How Does The Electric State End? Unpacking the Final Moments of the Millie Bobby Brown Action Movie

Netflix’s Millie Bobby Brown-led film The Electric State takes viewers on an epic, robot-filled adventure that ends in heartbreaking sacrifice.

The film, which is now streaming on Netflix, is set in an alternate retro-futuristic 1994 after robots were used to do humans’ work before demanding robot rights, which resulted in war. The story follows orphaned Michelle’s quest (Brown) to find her presumably dead brother Christopher (Woody Norman), who is mentally controlling a limited-vocabulary robot named Cosmo (Alan Tudyk). She is joined by low-rent smuggler Keats (Chris Pratt) and his robot best friend Herman (Anthony Mackie) as they travel across the American Southwest to find Christopher.

The unlikely foursome’s journey leads them into the Exclusion Zone, where robots have been exiled after Mr. Peanut (Woody Harrelson) signed a peace treaty with President Clinton. However, they are hunted by Sentre, a company that invents drones controlled by humans to imprison robots and keep most humans stuck in a virtual world.

They ultimately learn that Sentre may have a lot more to do with Christopher’s disappearance than they thought, but in order to save him, great sacrifices must be made.

“It’s very timely and I think all of us are aware of the fact that technology is a two-edged sword, and while it can promise all sorts of fantastic possibilities we all have never imagined, it comes with a price,” co-director Anthony Russo told Netflix of the movie’s message. “Hopefully the movie will help audiences understand how to balance that road — how do we move through life with technology while keeping our humanity intact?”

Here’s everything to know about the ending of The Electric State.

Warning: The Electric State Spoilers ahead

How does The Electric State end?

After Sentre attacks the Exclusion Zone to steal Cosmo so they can get Christopher’s mind back in his body and keep all the drones and neurocasters online, Michelle, Keats, Herman and their new robot friends — including Popfly (Brian Cox), Penny Pal (Jenny Slate) and their leader Mr. Peanut — go to Sentre’s headquarters to save Christopher. A battle occurs between the robots from the Exclusion Zone and Sentre’s drones as Michelle penetrates Sentre’s headquarters to try and save her brother.

Michelle reaches her brother as his mind is being transferred back from Cosmo into his physical body before she reluctantly puts on the neurocaster to speak with her brother in a virtual format. She ultimately finds out that her brother and Sentre are linked so the only way to stop Sentre from imprisoning robots and essentially maintaining control over humans with neurocasters is to unplug her brother from life support.

With Christopher’s encouragement, she pulls the plug, putting Sentre offline and presumably ending the war between robots and Sentre as many people experience their world outside of a virtual reality from the neurocasters for the first time in years. It’s revealed that Michelle’s quest and exploits have become national news as she films an impassioned video with the goal of fostering more human connection globally instead of being so reliant on electronics.

“Real life … it’s contact. It’s you and me. We’re flesh and bone, yeah, but we’re also electricity,” Michelle says. “And when we hug and laugh and hold hands and argue, my particles stay with you and yours stay with me and maybe we stay together forever. But that can’t happen if you close yourself off. It can only happen out here in the real world.”

Why does Michelle pull the plug on Christopher?

One of Christopher’s defining qualities is that he was a genius who was so smart he was going to college before the age where most kids graduate high school. After the car accident that killed Michelle and Christopher’s parents, Christopher was also presumed dead in the hospital, but Dr. Amherst (Key He Quan) reveals that wasn’t the case.

Amherst tells Michelle that Christopher’s genius mind became the key for Sentre CEO Ethan Skate (Stanley Tucci) to link the neurocasters to the drones, which helped stop the war between robots and humanity. Amherst reveals that Sentre was keeping Christopher’s body to make Sentre work, but once Amherst told Skate that Christopher awoke from his coma and they needed to let him out, Skate threatened to kill Amherst and kept Christopher hostage.

Amherst left Sentre, but not before establishing a connection between Christopher and the outside network, so that his mind could transcend his body and escape. This is how Christopher inhabited the Kid Cosmo robot and was able to find Michelle.

When Michelle gets to the Sentre headquarters, she reaches the fourth floor where Christopher’s brain is being transferred back from Cosmo to his body. To communicate with her brother, Michelle must use the neurocaster she is so against to enter a virtual reality where she can speak with her brother.

“There’s certainly an obvious message that Simon — [the author of the book the movie was adapted from] — was putting out and that’s the idea that the neurocasters are essentially substitutions for our smartphones and that we’re all retreating into an online world at the expense of our physical world,” co-writer Stephen McFeely told Netflix.

As Michelle and Christopher have an emotional reunion virtually, Christopher tells Michelle that he and Sentre are symbiotic so that one can’t live without the other, meaning Sentre is also keeping him alive. He encourages Michelle to pull the plug on his body in its vegetative state to stop Sentre’s technological reign over robots and humanity, telling her it’s the only way to create a more peaceful world where people aren’t so consumed by technology and can co-exist with robots.

Is Christopher still alive?

The final scene of the movie shows Cosmo — the cartoon-based robot whose body Christopher’s mind inhabited — being taken to the dump. However, in the movie’s final shot, a dog is drinking water at the dump as Cosmo’s reflection appears standing up behind him.

This seemingly indicates that Christopher’s mind has come back to life via the body of Cosmo and based on the movie’s central theory this isn’t so far-fetched.

“Quantum physics says that particles can stay linked way after they come into contact,” Christopher tells Michelle in the film’s opening scene. “And if everything exists in a state of electricity, then it’s possible our consciousness could transcend physical boundaries.”

After Michelle and Christopher give a tearful goodbye once Michelle puts on the neurocaster to visit a virtual version of her brother, he tells her that she’ll never have to say goodbye to him. In Christopher’s statement, where he mentions that particles can stay linked after coming into contact, this could indicate that he could forever live on through the Kid Cosmo robot from their time linked together. According to this theory, Cosmo’s appearance at the end could be Christopher coming back to life.

What happened to Keats?

After the war is won, Keats gives an impassioned speech to Herman — his robot best friend — telling him he loves him, while he believed Herman was dead. Afterwards, a smaller 8-inch model of Herman comes out of bigger Herman’s body alive and well, having heard Keats’ speech.

Some time later, Keats and Herman help Michelle film a video pleading everyone to prioritize human — or robot — connection over electronic escapism. During Michelle’s video, she also tells those who don’t have anyone to come find her, Keats, Herman and their robot friends.

This makes it appear as though robots and humans are now able to live in peace while Michelle and Keats are set to continue their friendship alongside their robot companions.