The Room [2019] Ending Explained (With Plot Analysis)

Hi, this is Barry, and welcome to my site. The Room is a 2019 psychological thriller starring Olga Kurylenko and Kevin Janssens; not to be confused with Oscar Winner, Room (2015). The Room follows a couple who purchase and move into an old mansion in an isolated part of town. Inside the house, is a hidden room that seems to have the ability to grant material wishes. Unlimited wishes can never be a good thing, can it? While the film keeps it light for the most part, the conclusion of the movie raises a bunch of questions. Here’s the plot analysis and the ending of the movie The Room explained, spoilers ahead.

Content

Here are links to the key aspects of the movie:

• – Plot Explained
• – What is the rule of the Room?
• – Who is John Doe?
• – Why does the baby become a boy?
• – Why does Shane assault Kate?
• – Who are the Matt and Kate copies we see?
• – Ending Explained – Whose child is it?
• – Ending Explained – An Alternate Darker Theory

The Room (2019): Plot Explained

What is the rule of the Room?

Anyone inside the Room can wish for any “thing”. The item wished for ages at the regular pace inside the house. However, when it leaves the house, it ages at a significantly accelerated pace withering away to dust.

Who is John Doe?

The previous residents of the house, in the 70s, appear to have wished for a boy child. When they took the child out, he rapidly grew up. The couple figured out that if they (the creators) died, their son could live on outside the house. The lady killed her husband and then got her son, John Doe, to kill her. Though John Doe was free to leave the house, he was unidentified and was placed in a mental facility for the rest of his life.

About Shane

Kate and Matt have tried for a child in the past which lead to two miscarriages. Though the couple enjoy themselves with materialistic possessions initially, Kate soon finds it to be a depressing experience. Matt suggests trying another time for a child of their own, Kate takes a shortcut and wishes for a child in the Room. Matt finds the concept of raising a figment to be blasphemous. But because neither of them is able to wish the baby away, they keep it.

Matt finds out the true nature of The Room

The man from the power company earlier tells Matt that the previous residents of the house were both killed by an unknown man. Matt reads up about this mysterious John Doe and eventually pays him a visit at a mental facility. While he doesn’t realize John Doe is also a figment, on his way back, Matt finds the money he had taken from the Room has now turned to dust in his pockets. After returning home, Matt confirms that anything wished in the Room turns to dust if it leaves the door.

Why does the baby become a boy?

Matt sees Kate planning to go out of the house with the baby for a walk. He tries to stop her, but expecting the baby to wither away, he lets her go out. On hearing the baby screams turning into that of a boy, he rushes out and brings Kate and the boy back in. At this point, it becomes amply clear that things wished in the room age rapidly, which is why they wither away. Over the next three months, Kate plays the role of a mother to the boy, Shane, while Matt distances himself trying to uncover how the Room works. This part of the film gives the same eerie vibes of the movie Vivarium. Shane has been told that he can’t leave the house as the germs outside will hurt him. Shane, who is desperate to go out of the house and camp, happens to find the Room and wish to be outside. In the process, the Room converts into a false outdoors with its own little snow pocket.

The call from John Doe

Matt begins to fear Shane for the right reasons as a child’s imagination could be dangerous without a filter, possibly wishing for a dragon one day in the Room. One day, John Doe calls home and reveals that he is a figment who killed his mother on her instructions to be able to exit the house. Hearing this call, Kate is devastated and drives out, attempting to kill herself. Realizing she can’t bring herself to do it, she returns home. In the meanwhile, Matt tells Shane that he’s not a real boy. Matt and Kate have sex that night not knowing that Shane is watching. This scene is vital because to Shane, it’s this physical act he believes is the ultimate bond that Matt and Kate share.

Matt or Shane?

Later that night, Shane leaves the house and grows into a man. The following morning, he confronts Matt with a gun. As Matt charges at Shane, Kate gets knocked unconscious. This is not shown in the film, but Shane knocks Matt unconscious. He takes Kate into the Room where he wishes for a replica of the house and the surrounding woods. Shane also alters his physical appearance to look like Matt’s. When Kate comes to, Shane (as Matt) lies to her saying Shane got shot and he took the body out which withered to dust. Kate soon finds out that the person she thinks is Matt is actually Shane as she notices him chewing the ice.

