While Pearl and MaXXXine are quite different movies, director Ti West reckons the final shot of his 80s slasher unites the last two entries in the X Trilogy.
Pearl told the story of a farm girl desperate to escape her humdrum life and become a star in 1918 America. Unfortunately, she develops a rather murderous side that helps explain her role in X.
Meanwhile, MaXXXine follows on from X and sees the sole survivor of that film Maxine Minx, on the cusp of finding legitimate stardom in Hollywood as dangerous forces conspire to bring her down.
The end scenes in both movies are similar but in wildly different contexts. Spoiler warnings ahead as we find out what connects the two.
Ti West revels in the absurdity of MaXXXine’s ending
At the end of Pearl, Mia Goth‘s titular character holds an unnerving wide smile for the duration of the credits. MaXXXine sees Ti West put a different spin on that.
For the end of MaXXXine, Maxine Minx’s decapitated head sits on a bed with an open mouth in a silent scream as the credits roll. West told USA Today that it was partially a nod to the Pearl credits. But it’s a lot more upbeat than that sounds.
The head is a life cast of Maxine’s head for the in-movie film The Puritan II, which she stars in. According to West, it was an image “I always had in my mind as having made it in Hollywood. That was such a goal for her, to become a star.”
“There’s something about the end of ‘Pearl,’ about her smiling and trying to keep smiling, that’s representative of the movie as a whole,” West continued, ”And there’s something also about this severed head on the bed being photographed that’s representative of the absurdity of it all as well.”
Of the two end scenes, Mia Goth found the process behind MaXXXine’s was the tougher of the two. That’s down to going through the ritual of having her head cast, something the movie plays on in a great scene.
The article also sees Ti West discuss what the end of MaXXXine could have been if he’d leaned into a more supernatural direction, and there’s fresh musing on a possible fourth film in the series.
