The following contains spoilers for The Crow, now playing in theaters

Summary

• The Crow's ending resets the universe and undoes Shelly's death, leaving room for a potential sequel.
• Eric sacrifices himself to save Shelly, making a tragic but heroic decision by remaining in the afterlife.
• Shelly's hidden video almost dooms Eric, and sets up a potential sequel to explore her resurrection and other dangerous forces.

Bill Skarsgård as Eric aka the Crow, the film updates the setting to the present day and introduces a number of new wrinkles to the story, including a unique antagonist with his own supernatural history and powers.

The new version of The Crow's story takes some serious deviations from previous versions of the story but also stays true to many of the visual and emotional beats at the core of the original story. Even if the film's ending leaves some mysteries at play, the characters of The Crow highlight the underlying theme of the film in a grisly finale. Here's how The Crow's ending leaves the door open for a sequel while still allowing the title character to earn a bittersweet sense of closure.

The Crow's Ending Resets The Universe & Undoes Shelly's Death

The Film's Ending Raises More Questions Than It Answers

The ending of 2024's The Crow resets Shelly's death, raising plenty of questions about how the world changes. After Vincent's men kill Eric and Shelly, the former is given the chance to avenge their deaths. Kronos even tells him that so long as his love remains pure during his mission, the crows will empower him and the couple will be restored. However, his horror at Shelly's violent past jeopardizes their chance at resurrection, so he allows himself to remain behind in the afterlife to save her. After Eric kills Vincent, he briefly speaks with Shelly before she's revived in her apartment.

Notably, she's revived next to Eric, now dead. Her resurrection seems to reset the universe to a certain degree. Earlier in the film, her death led to a funeral and other fateful endings, including that of her mother. Shelly's resurrection might mean the universe is different now. While the supernatural fate of Vincent implies that all the murders committed by Eric still happened, Shelly's personal history seems to have been changed so that she never died. The film ends before it can fully unpack this revelation, but it raises plenty of questions that could be resolved in a potential follow-up.

Why Eric Is Still In The Afterlife In The Crow's Ending

Eric Has To Sacrifice Himself To Save Shelly

Initially, Kronos implies to Eric that avenging himself and Shelly will result in both of them being resurrected. However, Kronos does cryptically warn Eric that his motivations must remain pure during his mission and that losing his love for Shelly will imperil his mission. This ends up being the case after Eric discovers a video of Shelly (under the control of Vincent) killing another woman. It turns out "doubt" is considered the true enemy of love in the world of The Crow, depriving Eric of his healing powers and sending him back to Kronos.

Eric's love for Shelly is enough for him to trade his salvation for her, offering to take her place in the afterlife. This means that when Eric does succeed in killing Vincent and bringing him down, he doesn't get resurrected like Shelly. It's a tragic but heroic decision by Eric, arguably one of the only purely selfless things he does in the entire film. It also leaves him in the afterlife. While he isn't dragged into the underwater hell that Vincent is condemned to, Eric seems at peace with being trapped in the train station between planes of existence.

What Was On Shelly's Hidden Video & Why It's So Important For Eric

Shelly's Secret Almost Dooms Eric (Twice)

Early in The Crow, it's established that Shelly is trying to hide a video. Her friend Zadie is killed for her having it, while Shelly is hunted down. Halfway through the film, the video is revealed to contain footage of Shelly attacking and killing another woman. The footage contains proof Vincent spoke to her right before the murder, using his powers to force the attack. While the video being exposed would likely condemn Shelly to prison, the connection to a murder could also help break the public facade that Vincent has seemingly enshrined for himself in high society.

This video also plays a role in Eric's personal journey. After finding the video and watching it himself. His horror that Shelly could kill someone, even under the command of a force like Vincent, shatters his faith in her. This is when he begins to doubt his love, costing him his powers at a crucial junction and almost dooming his mission. Although the video isn't exposed to the world (and Vincent's conspiracy is instead brought down in a more violent fashion by Eric), the video ends up being surprisingly crucial to the plot.

How The Crow's Ending Sets Up A Sequel

A Sequel Could Explain Shelly's Resurrection & More Dangerous Forces

The Crow ends on a fairly conclusive note, but without ambiguity that it could set up a potential The Crow 2. By the end of the film, Vincent has been killed and Eric has accepted that he must remain in the afterlife while Shelly is revived. The film ends with him walking off into the misty distance. The fact that Eric's potential final fate remains unresolved easily means he could be sent back to the real world down the line. Shelly's resurrection and a brief meeting with Kronos could also set her up to find out more about what happened.

There's also the mystery surrounding Vincent's power that could come into play in a follow-up film. The entity that made a deal with Vincent is left largely ambiguous, but the film hints that he made the deal countless years ago. The dark nature of the deal is also clear from his revelation to Zadie that he must appease it by sacrificing pure souls. A deeper exploration of this lore, especially if Shelly is involved in the investigation, could be the perfect excuse to bring back Eric into the land of the living for a new adventure.

The Real Meaning Of The Crow Explained

Love Triumphs Over All, Even Death & Demonic Deals

At the core of The Crow is the transcendent power of love. Eric and Shelly are portrayed as lost before they find one another, and their joy when around one another is clear from every scene they share together. By contrast, the characters in the film who have accepted death as a constant are shown to be empty inside. Beyond the clear exhaustion of Vincent, characters like his assistant Marian and dirty cops on their payroll seem regained and broken by the choices they've made.

This embrace of hatred and apathy almost consumes Eric, as Marian points out he has a shared disdain for the world as Vincent in his eyes. Losing that true love almost costs Eric his chance at vengeance, but reinforcing it not only allows him to achieve his revenge but save Shelly in the process. It's a sweet undercurrent to a film that's largely focused on action and death and gives The Crow a sentimental core message about the importance of finding love.