'Birdeater' Ending Explained & Full Story: What Happens To Louie, Irene And Dylan?

Birdeater takes way too long to actually get going, which is the movie’s biggest issue. Australian director-writer duo Jack Clark and Jim Weir set their debut feature up pretty well—especially the first forty minutes or so, which is a clear sign of astute filmmaking with a clear vision. But then it turns into a frustrating ordeal where it misses the mark thanks to an unnecessary over-exploration of toxic masculinity, the very thing it attempts to satirize. The deliberate underdevelopment of its female character is also something that doesn’t work out, other than the very last scene of the movie. What we can say for sure is this is an interesting movie for sure; a lot can be discussed about it, and one can come up with multiple theories about the climax. Perhaps that’s the biggest triumph of Birdeater.

Spoilers Ahead

You’ve probably missed a lot of things going on in Birdeater, if you haven’t paid attention. The movie doesn’t make it particularly easy for you either, as it refuses to spell out so many things for the audience. I usually dig it when movies choose to trust their audience’s intelligence to figure out what’s really going on, but the downside to this approach is often getting lost in its own maneuvers. In its opening ten minutes, Birdeater establishes the relationship between soon-to-be-married Louie and Irene through bare minimum dialogue and carefully constructed montages. It doesn’t take long for you to realize something is off about them thanks to this recurring shot of someone continuously taking some kind of a pill. Another striking observation here is Louie deliberately lying to Irene about some office thing while he is just hanging out with a friend—Murph. Since my job here is to explain things to you, let me just break it down here. Louie is dosing Irene with a kind of sedative that is usually used on animals as a tranquilizer. Not that Irene is unaware; she is, in fact, intentionally taking it as she has this separation anxiety—where she is in a state of distress when Louie is not with her. Irene is a person of color who’s living in Australia on a visa; this detail is a very important thing to remember. 

Since it is quite impossible for Louie to leave Irene for a longer period of time, he decides to take her to his buck party. That’s basically what an Australian would call a bachelor party—except here the men go to the Australian outback and participate in drug-fueled buffoonery. Louie does seem committed to making sure his bride-to-be is not left behind. And to make her not feel uncomfortable amongst all the men, he has even invited his friend Charlie’s very Christian (again, this is important information) girlfriend Grace. Doesn’t that make Louie such a ‘nice and considerate man’? If you think so, then you’re also part of the problem, just saying. 

You know for a fact that things are going to get wild here. The introduction of Dylan—undeniably the most unhinged character of this story—cements that further. He is, of course, Louie’s friend, one of those loudmouth types who doesn’t give much thought about what to say and what not to. Needless to say, the dude makes everyone around him quite uncomfortable, but he’s still the life of the party and, most importantly, one of the boys. It turns out that Dylan, Charlie, and Louie are the primary friend group. Murph is quite the Andy Bernard here who wants a way into the ‘Michael-Jim-Dwight’ dynamic, so he hangs around with them. Charlie’s girlfriend Grace is also there, who is trying to be as supportive as possible of this whole thing. Also in attendance is Casanova Sam, who just so happens to be Irene’s ex. She is surprised to see him here, even more so when Louie lets her know that he’s the one who invited Sam. I’m going to get into why Louie invited his fiancée’s ex to his own bachelor party a bit later.

Like what I said in the beginning, Birdeater didn’t quite need to spend so much time on the boys just being their usual selves—running around like idiots, making squirrel noises, Dylan and Louie having a stupid fight over beer (that gets resolved in a minute), and so on. Of course, Sam’s presence has made things unexpectedly weird for Irene (and everyone else), and the narrative taps into that quite a bit. Birdeater gets instantly exciting the moment all the characters come together in the dinner scene. By then Dylan has made all the boys take his special ketamine pills. Charlie and Grace get mocked for practicing celibacy until their marriage. Grace keeps questioning Sam about his habit of sleeping around in a very judgmental manner. Dylan starts raising a toast to Louie, which ends on a sour note as he brings up how the groom-to-be once confidently boasted about getting into Irene’s pants the day he met her. That’s a very common toxic male trait, by the way—where men often lie about their ‘achievements’ with women to their friends. In reality, Louie was actually shy and awkward throughout the night, Irene confirms.

