Wildwood Ending Explained: Pru's Magic Blood, the Final Battle and Five Forest Factions

The ending of Wildwood turns on one twist. Pru was conceived through the forest's own magic, and that magic in her blood is what saves her brother Mac from Alexandra's sacrifice. Spoilers ahead if you haven't seen the new Laika movie yet. I'm going to explain that ending and then break down the five factions inside the forest, because I found them fascinating.

I won't be covering every single detail of the movie. But the ending is one of the most insane endings I've ever seen in an animated movie.

Pru takes Mac outside, and crows carry him into the Impassable Wilderness

Early in the film, Pru's parents say they need to keep Mac inside and shielded from the outside world. Pru, who I believe is a teenager and thinks she can do whatever she wants, decides to take her brother outside anyway. She learns the hard way why her parents have been trying to protect him for so many years.

While they're at a playground, Mac is abducted by a group of crows. That leads to a chase through downtown involving Pru and Curtis, who is trying to be her friend. As they track the crows to save her brother, Pru does something not many humans can do. She passes into the Impassable Wilderness, which opens up a path when she puts her hand onto the ivy.

Inside the forest, Pru and Curtis discover this isn't a normal world. It's a secret world with talking animals and humans who have lived in the forest since they were born. Like the characters, we quickly discover that the forest isn't as happy as it seems. There's a huge political conflict between the different factions, and while they all want to protect their world, there is one woman who wants to stop this.

Alexandra's grief over her son Alexei drives her toward dark magic

Throughout the movie we learn that years earlier, Alexandra's 12 year old son, Alexei, fell from a cliff into the wilderness and was swallowed by the forest's slumbering ivy. Alexandra was the former Governess. She never found her child, and after the death of her husband she was desperate.

So she experimented with dark magic to try to get her son back. She was able to make a robotic version of him. But after he decided to take his own life, she was exiled for witchcraft.

It's revealed that Alexandra has started her own dark army, which includes coyote soldiers. Her main goal is to wake the ivy with the blood of an outsider child. She believes the blood sacrifice will awaken the ivy and bend it to her will, forcing the vines to unearth her child's remains so she can resurrect him once again. The Woodland Mystics, however, believe the ivy will destroy their entire realm and that she's out of her mind.

Pru's parents made a bargain, and Pru herself was conceived by the forest's magic

One of the biggest plot twists in the movie is that before Pru was born, her parents struggled with infertility and were desperate to have a child. They enlisted the help of a dark magic specialist at a fair and eventually summoned Alexandra out of the realm. She used her magic to help them have a child under one condition. They could have their first child, but their second child would be for Alexandra.

This makes it clear that Pru was only able to enter the forest because she was conceived by the magic within it. Her blood also carries botanical power. That was foreshadowed earlier in the movie when a drop of her blood went onto her plant, and later in the film we see that the plant had grown.

In the final battle, the altar absorbs Pru's magically infused blood

After being released by Alexandra and learning the real truth about her family, Pru goes back into the forest, and there's a battle that is absolutely insane. Nobody could have expected a full on war in this movie. Several people as well as animals die trying to help Pru save her brother and their entire forest.

After a terrible and fiery battle, Alexandra makes it up onto the altar, where she's about to sacrifice Mac. Pru intervenes, and it looks like it's too late when Pru's hand is sliced open. But when the altar absorbs Pru's blood, it's magically infused blood from a child who was made from magic.

Pru summons the vines to grab Mac and protect him, while other vines pierce Alexandra through her body, killing her instantly. Pru then uses her special abilities to calm the vines, saving her brother and the world at the same time.

With Alexandra dead, Brendan leads and Mac no longer has to hide

With Alexandra dead and the coyotes defeated, the political and personal conflicts in both worlds are resolved. Following the battle, the bandits overthrow the governor's mansion, ending the corrupt regime. They also free the prisoners, and Brendan becomes the new leader.

With the curse broken, the family no longer has to keep Mac inside. Pru and Mac make it home and reunite with their parents.

Personally, I love this movie. Near the end, Pru says something along the lines of realizing there's no happily ever after in real life. Her father responds, "Yeah, but there's happy now, and that's all that counts." That's my favorite line from the entire movie, and one of my favorite lines from any movie this year.

The Coyote Army is one of the most dangerous factions in the forest

One of the most dangerous factions is the Coyote Army, led by Alexandra. It's the primary antagonist force, and it operates out of the Coyote Warren, a sprawling subterranean network of tunnels dug beneath the forest.

The coyotes all seem to be dressed in 18th century Napoleonic style military clothing. They march with flintlock muskets and fire heavy howitzer cannons. Their main goal is total conquest of the entire forest, and helping Alexandra bring her child back once again.

The Wildwood Bandits, one of my favorites, fight both the government and the coyotes

The second faction, and one of my favorites, is the Wildwood Bandits. They're a fierce, Robin Hood style brotherhood of outlaws, rogue humans and exiled woodland dwellers. They live in hidden treetop camps, clearings across the forest, and areas of the ancient world that were taken over by the vines.

Their goal is freedom from the corruption of the Southwood government and from the military tyranny of the Coyote Army. In the film, they're ultimately rescued by Curtis, escape the Coyote Army, and help Pru and the others in the battle at the end. They're led by Brendan, the Bandit King, and they have a huge part in this film.

The Southwood bureaucracy wants order and keeps outsiders out

The third faction is the Southwood bureaucracy, located in the southern region of the forest in its most densely populated urban settlement. It's inhabited by civilians and talking animals.

Its main goal is to maintain order and political self preservation, and to keep outsiders or any threats, especially the vines, from ruining its society. They seem very secretive in the film. They're led by the governor and his assistant, who end up capturing and imprisoning Pru.

The Avian Principality and the Northwood Mystics stand with Pru

Fourth is the Avian Principality, the group of birds who occupy the highest treetops of the forest. They're an extremely proud society of talking birds that help Pru throughout the film. We learn the crows used to be part of them before joining the Governess and becoming evil. Key figures are the general, who loses her life trying to help Pru, and the crown prince, Owl Rex, who helps Pru and is imprisoned by the governor.

The fifth faction is the Northwood Mystics, the group Pru calls the hippies because they talk to their trees. Their goal is to preserve the spiritual and ecological balance of the wood and to prevent Alexandra from corrupting the world with the vines. Their key figures are the elder mystic, who helps Pru realize what she has to do, and a down to earth rabbit.

By the end of the film, the bandits, the Avian Principality and the mystics all come together to help Pru save her brother and their world from Alexandra.

This movie was complex, but it's one of my favorite movies of the entire year. It took over 16 years to make and was one of the most original films I've ever seen in my life. What started as the story of a girl whose brother went missing turned into something truly magical that I will never forget.