‘Killers of the Flower Moon’ Ending Explained: The Meaning Behind That Old Timey Radio Show

Killers of the Flower Moon is now streaming on Apple TV+, which means even more folks will be watching Martin Scorsese’s latest epic this weekend.

This movie may be three hours long, but it’s absolutely worth your time. Plus, now that it’s streaming at home, you can pause it to take a bathroom break—no intermission needed. Starring Lily Gladstone, Leonardo DiCaprio, and Robert De Niro, Killers of the Flower Moon is a period drama that tells the true story of the murders in the Osage Nation in the 1920s. The film was a joint release between Apple TV Studios and Paramount, with Paramount handling the theatrical release of Killers of the Flower Moon, opening on October 20.

Scorsese’s flick is a strong contender for Best Picture at the 2024 Oscars, so it’s likely no coincidence that the film began streaming the day after voting opened for Oscar nominations, on January 11. But when you reach the end of this three-hour masterpiece, you may find yourself confused by the Killers of the Flower Moon ending. Don’t worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for a full break down of the Killers of the Flower Moon plot summary and the Killers of the Flower Moon ending, explained.

Warning: Killers of the Flower Moon spoilers ahead. Duh!

Killers of the Flower Moon plot summary:

Based on David Grann’s 2017 non-fiction book of the same name, with a script co-written by Scorsese and Eric Roth, Killers of the Flower Moon stars Leonardo DiCaprio as Ernest Burkhart, a white man who married a Native American woman named Mollie (played by Lily Gladstone), at the behest of his greed-driven, morally bankrupt uncle, William Hale (played by Robert De Niro). The Osage people, who had been forced onto to presumably worthless land in Oklahoma, became some of the wealthiest people in the country after discovering oil on the land. The wealth attracted white men like Hale and Burkhart, who conspired to marry into the native families and steal the money for themselves. From 1921 to 1923, Hale and his nephew hired people to kill off Mollie’s sisters and cousins, as well as other Osage folks who may have inherited Mollie’s wealth.

In the movie, we follow Ernest Burkhart, who arrives in Oklahoma to stay with his uncle in 1919, after sustaining a stomach injury during World War I. Uncle William—who tells Ernest to call him “King”—owns a large cattle ranch in the area. But despite his wealth, King laments the fact that his land doesn’t have any oil on it. King gives Ernest a job as a chauffeur. When he learns that his nephew has been regularly driving an Osage woman named Mollie Kyle, he instructs Ernest to pursue her and marry her, to inherit her wealth.

Ernest does as he is told. Mollie is suspicious at first, but Ernest’s good looks and seemingly genuinely sweet nature win her over. For his part, Ernest seems to genuinely like, if not love, Mollie, too. They get married and eventually have three children. All the while, Ernest keeps working for his uncle, even though Ernest knows Hale is contracting assassinations of Mollie’s family. At same time, Ernest is also committing petty theft and robberies of his own. He’s not exactly a moral, upstanding guy.

First, Mollie’s sister Minnie (Jillian Dion) dies of a mysterious illness. Then her older sister Anna (Cara Jade Myers) turns up dead in the forest. Then her sickly mother Lizzie Q (Tantoo Cardinal) dies. None of these killings are investigated, because King is the local “reserve” sheriff, and has paid off the local politicians and law enforcement. Mollie hires a private investigator. King has someone beat up the investigator and runs him out of town. At the same time, King provides “special” insulin shots for Mollie to manage her diabetes. Mollie is suspicious of the shots, and trusts only her husband to administer them. Ernest swears he won’t let anyone hurt her, and Mollie believes him.

King instructs Ernest to kill Mollie’s first husband, Henry Roan (William Belleau) to collect life insurance and ensure his inheritance. Not wanting to do the dirty work himself, Ernest hires another man to do the deed—but the man shoots Henry in the back of the head, not the front, and fails to make the death look like a suicide. King manages to frame another man for the murder, but the walls of the operation are closing in.

King murders Mollie’s last remaining sister and her husband, Rita (JaNae Collins) and Bill Smith (Jason Isbell), by having an explosive expert, Acie Kirby (Pete Yorn) blow up their house. By now, Ernest seems to realize just how culpable he is in these murders and tries to distance himself. Mollie decides to go to Washington D.C. to appeal to President Coolidge to ask for his help investigating the murders. As a result, King tells Ernest to poison Mollie via her insulin shots to “slow her down,” in order to keep her quiet and prevent her from investigating further. Out of guilt, Ernest also occasionally poisons himself.

Mollie’s appeal to Washington prompts the Bureau of Investigation, an early iteration of the FBI, to finally come to investigate, led by Agent Thomas Bruce White Sr. (Jesse Plemons). King tries to cover his track by murdering people who may rat him out and tries to get Ernest to sign away the rights to his inheritance—implying that King plans to kill Ernest, too. But White uncovers the truth. King and Ernest are both arrested. Two agents check in on Mollie, and discover that she is close to death due to poisoning. She is rushed to the hospital, and manages to make a recovery.

Killers of the Flower Moon ending explained:

After initially ratting out his uncle to the authorities in hopes of making a deal, Ernest is convinced by King to retract his story and say that he was beaten and coerced into his testimony. But then Ernest’s daughter dies of whooping cough (supposedly). It’s not clear if Ernest suspects King is behind his daughter’s death, as punishment for squealing, or if he simply finally realizes that he needs to prioritize his family. Either way, he testifies against his uncle in court. William King Hale was sentenced to life in prison in 1929. After his testimony, Mollie confronts Ernest about poisoning her. He denies it, but it’s clear she doesn’t believe him.

In the final scene of the movie, rather than boring text-on-screen to sum up what happened next, Scorsese treats viewers to a recreation of a 1920s Vaudville-esque radio show, complete with foley work and Lucky’s Strikes product placement. An old-timey radio news anchor, played by J.C. MacKenzie, reads off what happened to the real Ernest Burkhart and William Hale. (Both men served prison time, but were eventually paroled, and lived out the rest of their days into old age.)

But it’s Mollie’s future that we know the least about, and the one given the most import. How? By having director Martin Scorsese himself step up to the microphone, and read out Mollie Burkhart’s short obituary. She died in 1937 at the age of 50, without a clear report on her cause of death. As Scorsese informs audiences, there was no mention of the Osage murders in her obituary. With that, the movie cuts to an aerial shot of Osage people chanting and dancing, and the film ends.

It may be a jarring change of pace from the previous two hours and 50 minutes of the movie, but it’s a clever and entertaining twist on the “where are they now” text credits that has become commonplace for movies based on true stories. This is not the first time Scorsese has appeared on screen in one of his films. In fact, he almost always makes a cameo in his films, as everything from a passenger in 1976’s Taxi Driver to a photographer in 2011’s Hugo. But this cameo feels particularly significant. It’s a smart way to add weight to the real Mollie’s ending, even though we don’t have nearly as many facts about her as we have about the white men involved in the murders of her family.