Explaining the moving ending of ‘Uglies’: What’s next for Tally?

What is the price of beauty? The new Netflix film “Uglies” asks this question – and it does indeed have its price.

The film, starring Joey King, is based on the 2005 novel of the same name by Scott Westerfeld.

“Uglies” is a dystopia set in a world with a unique coming-of-age ritual.

On their 16th birthday, people undergo a surgery that transforms them into their “healthy, happy, pretty” selves, as the film says. Until they become Pretties, they are called Uglies and live in a lower social class.

As the film begins, Tally is about two months away from turning 16. Her best friend Peris (Chase Stokes) is about to have surgery. They promise not to let the surgery change them and talk about the identical scars they both have on their hands.

Online, viewers say what comes next is a return to the era of dystopias released in the years after The Hunger Games. Here’s everything you need to know about the plot and ending of Uglies.

What happens in “Uglies”?

After Peris leaves, Tally befriends Shay (Brianne Tju), who is also two months away from her operation.

Unlike Tally, Shay is unsure if she wants to undergo the surgery and says she may want to spend the rest of her life in the Smoke.

Tally always thought Smoke was an urban legend, but Shay takes her there to show her that he’s real, and that life without the procedure is real. Shay wants the freedom Smoke would give her, even if it means she’ll never be officially “pretty.”

Tally is not convinced. While Shay decides against surgery, Tally says goodbye and commits to pretty-dom. She wakes up on her 16th birthday and is excited about the procedure.

But instead of becoming a Pretty, Tally is taken to Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox), the head of a department called “Special Circumstances”, who gives her an ultimatum: either she reveals information about Shay or she will never undergo the procedure.

According to Cable, Smoke is developing a weapon that will wipe out current civilization, and Shay has been brainwashed by David (Keith Powers), who Cable sees as Smoke’s radical leader. Now it’s up to Tally to find that weapon and save the city.

When Tally arrives at the Smoke, Shay quickly realizes her ulterior motives, but lets Tally stay because she is convinced that she will change her mind.

Shay is right. While spending time at the Smoke, Tally realizes the value of loving yourself and not worrying about appearances.

What do these operations really achieve?

Tally gets closer to David and meets his parents Az (DeVon Johnson) and Maddy (Charmin Lee).

Az and Maddy used to work as surgeons for the city. They realized that the real purpose of the surgery was to create lesions in the brain that would allow for mind control.

“These lesions in the frontal cortex make you dull. You don’t care about anything anymore. You can’t think clearly. You’re sedated and have a false sense of happiness,” says Az.

In fact, through this process the government can control the entire population.

Cable later explains the reasoning: “Freethinking is a cancer… If you let people decide, they will destroy the world, they almost did. Letting them decide saved it. Mankind needs to be led, and there are some of us who are fit to do that. People are much happier that way.”

Since they were able to avoid surgery and begin aging naturally, Az and Maddy have been working to find a cure for the lesions – but one piece is still missing.

“We’ve been working to recreate this cure for the last 20 years, and Cable knows that. That’s why she’s getting closer and closer,” says Maddy, convincing Tally to fully support Smoke’s cause.

Is Peris dying?

The city officials close in on Smoke and track down Tally using the pendant Cable gave her.

Peris, now completely beautiful and brainwashed, kills Az on Cable’s orders.

Cable reveals that Peris was transformed into an “improved” form of Pretty, the so-called Special. Shay was also transformed into a Pretty.

Later, Tally tries to use their emotional bond to bring Peris back to her senses. David thinks he is about to kill her and attacks Peris. The two continue to fight until Peris is hanging from the building.

When Peris looks up at Tally, his last word is the nickname he gave her before the operation, suggesting that he hasn’t been fully brainwashed yet.

He lets go and seemingly falls to his death. As a Special, he could survive because they are genetically enhanced.

Why does Tally become a beauty and what does the future of healing look like?

During their showdown, Cable forces Tally, David and Maddy to undergo the procedure.

Then fighters pour in from the smoke and set fire to the treatment chambers.

While David and Tally run away with Shay, Maddy grabs a capsule from a sealed container. She now has the missing piece she needs to complete the formula for the cure.

Tally is happy about the opportunity to heal her friend Shay, but since she has already become pretty, Shay refuses the healing.

Maddy doesn’t want to force Shay to take the cure, as she believes she would be just as bad as Cable if she forced physical changes on someone who doesn’t consent. As a solution, Tally volunteers to be a test subject.

“They’re going to turn me, and then you’re going to turn me back,” Tally says. “You have the cure, and if it works, maybe we can convince Shay, and maybe we can convince everyone else. That’s how we change the world.”

David resists, fearing they might lose Tally like they lost Shay, but Tally insists she is strong.

“It took a long time, but now I know who I am. I won’t let them take that away from me,” Tally tells David.

“But how do we know it’s still you?” asks David.

“I’ll leave you a sign,” she replies.

“You are so beautiful,” says David through tears.

In dramatic fashion, Tally turns herself in and wakes up in her new home as a pretty woman. As she looks out the window, she tells the AI ​​voice in her house that she loves being pretty.

Looking down, it is clear that a scar is still visible on her hand, suggesting that she has left a mark of her old self, as she and Peris promised before their surgeries.

What’s next for Tally?

The film may provide the basis for a sequel. “Uglies” is the first part of a trilogy, followed by “Pretties” and “Specials”.

In “Pretties,” the second part, Tally no longer remembers her mission. Then she receives a letter from herself, written in the past, and she learns what she must do. Finally, she takes the cure and becomes herself again.

The final book is about Tally and a group of Pretties who work for special circumstances, known as the Specials. Instead of simply becoming beautiful through surgery, they are transformed into genetically altered superhumans with enhanced brain function and reflexes.

What happens when Tally goes from pretty to special? Find out.