The Last Witch Hunter Ending Explained
Griselda Humbarger
The Last Witch Hunter is a 2015 American fantasy action film directed by Breck Eisner and written by Cory Goodman, Matt Sazama, and Burk Sharpless, and based on the Dungeons & Dragons campaigns of Vin Diesel's Melkor the Witch-Hunter. The film stars Vin Diesel as an immortal witch hunter who must stop a plague from ravaging the entire world.[6]
Eight hundred years ago, the Witch Queen unleashes the Black Plague to wipe out humanity. A band of knights, including a widowed Kaulder, storms her lair and impales her. Before dying, the Queen curses Kaulder with eternal life.
In the present day, Kaulder prevents a teenager from unintentionally destroying an airplane with weather-controlling runes. Kaulder is revealed to be a witch hunter for an organization called the Axe and Cross, which aims to keep the truce between humans and witches and either executes or imprisons witches who break the law. He is aided by a priest called "Dolan", a tradition carried from the battle to destroy the Queen.
The 36th Dolan tells Kaulder he is retiring from his duties and has chosen a new Dolan, but dies in his sleep. Kaulder and the young 37th Dolan, who says witches killed his parents and that Kaulder killed the witches and saved him from a fire which burned 37's hands, deduce that 36 was murdered by a witch. While tracking down the witch, Kaulder finds traces of old dark magic, not seen since before he killed the Queen. It is revealed that 36 is not dead but under a dark magic spell that can only be broken if the witch that cast it is killed.
To get the rare ingredient to create another memory spell, they visit another witch, Danique. However, Danique casts a memory spell on Kaulder, planning to entrap him in his dream forever. Chloe, however, is able to enter his trance and free his mind and the pair escape. Kaulder asks Chloe to enter his mind and pull out the memory. He discovers that, though the Queen's body burned to ash, the first Dolan chose to spare her heart; if the heart was destroyed, Kaulder would die. They deduce that 36 was attacked because he knew where the heart was hidden and was tortured into revealing its location. They also realize that Belial's real plan is to revive the Queen.
Leaving Chloe and the 37th Dolan behind, Kaulder goes to face Belial to prevent the Queen from returning. Though he kills Belial in a confrontation, the Queen reenters the world through the sacrifice of another witch (Max Schlesinger) and escapes into the city, stealing Kaulder's immortality. 36, who is recovering, encourages Kaulder to continue fighting.
The members of the Witch Council, who guard the Witches' Prison, are killed and the Queen plans to release another plague curse using the imprisoned witches as a magical power source. Using her dream-walking ability, Chloe kills a prisoner, severing the connection of the Queen. Kaulder fights the Queen, and appears close to killing her, until 37 attacks him with a grudge: he reveals his parents were a warlock and witch whom Kaulder killed, though 37 lacks their magical power. He asks the Queen to give him that power. She refuses and kills 37, and uses Chloe to complete the connection for the plague curse to form again. Kaulder summons lightning to his sword using the weather runes he confiscated from the teenage girl on the plane, and throws his sword into the Queen, burning her to ash. Kaulder prepares to kill both himself and the Queen's heart, but Chloe dissuades him, stating that there were things in the darkness worse than the Witch Queen that he needs to continue fighting.
The 36th Dolan agrees to delay his retirement and stay by Kaulder's side. Chloe does as well, and the three form a new team, free from the Axe and Cross. The heartbeat of the Queen is heard within Kaulder's weapon vault in his apartment.
In September 2015, Vin Diesel revealed that The Last Witch Hunter would be a film adaptation of Diesel's own Dungeons & Dragons campaigns as "Melkor the Witch-Hunter", an original character of his, having been put in touch with screenwriter (and fellow Dungeons & Dragons player) Cory Goodman to do so after Diesel had mentioned these campaigns in the foreword for the 30th anniversary collection of Dungeons & Dragons.[7] Initially Timur Bekmambetov was to direct but was later replaced by Breck Eisner and Goodman's script was re-written by D.W. Harper before Melisa Wallack was brought on to work on the film's script.[8][9] Both were uncredited. The production filed for a film tax credit in Pennsylvania and was allocated a tax credit of $14 million.[10][11] In February 2014, Vin Diesel posted a photo of the film's concept artwork to his Facebook page and Lionsgate CEO Jon Feitheimer commented that if successful, The Last Witch Hunter could become a film franchise.[12] In March 2014, Lakeshore Entertainment boarded the film as co-financier with Lionsgate, but Lakeshore quietly left the project. In July 2014, it was announced that Rose Leslie would be joining the cast as Vin Diesel's co-star,[13] and in August, Elijah Wood, Michael Caine, and lafur Darri lafsson were also announced as attached to the film.[14][15][16] Julie Engelbrecht and Lotte Verbeek will also star.[17][18] In February 2015, Steve Jablonsky was hired to compose the film's score.
