Knock at the Cabin Ending Explained: What Is the Meaning of The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse?

Get ready to uncover the mystery of the Knock at the Cabin ending! Our article will give you an in-depth explanation of the thrilling conclusion to this suspenseful movie. Introduction: “Knock at the Cabin” is a heart-pumping thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat from start to finish. The film’s unexpected twists and turns have left audiences guessing until the very end. So, what exactly happens in the climactic scene of this nail-biting thriller? Let’s dive in and take a closer look at the “Knock at the Cabin” ending explained.

Knock at the Cabin is a new film by the director of Indian origin Shyamalan inspired by the well-known book “The House at the End of the World” by Paul Tremblay. The director of Split, The Sixth Sense, Glass and The Forest brings us once again a film full of mystery, uncomfortable, and disturbing. Although in this case, we did not find the usual script twist, which already seemed like a house brand. Rather, the first ten minutes tell you exactly what is going to happen in the hour and a half that the film lasts. Which may be disappointing for some fans.

But despite immediately losing the surprise factor, Knock at the Cabin does retain other main elements of Shyamalan’s cinema, such as family and faith. Furthermore, in this case, they are the main pillars on which the film stands, without fear of reporting directly to the Bible to build the story. A curiously less ambitious story than what we are used to, with few characters and a single setting. Because yes, the end of the world occurs in a lost cabin in the woods. This a simple concept that nevertheless poses a devastating dilemma: would you kill the person you love the most to save humanity?

Knock at the Cabin: Plot Summary

The couple formed by Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), along with their daughter Wen (Kristen Cui), decide to spend the weekend in a cabin away from the stress of the city. But what seemed like a dream weekend soon turns into a nightmare when four strangers break into the cabin. Two men and two women armed with tools, force their way into the house and are willing to take on any of them if they try to escape. The four strangers claim that they have had visions of the end of the world and that these visions had led them to that cabin to fulfill a mission. They insist that the apocalypse is about to happen and the only thing that can stop it is that Eric, Andrew and Wen make a very difficult decision: they must choose between saving their family or the rest of humanity. Well, the only way to stop the apocalypse is for one of the three to die, but also be killed by another of them.

Eric and Andrew are skeptical at first. They see strangers as four crazy fanatical cult members, so they refuse to play along. But every time they refuse to fulfill this purpose, one of the strangers is killed by the others. And each death unleashes a worldwide plague. As the plagues rage and they see with their own eyes how the world is slowly wasting away, the initial skepticism begins to evaporate. They cannot deny that what is happening is real, that the apocalypse is about to happen and that they will soon have to make the most difficult decision of their lives: put their family first or save the lives of 7 billion more people.

What Is the Meaning of The Four Horsemen of The Apocalypse?

The four strangers who break into the cabin, Leonard, Sabrina, Ardiane, and Redmond, represent the four horsemen of the apocalypse. Shyamalan does not try to hide it at any time, he even clarifies the reference in the middle of the film. Although he does change the role of the riders slightly. The four strangers do not enjoy what they are doing. They are normal people, with normal jobs, who have been entrusted with a mission. But that mission is above themselves. The four of them saw the plagues in their visions, contacted each other online, and knew that they were destined to fulfill this mission. They are tools sent by something bigger and more powerful that we don’t understand. The four horsemen of the Apocalypse appear in the Bible. Next, we list each character in the film with his rider and add the mentions in which the Bible introduces them to us:

As we had already anticipated in our review of Knock on the door, M. Night Shyamalan’s new film retains at its core the provocative original story released by Paul Tremblay in 2018 but changes its ending and part of its meaning. For this reason and given the highly ambiguous nature of the events narrated in both the novel and the film, we must take a few steps back to better understand the final act of the American director’s feature film. It all starts with little Wen (Kristen Cui), who finds herself playing on the lawn in front of the cabin in the woods where her two adoptive fathers, Eric (Jonathan Groff) and Andrew (Ben Aldridge), are inside her. Suddenly a burly man named Leonard (Dave Bautista) approaches the girl, who not only tries to make friends with Wen but asks her to be allowed into the house to explain something about her to her parents.

Shortly thereafter, Leonard is joined in the distance by three other people: the young but restless Redmond (Rupert Grint), the wacky Adriane (Abby Quinn) and the one who claims to be a nurse named Sabrina (Nikki Amura-Bird). Wen, frightened and suspicious, enters the house and warns the two dads about her. Too bad that the four shady figures, each armed with different blunt weapons, break into the house by forcing the main door. It will be the beginning of an apocalyptic nightmare.

1. The Red Horse: War/Redmond

“When he opened the second seal, I heard the second living being say, ‘Come.’ Then another horse came out, red; to the one who rode it was granted to take peace from the earth so that they slaughtered one another; he was given a large sword. »

The first horseman is Redmond (Rupert Grint) who represents the red horse and ‘The War’. Redmond himself presents himself as someone violent, with a complicated past, who went to jail and achieved reinstatement. In this case, the War becomes Reinsertion. A more positive view.

