last forever without causing long-lasting pain and eventually destroying her. Hunter was killing herself little by little because she felt trapped by both her past and her present-day life. This ending allowed her to make decisions of her own volition that allowed her to take ownership of her body. Critics pointed out that the story is about the warped expectations placed on women and the damaging effects they have, and Swallow has a fairy tale ending in which she finally has her happy ending, even if it does not always look like one.