Come True Ending Explained: What Did It All Mean?

Hi, this is Barry, and welcome to my site. Come True is a 2020 psychological thriller directed by Anthony Scott Burns. The plot is centred on a teenage runaway who takes part in a sleep study which ends up surfacing her most terrifying nightmares. The film also goes into sleep paralysis and associated nightmares, which are experienced by a wide variety of people from different parts of the world historically. The cast has Julia Sarah Stone and Landon Liboiron in the lead roles. The film leaves plenty to discuss, so let’s get to it. Here’s the detailed plot analysis and the ending of the movie Come True explained; spoilers ahead.

Contents

Here are links to the key aspects of the movie:

• – Ending Explained: The Spoiler
• – Does Sarah wake up from her coma in the end?
• – What was real? What was part of the coma?
• – The Persona, The Anima/Animus, The Shadow and The Self
• – Plot Explained / Walkthrough
• – Why is Sarah avoiding her mom?
• – Who are the shadow men with glowing eyes?
• – The Sleep Study: What’s going on?
• – Who is Jeremy?
• – Who is Zoe?
• – What is the significance of Sarah’s phone?
• – Jeremy’s Dream With Sarah
• – What is the meaning of the sleep-walk scene?
• – What is the relevance of 10:01 on the phone?
• – What is the relevance of Sarah’s fangs in the end?
• – Come True: Movie Title Meaning

Come True Ending Explained: The Spoiler

The ending of the movie Come True discloses that Sarah has been in a coma for 20 years. Everything that we see in the film is inside her subconscious, and the world outside is attempting a new medical technique that can send her a message to let her know she’s in a coma. This message ends up on her phone, which is simply a part of Sarah’s subconscious, and this message from the world outside manifests in that portion of her mind.

Come True: Does Sarah wake up from her coma in the end?

Well, we don’t know. What we do know is that Sarah is now aware that her existence is within her subconscious. She looks at the mirror to see fangs (and we’ll talk about these fangs at the end) and laughs with joy as she realizes that the dark life she’s been living is only a convoluted dream. I’d reckon that once her mind is aware she’s in a coma, her false world will fall apart, and she’ll awaken from her coma.

Come True Explained: What was real? What was part of the coma?

This is the most pressing question on everyone’s mind who’s just watched the movie Come True. The answer, in my opinion, is – The entire film and its events are part of Sarah’s coma, and here are the reasons why I think so.

In this interview, director Anthony Scott Burns mentions his love for slasher films that have influenced him. And the reason being slasher films are set in a world that doesn’t exist. No character in the real world would behave the way do in this world. It’s not reality, but it’s interesting. This is a significant clue that Sarah’s world is also not real in the film.

In this other interview, director Anthony Scott Burns talks about how the characters in the film are all archetypes who are there to do their part; the movie is about Sarah’s journey and not about sleep paralysis. This again clues in on all the characters to be archetypes in her coma.

The movie begins with Sarah noting the time to be 7:11. The spiritual meaning of seeing 711 is that the person is waking up to their innate desire and transforming into their true self. And when questioned about this by Manny The Movie Guy, actor Julia Sarah Stone gives her nod and doesn’t say anything further to avoid spoiling the film. Because this number appears right at the start, we know that she’s already in a coma, and the entire movie is her awakening journey.

Sarah’s dreams about the shadow man have existed throughout the movie, indicating a common thread from the beginning to the end. While initially, the shadows are deep within the subconscious, as her journey progresses, the dark people step outward. Again, it’s something that indicates that she’s in a state of coma throughout the film.

Come True Explained: The Persona, The Anima/Animus, The Shadow and The Self

Psychologist Carl Jung was the one to come up with the four archetypes. You can read more about them here; here’s the summary of the Jungian Archetypes.

The Persona is the outer face that we present to the world. In the context of the film, this segment shows Sarah’s existence as a teenager in a world that she has created. In reality, she’s lying in some hospital bed and is at least 20 years older.

