All of Us Strangers’ Unexpected Twist Ending, Explained

Andrew Haigh’s new movie ends with a startling revelation. Let’s analyze the clues that Harry and Adam’s romance is not what it appears to be. Photo: Searchlight

This article was originally published on December 21, 2023. All of Us Strangers is now streaming on Hulu.

Spoilers for All of Us Strangers ahead. 

Seeing dead people might be a classic trope of horror movies, but it’s unexpected in a queer indie romance featuring one of the more tender blowjob scenes in recent cinematic history. But Looking creator Andrew Haigh isn’t afraid to toy with convention in All of Us Strangers — and that includes an unexpected twist ending that involves Harry, played by a gold chain-wearing Paul Mescal.

In the final moments of the film, screenwriter protagonist Adam (played by Andrew “Hot Priest from Fleabag” Scott) shares a poignant good-bye with his long-dead parents, who were killed in a car crash when he was 11. Thanks to a supernatural quirk that is left unexplained, he’s been able to travel to his childhood home and spend time with his mom and dad, played by Claire Foy and Jamie Bell.

Adam then returns to his vaguely dystopian London apartment block, where he and Harry seem to be the only occupants. Throughout the film, we mainly see Adam and Harry’s relationship blossom within the four walls of Adam’s home. But this time, Adam doesn’t go up to his own unit — he steps onto Harry’s floor for the very first time. And the vibes are, as the kids say, off.

As Adam enters Harry’s suspiciously unlocked place, he grimaces and covers his nose. Something clearly smells very wrong. That’s when All of Us Strangers reaches its tragic, tender climax. As Adam enters the bedroom, he finds Harry’s decomposing body. And then Harry — lo and behold — walks through his own apartment door. “I’m in there, aren’t I?” he asks, realization dawning on his face. As he weeps in Adam’s arms, Adam coaxes him back to his own place, where they spoon to the swelling music of Adam’s favorite Frankie Goes to Hollywood song: “The Power of Love.” End credits.

Phew. It’s a sucker punch of an ending, and Haigh’s direction has been rightfully praised for allowing All of Us Strangers to land its twist with such understated grace. But as evidenced by Reddit, there are still plenty of questions left unanswered. When did Harry die? How did he die? How long was he dead for?

While Haigh has said that he likes to leave the ending up to people’s interpretations, a recent interview with pop culture Substack Shut Up Evan shows him pretty much agreeing with Evan Ross Katz’s assessment of the twist: Harry was dead all along. Or rather, he died on the night he met Adam.

I know: What? But there are plenty of clues in the film that Adam and Harry’s romance is not what it seems to be. So let’s unpack what exactly is going on.

Let’s begin with their meet-cute: Adam and Harry lock eyes across a distance, with Harry waving from his own apartment. Harry then tries to flirt his way into Adam’s place with a bottle of expensive Japanese whiskey and mentions that the building’s windows have been locked to stop people from jumping. He’s also wearing a ratty pink sweatshirt — a detail that will become important later. Unfortunately, Adam is a little too shy and ends up rejecting Harry, who clearly isn’t in a great headspace. Lonely Harry heads down to his floor in the elevator, taking a long swig of booze.

Foreshadowing!

Shortly after this, Adam impulsively decides to visit his hometown, where he realizes that his long-dead parents appear to be very much alive. This is the point at which the film establishes that Adam sees dead people.

The second time Adam encounters Harry is outside their elevator, after Adam’s supernatural meetup with his parents. This is a subtly different Harry; more put-together, less unwashed. He apologizes for last night and Adam makes an awkward-slash-cute pass, which clearly encourages Harry to turn up at Adam’s door again. This time, Harry turns down Adam’s offer of a drink, saying that he’s steering clear of alcohol at the moment — another hint that will take on significance later on.

The rest of the film traces Adam’s reunion with his parents and his slow but tentative romance with Harry, which sees Adam become more outgoing — he even convinces Harry to go on a night out. But here’s where things get confusing: On a messy night out, Harry pulls out a baggy of ketamine and Adam accidentally does a huge bump. (Look, we’ve all been there.)

Time and space begin to fracture. A terrifying, dreamlike sequence sees him lose Harry on the way home, screaming in agony and almost vomiting on the tube. In these scenes, Harry is forever out of Adam’s reach — sliding past him in a crowd, appearing and disappearing in the train carriage next to Adam’s.

This might be the point at which you start thinking, Hmmm. Either this is the worst K-hole ever, or Harry isn’t quite what he seems. Haigh scatters other cinematic breadcrumbs to point the way toward this conclusion: We repeatedly see Harry reflected in multiple surfaces (elevators, windows, mirrors) both on his own and with Adam, suggesting that there are multiple versions of Harry at play (like, for instance, a body that may remain in one place, and a spirit that is wandering the halls — just thinking out loud here!).

Finally, let’s look at what actually happens in the ending. When Adam enters Harry’s darkened apartment for the first time, he’s met with an eerie static TV. Sharp-eyed viewers will recognize this light source — when Adam first spotted Harry at his apartment window, Harry was backlit by the same distinctive flickering. That suggests that the TV has been on since their initial glimpse of each other.

Adam also finds an empty drugs baggie and bottle of whiskey, presumably the one he turned down on the night they met. (Mixing ketamine with alcohol can be fatal, kids.) Then there’s the body itself, which is heavily implied to be in an advanced state of decomposition — there’s that grotesque-seeming smell that Adam detects, and a quick shot of Harry’s mottled face. Whatever happened to Harry, he’s been dead a long time.

When Harry comes in, he’s wearing the same pink sweatshirt and is outright confrontational when he finds Adam in his apartment. Unlike Adam’s parents, who throughout the movie seem to understand that they’re already dead, it takes Harry a beat to realize it. “I was so lonely that night,” he tells Adam as they embrace. In response, Adam says that he’s sorry he didn’t let him in — as in, into his apartment on the night they met.

So there you have it: Harry’s been dead this whole time, or to be more precise, he probably died the night Adam turned him away from his door. Does this mean that Adam and Harry had hot ghost sex? What happens when a ghost does ketamine? Is Adam the kid from the Sixth Sense, except all grown up? Answers on a postcard.