The Australian twins Danny and Michael Philippou, the brains behind the YouTube channel RackaRacka, known for creating live-action horror comedy videos, are also behind the recent A24 Horror flick Talk to Me (2023). The film focuses on Mia as she tries to navigate her way through the void created in the aftermath of her mother’s death. However, Mia sets deadly and irreversible events in motion to overcome the grief. In the following article, we will take a detailed look at everything that happens in Talk To Me, including its wild ending that might shock and distress you. Please ensure that you proceed cautiously, as this will be full of spoilers.
Talk to Me (2023) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Talk to Me opens with a frenzied party scene as a young guy searches for his brother, Duckett. The guy finds his brother sitting eerily calm in a room. The brother tries to take Duckett away from the place. But suddenly, Duckett stabs his brother and then kills himself.
The spine-chilling prologue sets the narrative in motion as we see the protagonist, Mia, who half-heartedly partakes in a small talk with her aunt at her mother’s remembrance day. She does not seem too keen to converse with her father either. She hurriedly leaves to pick Riley up from the park to dodge the conversation. Riley is the younger brother of Mia’s best friend, Jade. While driving back, they chance upon a severely wounded kangaroo, which is slowly succumbing to its injuries. Riley prompts Mia to drive over the kangaroo to end its misery at once.
Mia starts the car accordingly but changes her mind in the end and swerves past the animal. Once they reach Jade’s home, Mia shows Jade a video where their classmates can be seen getting possessed by spirits through an allegedly embalmed white-tattooed hand. Jade is not convinced. However, Mia insists that she wants to do this today to keep herself away from thinking about the remembrance day.
They arrive at the party, where the classmates are ready to carry out the summoning job. Mia blurts out that she wants to volunteer first in this spirit summoning game. She gets tied, and Hayley, their classmate, Hayley, dictates the rules of the game: the spirit summoning session cannot exceed 90 seconds because the spirits would want to stay. Furthermore, in case Mia dies while the spirits are inside her body, the spirit of Mia will be pulled away and thrown into the limbo with other spirits that are trapped in the hand.
The spirits are invited by opening up a portal, which is done by lighting a candle. The portal is closed when the candle is put out. Mia holds the hand and whispers, “Talk to me.” This summons the spirit of an old man, which makes Mia scared out of her wits. Hayley says only doing that would not suffice as she has to whisper, “I let you in,” to invite the spirit inside her body.
The spirit that enters Mia’s body warns Riley that the other spirits might be taking an interest in him and would kill him in no time. Hayley orders Joss, the owner of the hand, to detach Mia from the hand as the clock is ticking for close to 90 seconds. It becomes difficult to detach Mia as the spirit refuses to part ways with the hand. However, with concerted effort, Mia is finally freed. She regains consciousness with hoots and cheers from the others.
Soon, the group gets caught in the fixation with the hand. Next time, they congregate at Jade’s place to conduct the session. Everyone takes turns to communicate with the spirits. Feeling left out, Riley requests the others to allow him to explore it. Jade refuses and leaves the room. But Riley manages to coax Mia into going for the session, but only for 60 seconds. The spirit that gets inside Riley communicates to Mia as her late mother.
Mia refuses to let go of the spirit and, in doing so, jeopardizes Riley’s life. The possessed Riley repeatedly slams his head on the table and tries to pull out his own eyeballs, but his sister somehow manages to rescue him. The hand is taken away from Riley after much struggle. The emergency services appear at their door to take Riley away to the hospital. Mia gets sharply shunned by Jade and her mother after the accident. Sue, Riley, and Jade’s mother even accuse Mia of giving Riley drugs. Heartbroken, Mia tries to leave but encounters the spirit of her dead mother.
Talk to Me (2023) Movie Ending Explained:
Does Mia get trapped with the spirits?
Mia’s encounters with the spirits seem to increase with each passing moment. When Daniel, Jade’s boyfriend, and Mia spend the night at Mia’s place after the incident with Riley, Mia sees a dead woman crawling up to the bed to Daniel and sucking his foot. However, when Daniel wakes up, he finds Mia doing the same. Mia summons her dead mother’s spirit and asks her why she died. Her mother tells her that Riley is in need of help.
After gaining momentary consciousness, Riley tries to violently harm himself. Mia believes the malevolent spirit inside Riley wants to kill him. Joss, who now owns the ‘hand,’ reveals that he got it from a friend named Duckett, who killed himself. Mia wonders if Ducket’s brother might have some answer for them. But the grief-ridden is too enraged to see Joss and Hayley for enabling Ducket to lose himself in the spirit world. Later, Mia implores Jade to let her do the summoning session with Riley. Mia then figures out that the session might not be helpful if Riley’s spirit is disconnected from his body. She then attempts to summon Riley’s spirit through the hand. Instead, the spirit of a little girl appears, and the spirit takes Mia into the spirit world, where she sees the demonic spirits feasting on Riley.
On the other hand, the spirit of Mia’s dead mother has convinced Mia that her death was not really a suicide. Mia’s father found Mia’s mother’s dead body with her nails filled with wooden scraps, which showed that she was trying to get out of the bedroom. Nevertheless, Mia’s father, Max, reveals to his daughter that her mother left a suicide note. Max says he hid it from her but apologizes for that.
Max also reads out the suicide note to Mia. The spirit, however, claims all that Mia’s father has said to her regarding her mother’s death is false. Subsequently, the spirit pretending to be Mia’s mother even provokes Mia to kill his father, and Mia stabs the scissors and kills him.
Next, the spirit provokes Mia to kill Riley to end his suffering. The spirit manipulates her and insists that this is the only way to kill Riley. Mia calls Jade to tell her that Riley is in extreme agony. She tells Jade that she can show her something and asks her to be at her place. Mia, who has called Jade from outside the hospital, distracts Jade so that she can enter the hospital and be close to Riley. Sue is happy to see Mia again and is ashamed for suspecting that she drugged Riley. She leaves Mia with Riley for a moment upon Mia’s request.
She sneaks away Riley from the hospital in a wheelchair. On the other hand, Jade discovers what Mia did to her father. Mia drives Riley up a hill by the side of a highway and, on her mother’s order, prepares to push the wheelchair down. However, Mia regains her senses and instead throws herself down on the highway. The ending of Talk to Me (2023) shows Mia in the hospital, walking past her father and Riley. To her surprise, however, nobody can see or hear her. She finally realizes that she is dead and has been sucked into the limbo of the spirits caught in the mummified hand.
What happens to Riley and Max in the end?
Riley’s Survival:
The film’s climax hinges on Mia’s ultimate sacrifice. Driven to a breaking point by the manipulative spirit masquerading as her mother, Mia believes the only way to save Riley from eternal torment is to sacrifice herself. By throwing herself in front of an oncoming car, she effectively becomes the new vessel for the malevolent spirits. This drastic act diverts the spirits’ attention from Riley, allowing him to escape their clutches.
While the film doesn’t explicitly show Riley’s recovery process, it’s implied that he physically survives the ordeal. However, the psychological trauma he endured is likely to have long-lasting effects.
Max’s Survival:
Max is physically unharmed throughout the film. However, he is emotionally devastated by the loss of his wife and the traumatic events surrounding his daughter. The film suggests that he will be left to grapple with the aftermath of these events, likely requiring significant time and support to recover.
Essentially, Mia’s selfless act saves Riley’s life, but both he and Max are left to navigate the profound emotional and psychological scars inflicted by their encounter with the supernatural.