The Anima/Animus is the opposite image of the biological sex. These are the people she’s projecting in her coma state; specifically, Jeremy, who I suspect was her lover in real life. Everyone in the film is part of her subconscious, and they are probably projections of people from her real life.

The Shadow is the animal side which is the source of both creative and destructive energies. In this section of the film, Sarah bails from the study, disclosing that she knows exactly what they are up to. We see Sarah’s aggressive side take control.

The Self is the true inner self. This refers to Sarah coming to terms with the fact that her true self is in a coma and her facade of a teenager is only a dream.

Come True: Plot Explained / Walkthrough

Like Sarah, now that we have also [hopfully] come to terms with the fact that she’s in a coma throughout the movie, let’s go over the plot from the beginning.

Why is Sarah avoiding her mom? What is Sarah going through?

Sarah is not angry with her mom; she’s escaping even eye contact with her. Every day her mother exits the home, Sarah enters the house to shower, grab a coffee, and leave again. This could connect to how Sarah got into the coma in the first place. Maybe it was an accident that also involved her mother. May be Sarah knows that her mother possibly died. In her subconscious, Sarah avoids any contact with her mom to run away from the truth about her death.

Sarah’s mind is lost to a point where she does not want to be found. And this perhaps why she’s been in a coma for so many years. 

There is an inexplicable strangeness that we sense right from the beginning of the movie. The bizarreness of a runaway teenager going about a regular daily life reflects upon the bizarreness of any dream until we wake up.

In Sarah’s coma, her mind is not rested even though her body is. Her subconscious is sleep-deprived, and something about her world doesn’t feel right to her. In the short moments that she can sleep, Sarah has dreams of a gruesome labyrinth that ends with a shadow man.

Come True: Who are the shadow men with glowing eyes?

In real life, most people with sleep paralysis (even the director of the film) have claimed to have seen a dark shadowy person lurking in the room. This is the freakiest thing I have read about. Sleep paralysis is a state when one is awake but cannot move, and their minds project images from their dreams into the real world—the combination of the two sound scary as hell.

In the film Come True, the shadow men represent a deep sense of fear and hopelessness. Sarah’s mind is lost in the endless labyrinth that we see. It’s a dark place her subconscious has been wandering for long. 

The Sleep Study: What’s going on?

Tired of sleeping in the playground, Sarah enrols in a sleep study group that pays people to sleep connected to their wires. The group uses technology that converts brainwaves into images, and they have been studying people’s nightmares. Their apparent quest is to prove that all the participants see the same shadowy man they project into the room during sleep paralysis. This group even successfully observes two guys who simultaneously view the projection of the shadow man in the study room. 

The scientists and the participants in this study are both figments of Sarah’s mind. This is why everyone’s dream has the exact same vision of the shadow man. It appears to be a reaction to something the world outside is trying to do to reach Sarah.

When they place a picture of the shadow man in front of her, Sarah has an epileptic attack. Her mind can’t stand coming face to face with her deepest fears and the possible truth that her world is not real. 

Who is Jeremy?

As I mentioned earlier, Jeremy was someone very close to her in real life-perhaps a boyfriend or a husband. Inside her coma, she’s projected Jeremy as a creepy scientist. He even stalks Sarah around through the day. This disgusts Sarah, and she decides to not go back to the study. Despite this, Sarah later warms up to him and even has sex with him; an explanation could be that Jeremy was her lover in real life.

Who is Zoe?

Zoe is Sarah’s only friend, Sarah’s safe place in the otherwise dark coma. Zoe’s disappearance is the thing that allows Sarah to change course and depend on a different person. As long as Zoe is there, Sarah lives in a repetitive loop within her coma.

Come True: What is the significance of Sarah’s phone?

Sarah’s phone is always with her, and we initially write it off as a teenager thing. But the phone is a tether to her subconscious from the outside world. Sarah gets a call from Zoe at one point in a laundromat and has an episode of epilepsy. This is also the last time we hear from Zoe. I suspect the world outside triggers this. The treatment they are trying out seems to be pushing Sarah out of her comfort zone within the coma.