2. The Black Horse: The Hunger/Ardiane

When he opened the third seal, I heard the third Living One say: «Come». I looked then and there was a black horse; the one who was riding it had a scale in his hand, 6. and I heard a voice amid the four living beings saying: “A liter of wheat for a denarius, three liters of barley for a denarius. But do not harm the oil and the wine.”

The second horseman is Ardiane (Abby Quin), who represents ‘The Hunger’. Although, curiously, the woman is a cook. In addition, the film insists that she loves to cook and observes how others enjoy eating her dishes. She more than hunger is whom she feeds.

3. Green Horse: Death/ Sabrina

I looked then and there was a greenish horse; the one who rode it was called Death, and Hades followed him. He gave them power over a quarter of the earth, to kill with the sword, with famine, with pestilence, and with the beasts of the earth.”

The third horseman is the greenish horse and represents ‘Death’. In Knock at the Cabin, he is played by Sabrina (Nikki Amuka-Bird). Although they do not speak of her as Death, as a Healer, just the opposite. Sabrina is a nurse, and she demonstrates it twice, healing the wounds of the protagonists, they are about to kill them. Also, later we will see her identification card from the hospital where she works, proving that she told the truth at all times.

4. The White Horse: The Conquest

I looked and there was a white horse, and he who rode it had a bow; he was given a crown, and he came out victorious, and to continue victorious.”

The last of the horsemen is Leonard (Dave Bautista). This represents ‘The Conquest’. Although in the film they define it as ‘tutelage’. Leonard is an elementary teacher in a public school. In it resides the hope that the new generations will be the solution to today’s problems, educating them on honesty and conquering their minds so that they grow up being good people.

The Biblical Plagues in Knock at the Cabin

In the Bible, the four horsemen of the Apocalypse open seven seals, thus unleashing seven plagues on Earth that aid in its destruction. In this case, they have been grouped into four. And the way to open those seals is with the sacrifice of each one of the riders.

1. First Plague: Earthquakes and Tsunamis

Following Redmond’s death, Leonard turns on the television. There we can see that all the channels in the world are reporting the same news: several earthquakes have originated throughout the Earth that is causing large floods in different parts of the planet, leaving thousands of deaths in their wake.

2. Second Plague: Global Pandemic

When it is Ardiane who dies, a new plague breaks out. On this occasion, the news reports about a global pandemic where the victims are also children under 10 years of age. Innocents infected by a virus that they cannot identify, or stop are dying.

3. Third Plague: The Heavens Fall

With the death of Sabrina, we see how suddenly the planes begin to fall from the sky and crash to the ground. Thousands of people are dying throughout the world, and no one understands what is happening. No one except those who are locked in that cabin. The skies are falling before your eyes.

4. Fourth Plague: Fire and Ashes

With the death of Leonard, the last of the plagues is unleashed. The skies begin to cast lightning, starting fires in its path. A practically hellish vision where fire consumes everything in its path. And it is precisely after this plague that Eric and Andrew decide to act accordingly. By the way, a detail that is not important to the plot, but is curious, is that the film begins precisely with the girl catching grasshoppers or lobsters. One of the plagues that devastated ancient Egypt and serves as a prelude to what is to come. In addition, Wen, the girl, locks up the grasshoppers in a glass jar. Just as they will be locked in the cabin for the rest of the movie.

A Choice That Could Change The Fate Of The World

Frightened, Eric and Andrew try to remove the four led by Leonard and dissuade them from harming them, but the emaciated leader explains that they are all there because the four, coming from different parts of the world, met in some online forums because they share an incredible pathology: both Leonard and Redmond, Adriane and Sabrina had visions which they then realized in some drawings; visions that represented the imminent arrival of the Apocalypse on Earth and the way to stop it, or rather by heading towards that precise cabin in the woods inhabited by Eric, Andrew and little Wen.

The disturbing gang explains to them that they will have to make a terrible choice to stop the end of the world, just as the visions suggested to them: one of Eric, Andrew and Wen will have to decide which family member to kill; only by doing so will the Apocalypse cease to set in motion. A fate, that of all humanity, literally on the shoulders of this incredulous and frightened rainbow family.  Eric and Andrew don’t believe the words of the sinister group, but when the first two are tied to a chair and forced to watch what was being accessed on the news on TV in real-time, they are progressively left speechless.

The Importance of Believing

Leonard, Redmond, Adriane and Sabrina were aware that Wen’s two dads would not have believed their weird words, and for this reason, they manage to convince them in the most shocking way possible; forced to watch TV, Eric and Andrew realize that everything the four predicted was happening life: galore natural disasters that were preceded by a violent ritual that foresaw the death of one of the “four horsemen of the Apocalypse”; whenever the ritual was performed before the prediction, the latter happened somewhere in the world.

