 Log in

'Black Swan' Ending Explained: The Price of Perfection

'Black Swan' Ending Explained: The Price of Perfection

"I just want to be perfect."
BY RICKY RUSZIN UPDATED DEC 1, 2023

 THE BIG PICTURE

▪ Black Swan is a dark psychological horror film that delves into the world of ballet, mental health, and the price
of success.

▪ The intense pressure and obsession for perfection leads the main character, Nina, into a state of hallucinations
and mental strain.

▪ The ending of the film leaves the audience questioning whether Nina survives or succumbs to her wounds,
highlighting the consequences of her pursuit of ballet perfection.

Tales of creative people with an unhealthy ambition to be the best in their field is not a new concept.
Whether in the magician rivalry of The Prestige , the single-minded determination of a jazz drummer in
Whiplash , the commitment of a Hollywood actor in Birdman , or dueling cellists in The Perfection ,
Hollywood is inundated with stories of obsessive creatives. And with good reason. Stories about the ✕
pursuit of perfection provide the canvas for deep character studies while also serving as a cautionary
tale about chasing success. With its story of female rivalry, the overpowering desire for artistic
excellence, and its effect on mental health, 2010's Black Swan , which has just hit Netflix, is another
Link copied to clipboard
Ad Black Swan weaponizes beautiful renditions of
notable entry in the category. It's also one of the best.
ballet performances to deconstruct the link between identity, sexuality, and artistry. As beautiful as it is
terrifying, Black Swan utilizes its open-ended conclusion to let viewers make up their own minds about
what actually happened to Nina.

Ad

Black Swan
R

Nina is a talented but unstable ballerina on the

verge of stardom. Pushed to the breaking point by
her artistic director and a seductive rival, Nina's
grip on reality slips, plunging her into a waking
nightmare.

Release Date
December 3, 2010

Director
Darren Aronofsky

Cast
Natalie Portman , Mila Kunis , Vincent Cassel , Barbara
Hershey , Winona Ryder , Benjamin Millepied

Main Genre
Thriller

Writers
Mark Heyman , Andres Heinz , John J. McLaughlin

What Is 'Black Swan' About?

The film revolves around Nina Sayers ( Natalie Portman ), a ballerina in the New York City ballet
company who desperately wants both starring roles in the company's opening season performance of
Tchaikovsky's Swan Lake. Faced with pressure from herself as well as her overprotective mother
( Barbara Hershey ), she pushes her body to the brink to achieve her best performance. But when
promising newcomer Lily ( Mila Kunis ) joins the company, Nina is faced with the devastating
possibility of being replaced. She trains harder than ever, though her desire for perfection begins to
have unforeseen consequences. As Nina becomes obsessive about her performance and pushes her
mind to its limits, she is haunted by hallucinations that make her question what is real and what is the
Link copied to clipboard
product of her fracturing mind. Ad

Get up to ₹10 Lakh Instantly

Ad

Apply Now

It’s not the first time that Portman has played an obsessive artist; she also appeared as the
traumatized pop star Celeste in Vox Lux and the actress Elizabeth Berry in May December . However,
her performance in Black Swan is unique because Nina’s desire to succeed is purely based on her own
ambitions. Nina doesn’t see ballet as a means to gain celebrity status, as the art in itself is satisfying.
Black Swan examines how Nina is her own greatest enemy as she digs herself in deeper when she
tries to achieve perfection.

‘Black Swan’ Is a Dark Psychological Horror Dressed Up in a Tutu



 Link copied to clipboard
Ad

Ad

On the surface, Black Swan can seem like a drama about the cutthroat world of ballet. However, to
reduce it to such simple terms would be doing the film a great disservice. The psychological horror
film is a master class in crafting character-based tension and dread, with each scene building to a
crescendo as captivating as it is horrifying. Director Darren Aronofsky isn't afraid to get up close and
personal with his messy characters and the result is a fascinating commentary on mental health,
sexual repression, and the price of success. Along with a beautiful and haunting score from Clint
Mansell and killer performances from leading ladies Portman ( who won an Oscar for the role ),
Hershey, and Kunis, the film manages to deliver a tightly paced rollercoaster ride guaranteed to leave
you breathless after it fades to white.

