Netflix's midnight sky ends: what happened, and how the twist makes sense

Netflix's midnight sky ends: what happened, and how the twist makes sense
Midnight sky Caoilinn Springall and George Clooney sitting next to the radio
Warning: midnight sky spoilers in play. If you haven't seen the movie just yet, start the Slingshot orbit from here, and return once you've seen it for yourself.

It's another bad day in space, with some complications on Earth making things even more dangerous, as Netflix The Midnight Sky sees George Clooney trying to warn a crew of astronauts to return to Earth. To be fair, things are in pretty rough shape in this sci-fi movie that debuted on the streaming service, and with a particularly big business twist, the stakes are even higher. Which means it's time to warn you, reader, that we're about to dive into the end of the midnight sky. So if you don't want to spoil these twists, this is the last call to change course before we start to set the space that is the end. And we'll start with a summary of what happened at the end of the film.

What happens at the end of the night sky
Alone in the polar outpost, astronomer Augustine Lofthouse (George Clooney) is struggling to get through to the crew of ether, a spaceship that returns from its mission to deep space. He has explored the K-23 ether, Jupiter's moon that is fine for human colonization, and returns home with the results. However, they did not expect a terrible disaster known simply as the "event" would occur towards the tail end of their extended journey.

With a treacherous flight to the most powerful antenna at the entire Arctic base, Augustine successfully warns the ether crew that they should not return to Earth. Providing them with data to slingshot around the Earth and return to K-23, it is assumed that our only and terminally ill astronomer finally passes after "meeting" Sully (Felicity Jones), one of the astronauts on the ether. It's a moment that poignantly closes out Augustine's story, as Sully means more to him than he could ever know.

How Augustine's past plays in the midnight sky
Throughout the night sky, we see a series of flashbacks detailing the relationship between Augustine the younger (Ethan Peck) and the woman he loved once. He begins in a lecture that eventually inspires ether's mission, and its crew, but this romance ends when Augustine turns his back on human contact in favor of his work. Despite lying in the flashback, Augustine's girlfriend actually gave birth to his child. Except to see her briefly once, he does not recognize her or participate in her life.

It also turns out his little girl would fight the guards as his companion in the flight to the antenna. His name is Iris, she does not speak, but joins Augustine on his perilous quest. In the greatest twist to the midnight sky, we are aware that Iris is actually part of Sully's full name: Iris Sullivan. Through a major shift in fate, the pregnant Iris finally meets her father, for a brief moment in time, before becoming one of the potential saviours of mankind.

Why the big reveal of the midnight sky was such a big deal
In addition to developing the great coincidence that the midnight sky sits directly under the nose of its audience, Iris's story actually brings the follies of Augustine's entire youth circle. While she did not know that he was her father, Iris looked a lot at the work of Dr. Lofthouse. In fact, it was what inspired to become an astronaut, through the gift of a moon rock she moved her mother to him.

So while Augustine may be absent from his daughter's life, she was there when it really counted. Only , it really counts for humanity too, as by saving Iris's life, a good doctor may have saved the species. At the very least, he saved the life of her daughter and her partner, Commander Gordon adiol (David Oyelowo) who managed to slingshot around the ground and return to the road to K-23.

Midnight sky Damien Bashir looks at Tiffany Boone on board the ether
What happened to the rest of the ether crew in the midnight sky
While Aether's mission in Midnight Sky begins with more staff in the books, over time the film resolves its narrative, only Sully and Gordon are still alive and on board. After the unfortunate death of her fellow crew member Maya (Tiffany Boone), Sanchez (Demian Bashir) decides to leave the ether, to deliver her body to earth out of respect. This decision is made when revealing his back story, because she was the same age as his deceased daughter would have been, if she were still alive. As he had always imagined that the two were friends, he felt it his duty to see to her burial.

But Sanchez also makes this decision because the re-entry horns on the ether need pilots to work fully. A fact that will complicate the previous decision of crew member Mitchell (Kyle Chandler) to land on the ground, trying to locate his family. The midnight sky reveals that his wife and two sons were evacuated to a shelter, according to the last letter Mitchell received from his wife. So he thinks it's worth a chance to find out if they are there, and decides to leave the ether. Which leaves Sully, Commander Gordon adiol (David Oyelowo), and their unborn child to return to K-23 and start a new life, leaving a huge question hanging in the balance.

One of the key unanswered questions leaves the midnight sky hanging
To get as much energy as the midnight sky puts into telling the audience that K-23 is the future of humanity, there is one major problem that seems to prevent this ending from being entirely optimistic. As we learn in the first chapter, the event happened three weeks ago, and the world too tight as a result. You need to be underground or in a very remote spot, such as the North Pole outpost to be still alive. These are all facts complicating one mentioned scenario, but not completely resolved, as Sully states to the ether crew that the K - 23 colony flight was supposed to be in the air "a week ago.”

This puts the crew of this good colony flight two weeks into Earth's firm doomsday midnight sky shows us, and we haven't heard from the mission, or heard from its crew, throughout the rest of the story. Of course, there is a snapshot that this flight may have reached space, given how space missions have been quarantined. But unless there are some massive changes made to the mission, or unless they leave earlier, this does not seem all that hopeful. Which puts the survival of our species on three people, one of them not yet born. So how will humanity be rebuilt on K-23?

We don't know enough to extrapolate a conclusion, based on the course of events of the night sky and how you speak. But it seems that this is not really the point of what this latest entry in George Clooney's filmography is trying to do. As a tale of communication in the name of survival, making up for lost time with loved ones, the end of the midnight sky works perfectly well. Although whenever I tried to figure out a happy ending to everything, hard might find yourself digging. Feel free to try the space-driven narrative for yourself, as the film is now streaming on Netflix. If you have any evidence or other theories about how to answer these questions, don't forget that you can leave your input in the comments section below.