Run Rabbit Run (2023): Movie Ending, Explained: Since the end of Succession, Sarah Snook has been considered a frontrunner for the Emmys. While she had earlier worked in critically-acclaimed projects like Predestination and Pieces of a Woman, her performance as Shiv Roy gave her immense popularity. Now her new eerie psychological Horror film has come out on Netflix.
‘Run Rabbit Run,’ which premiered at this year’s Sundance film festival, delves into a woman’s narrative whose past traumas haunt her and sneak up on her in unimaginable ways. It explores the aspects of a woman’s identity as a mother, sister, and daughter. The script uses Sarah’s fears to gradually heighten its sense of paranoia. The film is directed by Daina Reid, with a screenplay written by Hannah Kent. Besides Snook, the film stars Lily LaTorre and Greta Scacchi in crucial roles.
*Spoilers Ahead*
Run Rabbit Run (2023) Movie Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
What happens in Run Rabbit Run?
Sarah (Sarah Snook) is a single mother and a fertility doctor by profession. She grieves her father’s recent death but still manages to cheer up her daughter, Mia (Lily LaTorre). While being lost in a chain of thought, she almost ends up burning a side of a pancake. Mia mentions that she misses her grandfather. Sarah says she does too. After dropping Mia off at school, Sarah spends her day at work.
On the way back home, Mia suddenly asks Sarah whether Joan is coming to her birthday party. It spooks Sarah because Mia has never met Joan (Greta Scacchi), i.e., her mother. “I miss people I’ve never met all the time,” says Mia. It spooks Sarah even more. Back home, Mia suddenly finds a bunny in their backyard. Sarah thinks it might have jumped off from someone else’s house and that they should return it. But Mia insists on keeping it.
At the party, Mia’s father, Peter (Damon Herriman), tells Sarah that he is trying to have a baby with his partner Denise (Naomi Rukavina). Suddenly they hear crying from the other room. Sarah sees Denise’s son hit Mia and gets angry at him – without realizing that she is needlessly hard on a child. We see Sarah being over-protective of her daughter. Later that night, Sarah burns down a letter about her father’s death. Then, she decides to get the bunny out of their house. But it bites her when she tries to do so.
The next morning, Mia suddenly shows up beside her bed with a paper mask of a bunny’s face. She refuses to take it off even when Sarah drops her off at school. Then after school, she hides somewhere, gasping for breath. Back at home, Sarah asks if someone is bullying her. Mia does not answer. Later she asks to see old family photos. Sarah reluctantly shows an album. She takes Alice’s photos and keeps them without Sarah’s notice.
Before putting Mia to bed, Sarah notices some blood on Mia’s forehead. She gets concerned about whether she is getting bullied. Mia rather keeps making requests to see Joan. Sarah is reluctant because she and Joan have been estranged since the disappearance of her sister, Alice. Nevertheless, she takes Mia to meet Joan at the care facility. On their way, she notices Mia’s nose bleeding. Upon meeting Mia, Joan refers to her as ‘Alice’ and refuses to let her go. Sarah decides to take her away, but Mia keeps screaming.
Later, Sarah finds out about the disturbing drawings drawn by Mia. Her school psychologist thinks it might be because of her grandfather’s death. But Sarah is unsure. On the other hand, Mia keeps asking to meet Joan, saying, ‘She belongs to her.’ Sarah remains defensive about it. We also see Sarah being sensitive about sharing her past with anyone. She gets mad at Pete for telling Denise about it. He suggests she take Mia to see Joan if she wants to.
After that conversation, Sarah takes Mia to her childhood home. She hopes to clean it up and sell it, which seems like her way of trying to get rid of her past. She gets out of her car and walks away to a cliff. On the other side, she notices a young girl about Mia’s age. By that time, Mia notices that the door is open and runs inside. She goes up to Alice’s room, looks at her photo, and says that it is her. While Sarah tries to take her out, Mia calls her a terrible person. The writing keeps hinting at Sarah’s guilt over something that happened between her and Alice. Later on, Mia keeps insisting that she is Alice, which continues to upset Sarah even more.
Suddenly, Mia runs away to her bedroom and tucks herself in. Sarah walks up to her and finds her face bleeding. Later she notices her own hands filled with blood, which disappears the next moment. She then notices the bite mark left by the bunny on her arm. Through such hallucinations, we keep getting glimpses into her trauma.
Later, Sarah takes Mia to meet Joan. This time, Joan calls Mia by her real name. But Mia continues insisting otherwise. So, Sarah gets angry and slaps her on the face. She finally decides to break the silence on Alice’s topic and shares details about her with Mia. As kids, the two used to fight a lot. Sarah recalls how Alice used to find animals and bring them back home. She agrees they used to play hide-and-seek. The next moment, Mia starts shouting at her. “You don’t want to find me; you lock me in,” she says.
Sarah keeps getting paranoid about Mia’s fixation – on her being ‘Alice.’ She calls Pete to check whether he or Denise told Mia anything about her sister. Later, she meets Joan, who wants to return to that house once she gets out, hoping Alice will return. She mentions her regret for lending Alice’s responsibility to Sarah. Amidst the growing anxiety, Sarah returns home to find Mia missing. She runs around looking for her. The moment she finds her, she sees Alice’s face instead. She brings Mia back home and curls in bed next to her.
Run Rabbit Run (2023) Movie Ending, Explained:
Sarah tries to tell Joan about her involvement in Alice’s disappearance. But she cannot muster the courage to do so. After the night next to Mia in her bed, she suddenly runs up to her with a pair of scissors and injures her arm. She realizes what she did only after terrifying her daughter. While Mia is asleep, Sarah opens a cabinet and walks to their storage house. Alice comes out and attacks her, asking why she locked her. By the time Sarah snaps out of this fever dream, she notices Alice standing outside the door. This time, she mistakes Mia for Alice.
Sarah follows Mia/Alice up to her childhood house. That’s where the young girl locks herself inside a room. Soon after, Sarah starts running after Mia up to the cliff, only to realize it’s not her sister. While Mia starts screaming, Sarah pushes her down. By that cryptically directed moment, we realize a crucial detail – Sarah pushed Alice down that cliff. The incident with Mia was a figment of her imagination.
Later, Pete reaches the house to find Sarah scratching the floor of the house. They both start looking around for their daughter while Sarah suspects she accidentally killed her. Eventually, the couple finds Mia by a river and brings her back. After this horrifying incident, Sarah goes up to meet Joan and confesses that Alice is dead. Joan still believes that Alice is not dead, no matter what Sarah says.
Sarah eventually returns home and crawls next to Mia. She refers to her as Alice and apologizes for hurting her. She says how she told their mom (Joan) that Alice ran away – because she was afraid to tell the truth. Mia/Alice calls her a monster, and she accepts that. The next morning, she notices Mia missing. She walks up to the window to find Mia holding hands with Alice on the cliff.
What does the ending of Run Rabbit Run mean?
Much of the writing relishes in not over-explaining details, instead keeping it ever-illusive. So, one may consider the ending as Alice’s ghost haunting Mia, taking control of her body/possessing her. But that would be too straightforward of a clarification. The film rather seems like an exploration of Sarah’s character, whose past starts haunting her out of nowhere. It is an examination of her anxieties of not living up to the standards and being a failure in being ideal. It is also about her fear of the past horrors catching up to her. In this case, the rabbit symbolizes the same fear entering her life.