Matt goes into the Room to get Kate

We don’t know why Shane leaves Matt alive, after all, Shane did try to shoot at him in the earlier scene. Matt gains consciousness to realize Shane and Kate are missing. Since the Room is locked from the inside, Matt tunnels his way through the wall into the Room. He proceeds through the woods to locate the identical house. 

Why does Shane assault Kate?

Having seen the sex that Matt and Kate have earlier, Shane attempts to rape Kate, believing that this act would make her love him just like Matt. We need to realize that Shane is literally 3 months old. And he’s just a day into his adulthood. He has formed a twisted sense of reality about relationships and the world around him based on what he’s seen (which is not a lot).

Matt enters the house interrupting the assault on Kate. After this, we see the classic case of Kate having to identify the real Matt. She does this by calling out “Shane” – when the Matt holding her arms turns around, she knows he’s the imposter and pushes him down the stairs. The real Matt and Kate try to escape the house, but Shane transforms the house into a labyrinth. Remember, all of this is happening in the Room.

Who are the Matt and Kate copies we see?

Remember, anyone can wish for things inside the Room. Matt wishes for decoys that look like himself and Kate. While Shane is tricked by the duplicates, the real Kate and Matt make a run for it back out of the Room. When they approach the actual exit to the house, Matt gains the upper hand as he drags Shane outside. Once out, Kate shuts the door on him and Shane instantly ages into an old man. Kate steps out to watch an aged Shane lie down, die, and wither away.

The Room (2019) Ending Explained – Whose child is it?

The ending of The Room shows Kate sitting in a Motel bed holding a pregnancy test with the look of horror on her face as the test shows positive. Right after this, the light flickers and the film ends in the real or dream ending style of Inception.

There is a popular theory that Shane is the creator of Kate’s baby, and because he died, the baby can live on. Kate now houses the essence of the Room in her womb. While it initially sounds correct, this theory is easily debunkable. Here’s why.

To explain the ending of The Room, let’s recap a few points:

1. Shane sexually assaulted Kate but was interrupted when Matt reached the house.
2. Kate leaves the house before Shane dies, she sees Shane walk away as an old man and fall over. 
3. Fertilization in humans happens quite instantaneously after sex, the zygote enters the uterus in 3 to 5 days. In short, life is technically created quite instantly, but pregnancy tests get done when one misses the next menstrual cycle (about one month later).
4. Kate and Matt had sex the night before Shane’s assault.

Shane wasn’t able to go through with his assault on Kate. Even if he did impregnate her, Kate left the house before Shane died. Which means, her possible pregnancy by Shane would rapidly accelerate, causing her to instantly give birth. Though the ending shows Kate sitting one month later with a pregnancy test showing positive, she would have conceived the very moment Shane assaulted her. The zygote inside her would have swiftly advanced the moment she set foot outside the house. We see no such thing. 

The flickering light, in the end of The Room, is just to leave you wondering if it has anything to do with the house, but it doesn’t. It’s just an electrical glitch in the Motel. Just because her pregnancy test showed positive after a month, doesn’t mean life began inside her at that moment. If the lights were to flicker around her, it would have begun weeks before that. Finally, let’s not forget that Matt and Kate did have sex the night before their terrible experience. Considering the four points above, we can safely conclude that the baby is Matt’s and they are free from The Room.

The Room (2019) Ending Explained – An Alternate Darker Theory

I’d like to propose an alternate twisted theory. After knocking Matt unconscious, Shane took both Matt and Kate inside the Room to the replica house. Leaving Matt on the floor, Shane takes Kate to the Room within the Room into an inner replica of the house. Matt wakes up believing he’s in the real world and goes into the inner Room to get Kate. So when they are back out, they’re actually still inside the Room. Shane wishes death upon himself as he sees that Kate anyway locked him outside to die. So in effect, Shane ages and dies not because he exited the house in the real world, but his death is a stage to make Kate and Matt believe they are in the real world. One month later, Kate finds herself pregnant with Shane’s kid and the light flickers because she’s still inside the Room. This theory is a stretch, and highly unlikely. But it’s a slim possibility so I thought I’d put it out there in case you wanted to discuss it.