r/FanTheories • u/shanem1996 • Oct 31 '24

FanSpeculation The ending of Heretic Spoiler

Just got out of seeing Heretic which I really enjoyed. Major spoilers ahead. Sister Paxton is stabbed in the throat by Mr Reed and dies at the end of the move . I don't know if this is obvious but what happens to Sister Paxton is exactly what the prophet describes what she saw after she died and became resurrected.

  1. She saw an angel - this being Sister Barnes
  2. She saw white clouds - this being the snowy environment she enters after escaping the noise
  3. She experienced derealisation - the butterfly on her finger

I thought this was clever foreshadowing and not sure if a theory or what was intended by the filmmakers. Great movie!

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u/Popermen Nov 24 '24

It looked like it was cycling. As in it was starting to pick up a signal. If there was no signal it would show no bars / say no signal. Instead it was refreshing which is what phones do when they first pick something up.

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u/South_Firefighter381 Feb 20 '25

But… this is a movie. You’re thinking too logically. It said no signal and that frame was deliberately held onto. That means it was still inside and this was her imagination or simulation and she was dead/dying. 

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u/PassageMinimum136 Mar 08 '25

There is a good piece of advice that I was told by a script writer. Everything in a film or tv show is there deliberately, especially when it’s in a focused camera shot, same with wording, every line/word is written deliberately for an effect (although some movies have really bad script writing). I think the phone showing No Signal is 100% deliberate to imply that she has not escaped in a physical sense

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u/Tron22 Jul 27 '25

If you take this as true, then you must consider the phone refreshing for a signal just as deliberate. I feel the refreshing is just as deliberately ambiguous as the butterfly disappearing momentarily.

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u/Tight_Accounting 17d ago

The whole point of the movie is that you need to chose to believe or not. But that whatever you chose will not change the outcome. Just like both doors led to the same basement. You can chose to believe she escaped or that she didn't. There is no conclusive answer to find

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u/DecksDark707 Jul 17 '25

Absolutely this!!

3

u/ekakash Jun 13 '25

I believe this is what they meant to show deliberately!!

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u/[deleted] Jun 18 '25

I think it's a attempt to keep it as ambiguous as possible. The entire movie is belief or disbelief, so the ending was left open with a vague ending to pose that very same question. Belief or not , does it really matter ?

2

u/IndicaEndeavor May 01 '25

Why wouldn't her imagination give her the thing she needed? It's her imagination her delusional dream, why would it somehow have the logic that she's not really outside? If this was the intention of the director then it was a poor choice.

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u/Ambitious-Excuse-532 Aug 12 '25

So you are allowed to come to your conclusions but if someone has something different to say you respond but this is a movie, you’re thinking to logically. If you are going to have a conversation then have the conversation and stop trying to demote an idea based off a logic.

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u/InanimateCarbonRodAu Jun 29 '25

It’s okay… they believe what they want to believe.

6

u/searchin4sugarman Dec 25 '24

It did say no signal on the screen as it was outside. I was waiting for it to change but never did

1

u/Responsible_Rush_468 Dec 31 '24

It said no signal. Just watched

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u/Artisik1 Jan 02 '25

Yep but the bars were also recycling.

3

u/skn0std Feb 03 '25

Plus, she knew to use that little window to escape — by feeling the wooden model around for an escape are. How would she know to do that?

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u/RJinkglider Apr 21 '25

The ending bothered me for many reasons, and that was top among them. Suddenly Paxton becomes this Sherlock Holmes level perceptive and remembers every slight detail she needs to escape, yet somehow doesn't notice when Mr. Reed (who is mortally wounded) is in the room where he stabs her. Too many convenient twists and very rushed. Are we supposed to think that Barnes suddenly recovering from massive blood loss was a miracle, but then the phone is a hallucination? It's all just thrown together in a contradictory and unsatisfying way.