‘The Good Nurse’ Ending Explained: Eddie Redmayne Goes Full Serial Killer

Jessica Chastain might be a good nurse in The Good Nurse on Netflix—a new crime drama that began streaming today—but Eddie Redmayne definitely is not.

The Good Nurse movie—which was directed by Tobias Lindholm, with a screenplay by Krysty Wilson-Cairns—is adapted from the 2013 non-fiction book of the same by Charles Graeber. Graeber spent six years investigating the case of the serial killer nurse, Charlie Cullen, who is believed to have intentionally killed hundreds of patients during his tenure as a nurse. After many interviews, including an interview with Cullen himself in prison, Graeber concluded that hospital after hospital suspected Cullen was harming patients but failed to take measures beyond firing him, in order to protect the hospital from liability.

It’s a complicated story, as these true crime investigations often are. And though the Netflix movie does a good job distilling and, in some cases, rewriting this true story to make it more palatable to Hollywood audiences, there still might be some who are confused. If that’s you, have no fear, because Decider is here to help.

Read on for Decider’s breakdown of The Good Nurse summary and The Good Nurse ending, explained.

WHAT IS THE GOOD NURSE MOVIE ABOUT? THE GOOD NURSE SUMMARY:

The Good Nurse tells the true story of Charlie Cullen —a serial killer who confessed to killing at least 40 patients during his 16-year-long career as a nurse—and Cullen’s friend and co-worker Amy Loughren. Though The Good Nurse exaggerates the role Loughren had in Cullen’s capture, she really did work with police to help provide essential information to finally put him behind bars. (You can read more about The Good Nurse true story in Decider’s breakdown of the Cullen case, including how accurate The Good Nurse movie is.)

The movie picks up the story by introducing us to a nurse and single mother named Amy (played by Jessica Chastain), who is struggling to get by at her under-staffed hospital. Amy is also secretly dealing with a very serious heart issue and needs a transplant ASAP. But Amy is new to the hospital and won’t be eligible for health insurance for another four months.

Amy’s life seems to improve with the arrival of a nurse named Charlie Cullen (played by Eddie Redmayne). Amy is kind to Charlie and shows him the ropes, and he’s kind to her in return. The two become close friends when Charlie finds Amy recovering from a heart episode, and she tells him about her health issue. He vows to keep her secret and promises to help her get through the next few months. He covers for her when he can and even helps out with parenting Amy’s young daughters. 

But things get weird when several of Amy’s patients die unexpectedly. One of the deaths is flagged as suspicious, and the police begin to investigate. Enter detectives Danny Baldwin (played by Nnamdi Asomugha) and Tim Braun (Noah Emmerich). They meet with the hospital official and legal team, and right away, Danny suspects something is up. The hospital waited seven weeks to alert authorities, meaning the body has already been cremated. The hospital claims it was conducting its own internal investigation, but drags its feet on handing that investigation over to the police. When the police finally get the report, it’s a mere four pages long with very little information.

The detectives discover one of the nurses at the hospital, Charlie Cullen, has a prior criminal record and had a stay at a psychiatric ward. But none of Cullen’s previous employers will speak to the detectives about him. The detectives are permitted to interview hospital staff, but only with the hospital officials present, which makes employees hesitant to talk. But while interviewing Amy, the detectives get a lucky moment alone with her. She reviews the patient’s charts and realizes they were given insulin when they should not have been. But she rebuffs the detectives’ claims that Charlie could have anything to do with it.

Amy changes her tune when there is another suspicious death of a patient, also given an unwarranted dose of insulin. She decides to call on an old co-worker, who also happened to work with Charlie at his old job. The co-worker reveals that though nothing was ever proven, there was a rumor that Charlie was killing patients on purpose. While Charlie was working there, the hospital experienced a lot of “codes,” meaning medical emergencies. After he left, the number of codes dropped drastically. Amy realizes the detectives are right, and that Charlie is secretly injecting IV bags with insulin and other substances that are killing patients.

WHAT IS THE GOOD NURSE ENDING, EXPLAINED?

The hospital fires Charlie and tells him the reason is that he wrote the wrong dates of previous employment on his application. Meanwhile, Amy agrees to work with the detectives to help bring Charlie into custody. She meets him at a diner while wearing a wire, with the goal of getting him to confess. But Charlie refuses to talk about it and leaves the diner.

Luckily, Amy is still able to get info on the new hospital where Charlie is starting work that day. Plus, she was able to provide police with patient data that the hospital claimed had been deleted. The police arrest Charlie and attempt to use this evidence to get a confession out of Charlie. After nearly 48 hours, they still don’t have a confession, and will soon be forced to let him go. Amy comes to the station to speak to Charlie in a last-ditch effort.

Amy is exceedingly kind to Charlie, giving him her jacket when she finds him cold. She tells Charlie that she understands he feels alone, calls him kind and generous, and apologizes for making him feel more alone. He tells her that he always just wanted to help her, and she responds that he can still help her by providing the names of the people he killed. This method of compassionate interrogation works on Charlie, and he finally confesses to (some of) his crimes.

After he confesses, Charlie is taken away in handcuffs. In the final scene of the movie, Amy lays in bed with her oldest daughter, and the two of them decide to play hooky and spend the day in bed.

IS THE GOOD NURSE BASED ON A TRUE STORY?

Yes. Over the final scenes of the movie, there is text over the screen informing viewers about what happened to the real Charles Cullen and Amy Loughren. Cullen is serving 18 consecutive life sentences in prison and won’t be eligible for parole until 2403. Amy got her heart surgery, lives in Florida with her daughters and granddaughters, and is “still a good nurse.” And the final blow: None of the hospitals that failed to follow up on Cullen’s suspicious behavior—despite the fact that many appeared to be aware of it, and even appeared to impede the police investigation—ever faced any consequences.

You can read more about The Good Nurse true story on Decider.