There are many, many spoilers for The Call ahead. Obviously.
If you haven’t yet seen The Call, why the hell did you click on a link that says “Ending Explained?” You should go here instead to read our spoiler-free review.
Once again. There be spoilers ahead. You have been warned.
Is This the End?
During the climax of The Call, we saw Seo-yeon’s (Park Shin-hye) mother, Eun-ae (Kim Sung-ryung), sacrifice herself to take down Young-sook (Jeon Jong-seo) and save her daughter. Eun-ae charges into Young-sook just as she’s about to kill the younger Seo-yeon, both women go over the bannister on the first floor landing, fall from a great height, and are left for dead.
In the epilogue of the movie, however, Seo-yeon, who is at the cemetery mourning her loss, is miraculously reunited with her mother who seems to have somehow survived her showdown with Young-sook. Seo-yeon is happy and relieved and the both of them walk away, hand-in-hand, and live happily ever after.
Or do they?
Lest we forget, this is a Korean movie, and they are loathe to give us a happy ending.
What’s Going on in Those Post-Credits Scenes?
During the credits of The Call we are shown a series of scenes which suggest that Young-sook too did not die in the fall.
First, we flashback to an earlier scene in the movie – at about the 1 hour 28 minute mark – where we see Young-sook talking to someone while silhouetted behind a glass wall. We are finally made privy to the full conversation she was having on the phone.
We learn that 2019 Young-sook warns 1999 Young-sook that Eun-ae and a policeman would be at her door soon, and to be wary as she might get killed. She tells her to hold on to the phone regardless of what happens. Even if things go badly.
We then see the aftermath of the climactic fight, where a broken Young-sook, alone and lying in a pool of her own blood, opens her eyes and looks at the camera.
After this, we cut back to the cemetery, to Seo-yeon, only to see her mother flicker and disappear.
Finally, we see a grown up Seo-yeon tied to a chair and held captive in Young-sook’s basement.
What Does It All Mean? The Ending Explained!
Here’s what we know about the rules of this world, as set up by director Lee Chung-hyun.
1) Even though Seo-yeon’s present is changing based on what’s happening in the past, it seems like only major life or death events seem to have an impact on it. This would explain why Seo-yeon’s present only changed whenever someone was killed, or was saved from dying. It also explains why her present didn’t change when her younger self was being held captive by Young-sook.
2) Both Seo-yeon and Young-sook seem to be in some kind of bubble. Even though the world around them changes, the both of them seem to retain memories of everything that’s happened before. This must be due to some supernatural power afforded to them by the 1990s black cordless phone.
3) Their timelines are connected. If it’s 3PM in 1999, then it means that it’s 3PM in 2019. And if a major life or death event occurs at 3PM in 1999, then the change would happen at the same time in 2019. This is made clear during the scene when Seo-yeon tries to kill Young-sook by tricking her into going to the site of the greenhouse where a gas explosion takes place at 5PM. The detonation occurs, we hear Seo-yeon’s phone alarm go off at 5PM, but her world doesn’t change, which immediately tells us that Young-sook survived the blast.
Got all of that? Good.
In the version of 2019 that we see at the end of The Call, where Young-sook doesn’t get arrested by the police and lives out her life as a serial killer, it would make sense that she continues to be in communication with her past self. What this post-credits sequence tells us is that Young-sook was already aware that Seo-yeon’s mother and the policeman were going to be at her door. She knew there was going to be some sort of showdown. And despite not knowing the outcome, she made sure to hold on to the phone.
When Seo-yeon meets her mother at the cemetery at the end of the film, it implies that her mother survived and was okay for the few minutes or so before Young-sook awakened. So what we are seeing at the cemetery when Seo-yeon and her mother are reunited actually takes place in the short time period between Eun-ae and Young-sook coming to after their fall in 1999.
This second ending implies that when 1999 Young-sook comes to, she proceeds to kill Eun-ae, and keep Seo-yeon a hostage in her basement. The final gut punch being the idea being that Seo-yeon has been trapped as her hostage for 20 years!
As for what happens next? Maybe all of this is just setup for a sequel?
(Will there be a sequel? Director Lee Chung-hyun gives us a definitive answer!)
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