Principal photography for The Last Witch Hunter was initially delayed due to the death of Paul Walker,[19] as the death delayed shooting for Furious 7. Lionsgate officially began setting up for filming in Pittsburgh in June 2014.[19] The filming began on September 5, 2014, in Pittsburgh, as Diesel posted a first look of himself on Facebook.[20][21][22] The shoot lasted until December 5.[23]
Alison Willmore from BuzzFeed News said "It is terrible. It is fabulously entertaining."[33] Inkoo Kang of TheWrap thought it aimed for pulp but wasn't "as fleet, funny, or detailed as it needs to be".[34] Simon Abrams for RogerEbert.com called it "atypically dopey but consummately well-assembled", and praised Diesel as "especially charming".[35]
On June 17, 2015, Diesel stated on his Facebook page that an untitled sequel was in the planning stages.[36] Though it was initially planned to be a franchise, the poor box office showing as well as Diesel's busy film schedule has cast doubts on a sequel getting made.[37]
800 years later in the present day, Kaulder is on a plane where he finds a young witch, Bronwyn (Bex Taylor-Klaus), who is in possession of some weather runes that Kaulder is seeking. Outside, a storm is pounding the plane until Kaulder gets his hands on the runes and calms the storm.
Kaulder continues to work in New York City with the Axe and Cross, made up of special priests called "Dolans". Kaulder's current ally is Dolan The 36th (Michael Caine), who is approaching retirement. His successor is set to be the 37th (Elijah Wood), a young man eager to work with Kaulder. 36th warns 37th of how intense Kaulder can be.
37th calls Kaulder one day to inform him that 36th has passed on. After the Axe and Cross hold their service for 36th, 37th becomes initiated as the next Dolan. He tells Kaulder that he remembers him from his childhood since Kaulder killed the witches that killed 37th's parents, and he has been waiting all his life to fight with Kaulder.
The two go to 36th's apartment to find answers. Kaulder notices three dead insects scattered close to each other and senses something suspicious. He discovers that the place has been cursed with dark magic, implying that 36th was murdered.
Kaulder brings 37th to a bakery run by Max Schlesinger (Isaach de Bankole), who uses magic creatures in his food to enchant customers. He has done shady dealings with witches and warlocks, leading them to suspect that Max gave something valuable to a warlock named Ellic (Joseph Gilgun), who was sent by someone worse to look for something in 36th's apartment. Kaulder brings Ellic before a council of witches led by Glaeser (Rena Owen) to determine Ellic's fate. He is imprisoned by them.
Kaulder and 37th go to 36th's body and realize that he's not dead, but cursed, and the only way to break the curse is to kill the witch or warlock that did it to him. Back in the apartment, Kaulder notices a book that 36th left clues in. On three separate pages, the words "remember", "your", and "death" have bloody fingerprints on them. Kaulder knows it's a message, and he states that there's only one way for him to remember his death: magic.
Kaulder goes to a witch bar run by Chloe (Rose Leslie), who is a special type of witch known as a Dreamwalker. As he enters the bar, all the other witches and warlocks head for the hills, knowing of the witch hunter's brutal reputation against their kind. Kaulder approaches Chloe and asks for a memory spell to remember his death. She injects such a spell into a cherry for Kaulder to consume. He pops the cherry in his mouth and lays back, making Chloe think he's passed out. She takes the opportunity for a witch hunter selfie, but Kaulder is still awake. He then swallows the cherry for real and sees himself walking toward the burning tree where he fought the Witch Queen. He enters and sees his charred corpse, but before anything else can be shown, a warlock named Belial (Olafur Darri Olafsson) pulls him out of the spell and has Kaulder chained to the floor. Kaulder breaks the bones in his hand to release himself as Belial lights the bar on fire. Kaulder and Chloe get out of there in time as the place is destroyed.
Chloe wakes up in an apartment and wanders through it. Dark forces begin to rip through the apartment and she briefly appears to be pulled into the walls where she sees a monstrous entity. Kaulder's arms then appear to pull Chloe out until she reawakens to the real world. She's pissed at Kaulder for causing the destruction of her bar, but he still needs a memory spell to figure out what he needs to remember from his death. Knowing that Chloe is a Dreamwalker and that she doesn't need a liquid potion to help Kaulder, he gets her to take both of them into his mind to remember the day he died. They find his charred body again, but this time, they hide as the Axe and Cross arrive. They see the Witch Queen's corpse crumble, leaving her heart still beating. The Dolan tries to stab it, but the burnt Kaulder awakens and screams in pain. Realizing that the heart can't be destroyed without killing Kaulder for good, the Dolan takes the heart with him, leading present day Kaulder to figure out that the Axe and Cross betrayed him and let him endure immortality.
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