Bones and All Ending Explained: Why Does Maren Eat Lee? What Does “EAT SOMEONE TO THE BONE” Mean

Among the most acclaimed films Bones and All of the latest edition of the Venetian event, we find the latest effort by Luca Guadagnino, who returns to collaborate with Timothée Chalamet for Bones and All, a horror-tinged love story based on the homonymous novel by Camille DeAngelis. The film, which has just arrived in theaters after its director won the Silver Lion at Venice 79, stars Chalamet as Lee and Taylor Russell as Maren (winner of the Marcello Mastroianni Award also on the Lido), a young woman who, after discovering that she has inherited an uncontrollable appetite for human flesh from her mother, sets out in search of herself and her origins. Along the way, she meets people who share the same nature as her and who guide her to discover a new “lifestyle”.

As we told you in our review of the film, the two will have to go through various difficulties, fighting against the sense of guilt derived from eating human flesh. However, together, they will try to build a normal life and make peace with their nature, which they cannot control. In this explanation of the ending of Bones and All, we will retrace the closure of Guadagnino’s film, exploring its deeper meanings.

Bones and All Ending Explained: How Does Bones and All End?

Maren and Lee were reunited after a long separation, she had left after the disastrous encounter with her mother who had left her as a child. However, the love between the two young people is so strong that it cannot keep them apart for long, which is why Maren tracks down Lee, who has returned to live near her childhood home, where her beloved sister Kayla (Anna Cobb) is. The two decide to live together and create a daily life as “normal” as possible, even for two cannibals like them. A happy ending that is not destined to last long, Maren is found by Sully (Mark Rylance), driven by jealousy and an unhealthy attachment to the girl, who abandoned him at the beginning of the film after he had “initiated” to feed on human flesh. We are made to understand that to find them Sully fed on Lee’s sister we see her hair woven into the rope that the man carries behind her to remember her victims.

Maren finds Sully waiting for her in the flat she shares with Lee, and he soon assaults her; fortunately, the boy will arrive just in time to save her from her ferocity: in the violent scuffle that arises between the three of her Sully loses his life, while Lee is mortally wounded, stabbed in the lung trying to help Maren. While she is rapidly passing out, Lee begs Maren to feed on her body “to the bone” of her, she initially refuses, but after a passionate kiss, the girl gives in and feeds on her lover’s flesh.

Why Does Maren Eat Lee?

Compared to other of the deaths shown in the film, Lee’s is not shown entirely, so the question may remain as to whether Maren ultimately feeds on his body or not. However, one of the last shots shows us the apartment that the two lovers shared empty and cleansed of the signs of the violent deaths that took place there. For this we understand that the girl must necessarily have fed both on Lee’s body and on Sully’s, thus making all evidence of what happened to disappear. One of the most evident sources of suffering for Maren, as for Lee, is that derived from the burden of having to feed on human flesh. For the two it is, therefore, preferable to feed on people of dubious morality or who are already dying, Sully and Lee, in the finale, fall into these categories.

By “giving” himself to Maren, Lee also frees her from the need to hunt for someone for her next meal. But what does it mean for Lee and Maren to “eat someone to the bone”? In the sequence of the film in which the two find themselves on the banks of the Mississippi and meet another group of cannibals, the newcomers explain to them that it is – for those like them – a fundamental rite of passage through which sooner or later they must necessarily pass as if to complete a path of growth, transformation and acceptance of one’s nature. The fact that Maren eats Lee to the bone is therefore symbolic of the “journey” made by the girl, who is finally able to survive on her own and get on with her life, even without the support of someone else.

The Differences Between Book and Film

At this point, to better understand the ending of Luca Guadagnino’s film, a brief comparison with the work of Camille DeAngelis is particularly interesting. Apart from some more superficial differences (Maren, for example, does not go looking for her mother but for her father, who is the one who shares her cannibalistic nature), the book suggests that the people the girl feels the need to feed on are often those who show her some kind of affection. Furthermore, in the book Maren feeds right away “to the bone” the conception of this practice as a rite of passage, of growth, is missing.

After feeding on Lee, the novel’s Maren fully embraces her predatory nature, like Sully. Also realizing that she can’t help but hunt and eat people like her who feed on human flesh. Compared to Guadagnino’s film, DeAngelis’ work, therefore, ends on a decidedly darker note: Maren has transformed into the “monster” she had always feared she was.

Down to the Bone

The cinematic Bones and All does tell a story of growth and training, but, compared to the paper counterpart, ends more positively: for Maren, eating Lee is also a way to carry with her, forever, his great love. In this way, even if death has separated them, the young woman will never forget him, because he will always be part of her. It is not in her nature as a predator hungry for human flesh that the film decides to end, but rather on an intimate and sweet scene shared by the two lovers when Lee was still alive. We find them both on the hill where one of the film’s most tender and emotional scenes is set.

Lee’s final sacrifice does not transform Maren into a monster, but rather it is for him the greatest demonstration of love possible, for this reason, the future we imagine for the girl is different from what the book suggests: Maren will go on with her life, enriched by a new awareness of her nature and able to face adversity alone. Her time with Lee made her realize that a kind of normalcy is possible even for people like her and that her greatest fear of becoming a monster doesn’t have to come true. Closing the film with a scene of the two lovers together, this is exactly what Guadagnino wants to tell us: love for Lee was the best thing that could have happened to Maren, she made her grow up and made her a better adult.