Denise (Anne Hathaway) in ‘The End of Oak Street’
Warner Bros.
The End Of Oak Street has a shocking twist that’s very easy to miss, the final scene hinting at a spacetime disruption.
Written and directed by David Robert Mitchell, The End Of Oak Street plays like a twisted tribute to Steven Spielberg—dinosaurs running through suburban streets, a troubled marriage, interstellar anomalies—it’s even set in the eighties.
The happy ending of the critically acclaimed film is haunted by a subtle shadow, implying that the Platt family’s new life isn’t as sunny as it seems.
Warning—Spoilers Ahead
What Is The Plot Of ‘The End Of Oak Street’?
On the surface, the Platts could be mistaken for a perfect, all-American family.
Denise (Anne Hathaway) and Greg (Ewan McGregor) are hiding their darkness from one another, and their marriage is on the brink of destruction.
Greg is drinking heavily, having lost his job, secretly delivering pizzas to keep their head above water. Denise feels stuck in her marriage, writing a book expressing her dissatisfaction instead of opening up to Greg.
Both children, Brian (Christian Convery) and Audrey (Maisy Stella), can sense there’s something wrong. Audrey is the first to understand that wormholes are opening up in Flowervale—reality itself is coming apart, riddled with holes, just like the Platt’s marriage.
After a few notable rips in spacetime, Flowervale is fully transported to prehistoric times, and the family finds their neighborhood infested by dinosaurs.
The stress of the situation pushes Greg and Denise into acknowledging their long-simmering conflict, but they are forced to work together to find their children, who have left the safety of their home to find their missing dog, Starbuck.
The family soon find themselves fighting for their lives, desperately trying to avoid becoming snacks for the hungry dinosaurs roaming their suburban streets.
In a fun twist, these are scientifically accurate dinosaurs with feathers, reflecting recent discoveries by paleontologists that the Jurassic Park sequels chose to ignore.
Feathers and fuzz do not make these creatures any less intimidating, and several Flowervale inhabitants are casually devoured. Luckily, wormholes are still opening and closing, and some even offer a way back to the eighties.
Being in a life-threatening situation sparks a heartfelt reconciliation between Greg and Denise. Greg pledges to stop drinking, and Denise finds a renewed faith in her family.
Tragically, their happiness is cut short, as Greg ends up sacrificing his life to save them, devoured by an Allosaurus (it’s not actually a T-Rex, it just looks like one).
Denise understands that she has to bring her children to a wormhole, and the family endure several close calls, forced to watch friends and neighbors eaten by dinosaurs.
On the way, the Platts pick up the newly orphaned Jeannette (Jordan Alexa Davis), who lives down the street.
Leaping from a roof into a wormhole, the surviving Platts (and Jeannette) find themselves back in 1982, a mere twenty minutes before Flowervale gets transported to prehistoric times.
Denise acts decisively in the little time they have, ordering the kids to run to the hills, beyond the reach of the event, while Jeannette bolts away to warn her own parents.
Denise calls her neighbours to tell them to evacuate—the film’s final scenes reveal that they listened to her.
Finally, Denise uses her knowledge of Greg’s secret pizza delivery job to make an order, ensuring that Greg will travel to them, away from Flowervale’s teleportation.
The film seems to end happily, with lives saved and the family reunited. Denise even writes a new book based on her experiences, “The End of Oak Street.”
Flowervale never returns to the present, the suburb swapped for an ancient swamp, its dinosaur inhabitants quickly disposed of by the military.
Many of those that were eaten survived, and the once-troubled family seems happy. However, there’s a darkness beneath the sunshine.
In the film’s final scene, we see a photo of Greg, the redeemed version who died, posing in front of dinosaurs.
The End of Oak Street ends with a strange situation, often explored by Rick and Morty, as the question of duplicates hangs in the air. What happened to them?
The final scene inserts a subtle, blink-and-you’ll-miss-it twist, as the Platt’s host a neighborhood barbeque, revealing that there are now two Jeannettes.
One is from the timeline that experienced the anomaly (like the surviving Platts) and the other was saved by the first Jeannette’s warning.
This has a few troubling implications.
The Twist Ending Of ‘The End of Oak Street,’ Explained
The film never really explains how time travel works (a wise decision).
It seems that two timelines have been created, one in which the Platts survive but Greg is eaten, and another where everyone but Greg is condemned to live in prehistoric Flowervale.
It doesn’t seem to bother Denise that her duplicate self and kids were likely devoured. Does it trouble Greg that he mistakenly left his other family behind to deliver pizza?
Notably, this is not the same Greg that Denise bonded with. Did Greg need to be pushed to the brink of survival in order to quit drinking?
Is this Greg redeemed in the same way? She never shared that bonding moment with him. She may have simply settled for a copy of the original, still battling the same demons.
As for Jeannette, there’s two of her now. She seems at peace in that final scene, but one can only imagine how the family dynamic will be affected by the duplication of their child.
Intense sibling rivalry, existential angst—perhaps she’s pleased to have a twin.
The End of Oak Street leaves viewers to wonder about the ripples that have been created in reality in the wake of a uniquely bittersweet ending.