The first to sacrifice himself during the predictive ritual is Redmond, followed by Adriane and Sabrina; to remain last is the character played by Dave Bautista, who will have to contend with two tired, shocked but very angry parents. Of the two, the first to give in to Leonard’s words is Eric, the one who in some narrative flashbacks appears to the viewer as the father with a more religious soul and inclination, unlike Andrew, an atheist and strongly linked to the preservation of his nuclear family. Just a curious event from the past between the two men will be one of the fuses that will definitively set in motion the grand finale of Knock on the door and will clarify any doubts related to the apparent ambiguity of the film.

Knock In The Cabin Ending Explained

The Christian religion is a great source of inspiration for Knock In The Cabin. The apocalypse, the horsemen, the plagues, the sacrifice of one to save the rest of humanity. Biblical elements are told in a different way, but where faith becomes essential to conclude the film. Here he introduces us to a marriage made up of two very different men. Andrew is an atheist, skeptic, and earthy. While Eric has a more powerful spiritual side. Both have learned to love each other despite their differences. But they will react oppositely to this situation. One by one they have seen each horseman die before their eyes. And they have also seen that each death has spread a plague worldwide, taking many people along the way. Earthquakes, tsunamis, pandemics, and planes falling from the sky crashing to earth. But after Leonard, the last horseman dies, they have almost no time to act. The apocalypse is about to happen, and both must make a decision.

Andrew began to believe that the apocalypse was real from almost the beginning of the movie. However, Eric remains skeptical for the longest and makes every decision at the cabin adamant. But after the fourth plague, Eric can no longer deny the evidence. The apocalypse is real. This is when they will have to make the most important decision of their lives: save the family or the entire world. And your way of seeing the world will be key to making that decision.

On the one hand, Eric is hurt by how the world has treated him because of his sexuality. Even his parents have scorned him for who he is. He has a huge resentment toward the world and doesn’t care that everything burns to ashes as long as it keeps the people he reals close to. On the other hand, Andrew, who has no load on his back, has a brighter vision of the world and pleople. He understands that life can continue to be beautiful without him. He imagines her husband and his daughter being happy and sharing minutes tog understands that his sacrifice can give hope to everyone else. So he decides to sacrifice himself for everyone. Dying to save the rest of us.

After an emotional and painful conversation, Eric ends up giving in and shooting Andrew, killing him instantly. He knows that this is his wish and decides to fulfill it. While she has no faith in a supernatural force, or even in the rest of humanity, she does have faith in her husband. So she pulls the trigger despite how heartbreaking it is. Immediately afterward she picks up her daughter and they both flee the place while they see how everything burns behind her back. They have finally managed to stop the apocalypse: earthquakes have stabilized, deaths from the virus have slowed and planes have stopped falling from the sky. The world sees the light one more day, and all thanks to the sacrifice of one man. Although they will have to learn to live with the pain of losing the person they loved the most.

Who is Behind the Knocks?

Throughout the movie, the audience is led to believe that the knocks are coming from a crazed killer who is stalking their friends. However, in a shocking twist, the audience finds out that the person behind the knocks is one of their friends. This twist takes the audience by surprise and leaves them with more questions than answers. Why would one of the friends be knocking on the door in the middle of the night? What is their motive for doing so?

The Friend’s Dark Secret

As the story unfolds, it is revealed that one of the friends has a dark secret. They have been struggling with mental health issues and have been experiencing hallucinations. The knocking at the door is a manifestation of their inner turmoil. The friend’s mental health issues have been pushed to the brink by the stress of being isolated in the remote cabin. The knocks at the door are a cry for help, as they struggle to come to terms with their inner demons.

The Tragic Conclusion

The climax of the movie sees the friend’s mental health spiral out of control, leading to a tragic conclusion. In a final act of desperation, they take their own life. This heartbreaking conclusion leaves the remaining friends grappling with the reality of what has just transpired. They are left to come to terms with the loss of their friend and the fact that they were unable to help them in their time of need.

The Importance of Memory

One of the most emotional scenes of They Knock at the Cabin is precisely the last one. When the father and daughter, having lost the third member of their family, get into the car. When they start the car, a song begins to play. It’s the same song we hear at the beginning, one that the three of them usually sing together. And immediately the memory of Andrew plunges like a cold dagger into their hearts. Hearing the music hurts them too much and they decide to remove it. But little by little, and at different rates, both play the song again. In the end, the memory of someone you loved is painful, but painful because you cared about that person. And that feeling is not something we should forget or run from but learn to stay by our side and turn it into something good.

[sc_fs_multi_faq headline-0=”h2″ question-0=”Is the movie based on a true story?” answer-0=”No, the movie is not based on a true story. It is a work of fiction. ” image-0=”” headline-1=”h2″ question-1=”Who is the person responsible for the mysterious knocks in the movie?” answer-1=”One of the friends is responsible for the mysterious knocks. ” image-1=”” headline-2=”h2″ question-2=”Does the movie have a happy ending?” answer-2=”No, the movie has a tragic ending that leaves audiences feeling both shocked and heartbroken. ” image-2=”” count=”3″ html=”true” css_class=””]