Black Swan begins with a premise that's simple enough, but it's not long before its narrative twists and
turns, daring viewers to follow through the distorted path it travels. As the plot grows darker and Nina
begins to question what is real and what is imagined, so does the audience. So what really happened
at the end of Black Swan? Let's take a look.

Nina's Obsession Starts to Manifest in Body Horror

 Image via Fox Searchlight Pictures
Link copied to clipboard
Ad

Listen to your body: Loose tooth and pregnancy |

ABHAYA.
During pregnancy hormonal changes can impact oral health,
potentially leading to the loosening of teeth. Elevated levels of…
SPONSORED BY GROUP PHARMA Learn More

Ad

The night before she is set to perform, Nina becomes convinced that Lily is going to take her place.
Her paranoia and mental strain cause her to hallucinate that she's physically turning into the role of
Odile, the Black Swan, complete with red eyes and black feathers protruding from bird-like skin. But her
confidence and passion for the roles of Odile and Odette, the White Swan, causes the play's artistic
director Thomas ( Vincent Cassel ) to finally award both roles to her. After playing Odette, Nina begins
to lose her grip on reality when she goes backstage and finds Lily prepping to go on stage as Odile.
Horrified and desperate to keep the coveted role to herself, Nina confronts Lily, and they're involved in a
violent altercation in which Nina stabs Lily with a shard of a broken mirror, killing her.
 Link copied to clipboard
Ad

Ad
Architects ,Associates and
Consultants
SPONSORED BY INGRAIN ARCHITECTS View Quote

It’s hardly the first time that Aronofsky has utilized body horror to reach emotional truths. The
traumatizing ending of his 2017 film mother! lamented on the relationship between an artist and his
muse through the lens of a home invasion thriller; his most recent film The Whale examined a self-
destructive man’s search for fulfillment. While these films could be accused of being emotionally
manipulative, Black Swan succeeds because of Nina’s relatability. The pureness of Nina’s intentions
makes it even more shocking when she reveals the darker “black swan” aspect of her personality. The
film reveals that even good people have a dark side.

How Does 'Black Swan' End?

Image via Fox Searchlight Pictures
 Link copied to clipboard
Ad
Ad

Nina hides Lily's body and readies herself to go back on stage, but she is shocked and confused to find
Lily standing in the doorway — alive. After all, the remnants of the broken mirror are still present, but
Lily isn't injured. It's here that we see that the glass shard from their fight isn't protruding from Lily like
we initially saw through Nina's point of view. It's in Nina. It turns out that Nina hallucinated the fight
with (and subsequent murder of) Lily, and actually stabbed herself while in the throes of a psychotic
episode. But this doesn't stop Nina from performing the role she's worked so hard to attain. Bleeding,
she returns to the stage to perform the last act of the show.

The intensity of the strenuous performance rises and rises until the ballet's ending scene where Odette
throws herself off a cliff. As Nina is falling through the air towards the mattress waiting below, the
audience erupts into applause as Thomas and her fellow dancers crowd around her to congratulate
her on a phenomenal performance — right as they see the blood blooming from the wound in her
stomach. Thomas immediately calls for help, but Nina isn't in distress. "I felt it," she says, wide-eyed.
"Perfect. It was perfect." The screen then fades to white, leaving it uncertain if Nina succumbed to her
wounds or not.