When Sarah wakes up, a seemingly blind lady tells her that some boys took something from her and ran. Sarah realizes her phone is missing. With Zoe and her phone gone, she has nowhere to go and reaches out to Jeremy for help.

Jeremy explains to Sarah that they observe nightmares during the study. He convinces her to join again, and she does. But another nightmarish encounter with the shadow man causes her to up and leave. She looks for Zoe in a club and faints there. Jeremy follows her, finds her and brings Sarah back to his place.

Jeremy’s Dream With Sarah

At Jeremy’s house, Sarah sees that he has connected himself to a dream machine and has strapped himself in on the bed. Sarah sees Jeremy kissing her in the dream. She also notices a scene where both Jeremy and Sarah have fangs and are laughing. We’ll come back to this in the end. Soon, Sarah sees the shadow man in Jeremy’s dream moving closer to him, and she wakes Jeremy up. Later she discloses what Jeremy saw in his dream, and the two have sex when Sarah sees two shadow men and goes unconscious.

Come True: What is the meaning of the sleep-walk scene?

Jeremy rushes Sarah to a hospital, but she sleep-walks out of that place. Unable to wake Sarah up, Jeremy calls his coworker Anita and asks her to come with a portable dream viewer. They plug Sarah in, follow her, and observe the device as she walks into a labyrinth-like passage filled with shadow men. Remember, Sarah is missing her phone, indicating her mind is further getting lost. Just as Sarah is about to enter a contraption in the dream and is lost forever, Jeremy finds her phone and picks up an incoming call. The outside world reestablishes contact with Sarah via Jeremy. As a result, Sarah snaps out of her sleep-walking state and drops to her knees.

Whatever the outside world process has done seems to have triggered Sarah’s subconscious fears to surface up and begin to chase her. Anita and Jeremy get consumed by the darkness, and just before, Jeremy tells Sarah to “Keep Breathing“. This feels like a message from the outside world to ask Sarah to keep breathing and not give up.

What is the relevance of 10:01 on the phone?

Seeing the mirror number 10:01 often is a sure sign that your guardian angels are trying to communicate with you.
They feel you need help because of some issues you are currently having.
Source: 10:01 Meaning

The guardian angels, in this case, are the outside world people who are trying to wake Sarah from her coma. We see 10:01 flash on Sarah’s phone just before they begin running. When Sarah is confronted by a shadow man, she flashes back to Jeremy’s apartment, where she has apparently killed him by gouging his eyes out in the middle of sex. Ouch, what a way to go!

Sarah hasn’t murdered anyone. The technique the outside world is implementing caused Sarah to kill her Animus. Why is this important? Well, Sarah’s initial latch in the coma was Zoe. Once that is removed, she latches on to Jeremy, who is also removed. Now Sarah is in a state to receive communication directly from the outside world.

Come True: What is the relevance of Sarah’s fangs in the end?

No, Sarah is not a blood-sucking vampire. The fangs go back to a time when she was happy in her real life with her partner Jeremy. Let me explain.

Let’s go back to that scene when Sarah sees Jeremy’s dream in which both of them have fangs and are laughing. I believe that was Sarah’s real-life memory when she was celebrating Halloween with Jeremy. They even seem to have some blood makeup on the chin.

As Sarah walks up to the mirror, she gets a message on her phone. The text reads she has been in a coma for over 20 years:

She opens her mouth to see she has grown fangs, and she laughs with joy. Why? Because she now knows her dark, meaningless existence is all part of a coma. A happy moment from her real life has manifested in the form of fangs, and she overjoyed as it’s proof that the message she got on her phone is the truth. She has found her true self.

Come True: Movie Title Meaning

I believe the movie title references two phrases, “Dream Come True” and “Wish Come True”. In that last scene, the fangs that were part of Jeremy’s dream come true and let Sarah know that her world is not real and that she’s in a coma. For Sarah’s loved ones who have been fighting to bring her out of her coma, this is their wish come true. It could be a far stretch of the imagination, but I thought I’d throw in my two cents.

What were your thoughts on the film? I’d like to hear all the theories, do drop in a comment below.