The Pale Blue Eye Ending Explained: Who Is Really The Murderer?

BEWARE: The explained ending of The Pale Blue Eye contains SPOILERS.

The Pale Blue Eye, its original title, arrives on Netflix on January 6, 2023, after a brief passage through theaters. A fictional story that revives Edgar Allan Poe and makes him one of its protagonists. Based on the homonymous book by Louis Bayard, both the work and the film breathe the dark, decadent and vengeful tone of the American writer’s tales. The Pale Blue Eye is a historical thriller that takes us into a dark and gothic adventure inspired by the stories of Edgar Allan Poe. And even so, perhaps its biggest attraction is the cast: Christian Bale, Gillian Anderson, Robert Duvall and Harry Melling as headliners.

The Pale Blue Eye: Plot Summary

In the Hudson Valley (New York) in the year 1830, a body appears hanging from a tree. It is about Leroy Fry, a young soldier who attends the military academy. At first, there is talk of suicide, but upon looking at the corpse more closely, they observe that the young cadet has his heart torn out. It is not only a murder but also one of the cruelest. To try to solve the crime, the director of the academy recruits a retired detective, Augustus Landor (Christian Bale). He wants by all means to clean up the reputation of the Academy and that this event does not harm the institution. But Landor will not be alone in the investigation, as a young cadet offers to help him with the crime.

That is none other than prominent writer Edgar Allan Poe (Harry Melling). Edgar Allan Poe will appear as a bright and curious young man with an innate fixation on death. Edgar and Detective Landor will form a curious couple while they try to solve the crime. But as they investigate, they realize that there is much more darkness in the matter and many mysteries behind what is seen in plain sight. Also, Leroy Fry won’t be the only cadet killed. Soon they find more corpses and secrets that little by little come to light.

The Pale Blue Eye Ending Explained: What Happed At the End?

Let us now return to the film to resolve one of the great questions of The Pale Blue Eye. Who is the murderer of the young cadets? Although to solve this mystery we will need to go step by step. Because neither the solution is so obvious nor are the culprits what they seem. The investigation indicates that it was the Marquis family who killed the cadet to save the life of Lea Marquis (Lucy Boynton). Leah is sick. The doctors give the young woman a maximum of six months to live. She, who refuses to accept this reality, decides to resort to the dark arts to save her life healing is how she manages to communicate with a dead relative, who was an expert in witchcraft while he was alive, and hints that what she needs to heal is to cast a spell with a human heart.

That’s why Lea and her brother Artemus (Harry Lawtey) rip out Fry’s heart. To use it to save the daughter of the Marquis. In fact, after the ritual and for a while, Lea seems to recover. The problem is that she eventually gets sick again. So, she again will need another human heart to heal. And who will be the new victim that Lea has set her sights on? Well, to our beloved Edgar Allan Poe, who postulates himself as his new victim. Lea, along with Artemus and his mother Julia (Gillian Anderson), drugged him to try to rip his heart out of his chest. But Edgar is not alone, and Detective Landor manages to arrive in time before the crime. Just then a fire starts, and after a brief struggle, the roof collapses on Lea and Artemus. Both are crushed to death by debris.

Who Is Really The Murderer?

The real murderer of the cadets is precisely Landor. And the reason is revenge. Landor has told everyone that his daughter has run off with a man. But it’s a lie, the reality is much harsher. Landor’s daughter committed suicide. And she committed suicide because she was sexually assaulted by three Academy cadets, and she couldn’t bear the pain of it. During the attack, the young woman managed to rip off a badge from one of them: Cadet Fries. So, Landor knew whom he had to go for in the first place.

Curiously, the Marquis brothers did not kill Fry despite what one might think at first. What happened is that they found the hanging corpse that Landor had left and decided to rip out his heart for his ritual. A coincidence that came to them in luxury. But as we have said, Fry’s will not be the only crime. Landor knows that there was more than one man involved in the attack on his daughter. And in Fry’s diary, he reads that Bollinger was his accomplice. He tortures to extract the whole truth and to be able to carry out his revenge on all those guilty of the death of his daughter.

The Decision of Edgar Allan Poe?

In the end, we already have all the mysteries solved. Landor is the real killer of the cadets. It is his revenge for what they did to his daughter, who ended up committing suicide after the attack. And, on the other hand, the Marquis brothers ripped out Fry’s heart to extend Lea’s life through black magic. Finding the corpse that Landor had left there. But after putting all the cards on the table, a new question arises. What will the young Edgar Allan Poe do when he discovers the whole truth about Landon? Will he rat on his friend, or will he cover up the crimes?

Allan Poe is angry with the detective, who has always deceived him and has taken advantage of the friendship that has arisen between the two. But despite all the above, he decides to burn the evidence that could convict Landor. The young man considers that the detective has already suffered too much and has paid his penance. For which he will let the world believe that the Marquis was the only and true culprit. As a curiosity before finishing, say that the film begins right with Landor (Christian Bale) washing his hands. And he is washing it because he has just killed Cadet Fry. When we see it for the first time, we are not aware. It is in a second viewing that we can see these small details that give the film even more meaning.

Why Is It Called The Pale Blue Eye?

Interestingly, the original title of the book is directly related to Edgar Allan Poe. In one of his most famous stories, The Tell-Tale Heart, the narrator (and murderer) at a certain moment looks horrified at the face of his victim and when he describes what he is observing he says: ‘One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture, a pale blue eye, with a film over it’. Which in Spanish would be: ‘One of his eyes resembled that of a vulture: a pale blue eye, with a membrane over it’. And in a film full of hearts torn out and where the culprit is also the protagonist, it makes a lot of sense that it is inspired precisely by The Tell-Tale Heart.