‘The Midnight Sky’ Ending Explained: George Clooney’s Netflix Movie Comes With a Twist

George Clooney’s body stays firmly on the ground in The Midnight Sky—a new space drama that began streaming on Netflix today—but his mind is soaring high above the clouds. Based on the novel Good Morning, Midnight by Lily Brooks-Dalton, The Midnight Sky is directed by Clooney himself, the seventh film for Clooney as a director. (Others include Suburbicon; The Monuments Men; The Ides of March; Leatherheads; Good Night, and Good Luck; and Confessions of a Dangerous Mind.) The screenplay was adapted by Mark L. Smith, and, though some may see the twist ending coming from a lightyear away, others may be too wrapped up—pun intended—in present-drama to notice.

Whether you’re confused by The Midnight Sky ending or looking to confirm your suspicions about The Midnight Sky plot twist, Decider is here to help. Let’s get into The Midnight Sky ending, explained.

WHAT IS THE MIDNIGHT SKY ABOUT?

George Clooney is a space scientist named Augustine Lofthouse (yes, really) who volunteers to stay behind at an Arctic research base while the rest of his team evacuates a radiation-infected Earth. Augustine, who has cancer, knows he doesn’t have long to live, anyhow. But Augustine realizes he is not alone on the base when he discovers a young girl (Caoilinn Springall) left behind. She doesn’t speak, but he learns her name is Iris through a picture she draws. He tries to contact the crew who evacuated, but they are out of range. He decides to take Iris to a nearby base with a stronger antenna, in an attempt to contact the spacecraft Æther, which has not been informed of the conditions on Earth and is traveling home from its mission on Jupiter. We also learn via flashback that a young Augustine (Ethan Peck) had a fling with a woman named Jean (Sophie Rundle), and that she left him while carrying his unborn child because he was too obsessed with his work.

HOW DOES THE MIDNIGHT SKY END?

Augustine and Iris make it to the base with the stronger antenna and attempt to warn Æther not to return to Earth. Two crew members decide to return to Earth anyhow via a shuttle, while the other two, Sully (Felicity Jones) and Adewole (David Oyelowo), turn around to head back to Jupiter’s moon. In Sully’s final communication with Augustine, we realize that she is his long lost daughter. Sully doesn’t realize this—she only knows that her mother greatly admired Augustine—but Augustine does. As Sully talks, we see Augustine holding hands with Iris, gazing up at the night sky (the midnight sky, if you will). Then we see just Augustine standing alone with his hand outstretched, holding on to no one.

WHAT IS THE MIDNIGHT SKY ENDING, EXPLAINED? WHAT IS THE MIDNIGHT SKY PLOT TWIST?

Though it is not explicitly stated, we are meant to understand that Iris was in Augustine’s mind the entire time. You may have seen this twist coming by the way that Iris almost never spoke, or by the way that her one spoken line had an eerie, surreal quality to it. Now it makes sense why Augustine would drag a little girl through a snowstorm to contact Æther—it was simply his mind’s way of providing him the motivation to perform this last heroic act before his death. Phew! For a second there, I thought George Clooney simply had the worst parenting instincts on Earth. Or space, for that matter.

Watch The Midnight Sky on Netflix