Ad
 RELATED

Link copied to clipboard  Natalie Portman & Julianne Moore Reveal the Role They Were Most
Nervous to Do Ad

7:27

It's a bold ending, for sure. Is Nina going to pull through, or are we witnessing her dying moments? On
one hand, the fade to white could symbolize Nina walking towards the light as she dies from her stab
wound; or, perhaps it's Aronofsky's way of showing us that Nina has now so completely disappeared
into the role of the White Swan that there's no turning back. That Nina and the White Swan have
become permanently fused together, unable to be separated. It doesn't seem to matter much to Nina
either way because she got exactly what she wanted — achieving the ballet perfection that she so
longed and trained for. Black Swan is unique in its feminist perspective. Although Nina has convinced
herself that Thomas is “brilliant,” it’s evident that his demanding nature crosses the line into abuse.
Thomas objectifies his dancers and only views them as a means to achieve his art; he only begins to
notice Nina when she unleashes the dark side of her personality. While Nina's main enemy is herself,
Cassel's Thomas is a reminder of the patriarchal pressures thrust on women.

Ad

What Is the Meaning Behind 'Black Swan's Ending?

 Image Via Searchlight
Link copied to clipboard
Ad

Whichever side you fall on, the ending raises plenty of other questions. After all, with Nina as an
incredibly unreliable narrator, we have to wonder what other scenes, encounters, and conversations in
the film were actually her hallucinations. For example, just how much of Nina's relationship with Lily
was a product of her psychosis? Judging by Lily's genuine congratulation of Nina at the end of the film,
it's probably safe to say that Lily had no idea about Nina's obsession with her. The adversarial
relationship seems to be decidedly one-sided. But regardless of the women's friendship or rivalry, the
real antagonist of the film isn't Nina or Lily; it's mental illness .

Ad

Black Swan takes great pains to show the mental and physical toll that Nina's single-minded pursuit of
ballet perfection takes on her. From refusing to eat the celebration cake that her mother buys her and
purging to maintain her ballerina weight, we're a witness to her food guilt as well as her bulimic
tendencies . Combined with her performance anxiety, stress from living with an overprotective mother,
and hints at self-harm, her mental health struggles have a large hand in contributing to Nina's
psychosis that she experiences throughout the movie. Nina makes some questionable choices that
Link copied to clipboard
Ad
she alone is responsible for, but she's also a victim, a prisoner of the ferocious cycle of mental illness.

While perfection can mean different things to different people, Nina's arc — and the film as a whole —
shows that the pursuit of perfection doesn't come without consequences. After all, achieving
excellence can be gratifying, but chasing it can be deadly.

Black Swan is available to stream in the U.S. on Netflix.

Ad

WATCH ON NETFLIX

Subscribe To Our Newsletter!

Email Address

SUBSCRIBE

By subscribing, you agree to our Privacy Policy and may receive occasional deal communications; you can unsubscribe anytime.

      

RELATED TOPICS
MOVIE FEATURES BLACK SWAN (2010)

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

 Ricky Ruszin
Link
(75copied to Published)
Articles clipboard

Ad
Ricky Ruszin is a Features Writer for Collider, focusing on film and TV. He is also a horror and suspense novelist, having earned his BA degree in English
Language and Literature from Stevenson University. When he's not watching or writing about movies and TV, he enjoys reading, traveling, and seeking out the…

RECOMMENDED ARTICLES

SHUTTER ISLAND

7 Movies Like 'Shutter Island' to Watch for More Mind-Bending Mysteries

THE MARVELS (2023)

'The Marvels' Sacrificed Itself on the Franchise Altar

CHRIS PRATT

Chris Pratt Lost His Way as a Leading Man

MADAME WEB (2024)

Who Are the Spider-Women in Marvel Comics?

ACADEMY AWARDS

The 2024 Oscar Nominated Songs Ranked, From ‘Barbie’ to Jon Batiste

MADAME WEB (2024)

Who Are the Spider-Women in ‘Madame Web’?

Link copied to clipboard
Ad

Ad

4 DAYS AGO
Link copied to clipboard
Ad

Ad

Join Our Content Team Home About Us Contact Us Ownership Policy Terms Ethics Policy Privacy Copyright

Fact Checking Policy Corrections Policy Owned & Operated by Valnet Inc.
 Copyright © 2024 collider.com

Link copied to clipboard

Ad