Warning: This article contains spoilers for Warm Bodies.Warm Bodies is a zombie horror movie with a romantic comedy twist - here's what its ending reveals about its zombie characters and the future of its central couple. Based on Isaac Marion's book, Warm Bodies begins with a monologue from a zombie (played by Nicholas Hoult) who recalls that his name starts with R but has forgotten the rest. With an undying craving for human flesh, especially the brain, R walks through the wasteland the human world has become and looks for humans to prey on. In this pursuit, he and his fellow zombies find a group of unsuspecting humans led by Perry (Dave Franco) and his girlfriend Julie (Teresa Palmer).
After attacking the group, R eats Perry's brain, which makes him fall for Julie. As a result, he disguises her as a zombie and protects her from others of his kind. The more time he spends with her, the more his humanity starts coming back to him. However, complications arise when not only his fellow zombies but even the surviving humans refuse to accept his relationship with Julie. And even when his zombie friends do him, an evolved species of zombies called boneys object them. Towards the end of Warm Bodies, a war ensues with the Boneys on one side and the humans and zombies on the other.
How The Zombies Turn Human In Warm Bodies' Ending
Unlike the Boneys, who become mere skeletons after losing all hope and tearing off their skins, zombies or corpses like R trying reliving their humanity by consuming human brains. Deep inside, they seem to be holding on to the hope that someday they will get to be humans again. As seen in Warm Bodies' opening moments, R can think for himself and even interacts with M through grunts and mutters. While he is far from being human in these moments, he still seems to have some humanity left even though his bodily functions are primarily dead.
R first regains his humanity when he consumes Perry's brain and understands the value of true human connection. This allows him to suppress his hunger for Julie and instead, empathize with her. When Julie, too, stops treating him as a corpse and starts talking to him like he is human, R slowly feels the warmth of love and tenderness that comes with the experience of being human. This warmth gradually triggers physical changes in his body and his heartbeat returns, marking the reawakening of his humanity.
Towards the end of Warm Bodies, R's empathy and pure feelings of love towards Perry become contagious when he holds her hand in front of other zombies. While the Boneys show no signs of changing, the corpses start healing and recalling what it was like to feel human. Ultimately, through love, comion, and connection, the zombies turn human again and the world returns to how it used to be. Although Warm Bodies' zombie-to-human transformations do not make scientific sense, their metaphor for hope, love, and second chances is soul-stirring and profound.
Do Julie And R End Up Together In Warm Bodies' Ending
Since R gets to experience the purest form of love and comion for another human, he is the first to wholly transform into a human towards the end of Warm Bodies. In the movie's closing scene, even the wall that protects humans from the corpses collapses, symbolizing that the apocalypse has ended and R and Julie's love has overcome the barriers that separated their worlds. This conclusion confirms that since R has regained his humanity and humans do not fear zombies anymore, R and Julie will be able to live happily ever after.
Will The Boneys Turn Into Humans Like The Corpses
From its opening scenes, Warm Bodies establishes the Boneys are hopeless monsters who have lost their sense of humanity. Unlike the zombies, they feel nothing when they first see Julie and R holding hands. Their lack of emotions confirms that similar to conventional zombies in shows like The Last of Us, there is no hope for them. Towards the end of Warm Bodies, however, the Boneys become a minority since the zombies find hope and even return to co-existing with humans to cure themselves. As minorities, the Boneys eventually run out of food sources and die in Warm Bodies' ending. This brings closure to the overarching apocalypse, allowing humans and the reformed zombies to live in peace.
What Warm Bodies' Ending Reveals About Its Zombie Virus
Since Warm Bodies focuses more on R's emotional journey of becoming human from a zombie, it does not delve into the details of the virus that led to its apocalypse. However, it does establish that similar to zombies in classic literature and pop culture, the living dead in its storyline can spread their illness by biting humans. R mentions that if he does not eat a human's brain, the human he bites will also turn into a zombie. The humans also try to aim for the zombies' heads when they try killing them, affirming that Warm Bodies' corpses are not entirely brain-dead.
Apart from that, Warm Bodies does not reveal anything else about the origins of its zombie illness or its scientific details. Instead of treading the same path as most zombie movies that incline more towards the sci-fi genre and explain the origins of their zombie apocalypses through fictional viruses, Warm Bodies keeps everything fantastical and focuses more on subverting zombie tropes and themes, especially the ones revolving around hostile human-zombie relationships. This change of direction in its narrative makes it more like contemporary vampire movies that revolve around romance between humans and mythical creatures.
Warm Bodies' Romeo Juliette Parallels Explained
Warm Bodies shares many parallels with William Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, suggesting that it is a contemporary take on the play. For instance, like Romeo and Juliet belong to the two feuding houses, Montagues and Capulets, in the original Shakespeare play, R and Julie belong to opposing species in Warm Bodies. Like Romeo and Juliet, R and Julie start questioning the boundaries separating their species when they learn to empathize with one another. Towards the end of both stories, the central couples overcome prejudice by challenging the deep-rooted hatred and misunderstanding that divided their respective communities.
In its final arc, Warm Bodies also directly refers to Romeo and Juliet by featuring a scene similar to the play's iconic balcony scene. Considering these parallels and the fact that "Julie" is short for "Juliet," R's name was likely Romeo before he turned into a zombie. However, unlike Romeo and Juliet, which ends with the demise of the two lovers, Warm Bodies ends on a positive note, where instead of failing to revive her lover from his deathbed, Julie kisses him and brings him back to life.
The Real Meaning Of Warm Bodies' Ending
Ironically, even though Warm Bodies uses zombies/corpses to drive its storyline, it is a story of humanity at its core. Its ending highlights how even during the darkest of times and the most unfavorable circumstances, humans can thrive through unity, comion, and connection. While its narrative devices, especially towards the ending, can be a little too fantastical, they do not diminish the impact of its overarching themes. In fact, fantasy allows Warm Bodies to defy the conventions of zombie narratives where humans or zombies ultimately perish and bring a more fairy tale-esque story that instills hope with its heartwarming conclusion.