Considering what Louie does afterwards, none of this really matters. His entire ‘let’s get married right away at the dinner table’ stems from a place of both guilt and insecurity where he has to win over ‘his girl’ by pulling something as big as this. Of course he didn’t consider how stupid it actually looks. Irene is stunned, as you’d expect, and the dinner ends in chaos. It probably would have been better if everyone had gone to bed after that, but what’s a buck party without a bonfire and a bit of a truth-telling game with a bit of a twist? The twist here is a person whispering a question to the one sitting next to him/her/them, with the answer to the question having to be someone from the group. Then a coin toss is going to decide whether or not the question is going to be revealed. The game begins, and the first three answers, including one from Irene, come as ‘Louie.’ But thanks to the coin toss rule, Louie doesn’t get to know what the questions are. However, for Charlie, that’s not the case, as it gets revealed that he once slept with Dylan’s sister—which automatically makes him a liar who claims to be a virgin. Given the movie has already made it quite clear that it’s going to ignore the female perspective, we don’t get much of Grace’s reaction. What we get is more buffoonery—this time a notch higher than in daytime. Dylan practically kidnaps Louie and takes him a little away from where they’re staying; a hooker arrives in a car with makeshift arrangements—Charlie most likely does something with her, and Louie gets back to Irene frantically, but she is nowhere to be found. All this is shown as a hazy fever dream, sort of in a way where Louie’s memories are blurry, so is our vision.

The next morning, everyone acts like things are okay (like what always happens). But the awkwardness and shame are too much to handle for most, except Dylan. He is, like always, unbothered. If you think about it, Dylan may come off as uncouth, but he is also a truth teller for the most part—not that he should win any awards for that. Anyway, Dylan conveniently ditches Murph and leaves in his truck. Charlie and Grace talk about him lying about his virginity status in the car. He is apologetic, but she seems to accept things as they are, although I’m not sure if that’s a good idea given how important it was for Grace. 

Now coming to the two main players—Irene and Louie. In the very last scene, Louie stops the car and sees Irene is sleeping beside him. He sneaks the sedative in a water bottle, but Irene catches him doing it. Louie gets out of the car and goes to a public washroom. Irene waits while we hear the ferry horn. She looks at the car key stuck in the ignition, and that’s where Birdeater leaves us. Does this mean Irene drives away without Louie? That’s one of the possibilities. Why does Louie take so long in the toilet? The answer to that is most likely the guy is now trying to grapple with the fact that Irene is slipping away from him. Let us now talk about a major component here. Sometime in the past, Louie had an accident where Irene accidentally hit him with a car. The Louie we see now has a scar. There’s also a scene where Grace sort of confirms that the reason Irene and Louie are together is because she couldn’t leave him. What if dosing her with sedatives is his revenge and her developing separation anxiety is a result of that?

Let us now look into the title. Birdeater is a kind of spider that eats small creatures. Going by the look Irene gives Louie after catching him lacing her water with sedatives, she might not be the victim. It is actually possible that Irene herself is the master manipulator who is using Louie for her own reasons. Remember, she is a person of color who is living on a visa. A marriage to Louie can solve that problem for her, as she automatically gets Australian citizenship. There’s even a scene where Murph, who’s the only other person of color, mentions it to Irene. The big question that arises from here is whether to consider Louie a victim or not. My answer would be a strong no. Even if Irene is deliberately doing all this—including knowingly making Louie jealous and insecure with Sam (she most likely had a fling with him before Louie)—Louie himself is at fault for so many things. He could have always not invited Sam to the buck party. He is also the epitome of the ‘I’m such a nice guy’ type, who, in hindsight, are worse than men like Dylan. At least with the Dylans, you know what to expect, but with ‘nice guys’ like Louie, they can always surprise you by showing their true selves. That said, the title of the movie is most likely referring to Irene here. This is a movie that practically has no victims. Louie and Irene are both villains to each other, who are quite aware of what they are doing. In a way, Louie is paying the price for being a toxic male. He is a product of a patriarchal society that is providing him all of his male privileges, but him getting used by Irene is also a result of that. As far as she is concerned, she is obviously at a disadvantage for being the weaker sex (and also a person of color who’s living abroad) who doesn’t have many friends or relatives. So she is doing what she needs to do, making the best out of her situation. Of course, her being a shrewd manipulator helps the cause. 

Before I conclude, I must remind you that I have made a lot of assumptions here based on what the movie has shown. It might entirely be a whole different thing, envisioned by the directors. It is not necessary for every movie to have a message, but if Birdeater is intending to give any, it is not quite clear. We can take it as a representation of young Australian society. It is not possible for me to say whether that is accurate or not. However, the directors could have made everything a bit more accessible for their own good. “Birdemic” should be described as an interesting bad movie with a lot of great things in it. This is no review, but the movie has done really well with the acting, music, and cinematography. Jack Clark and Jim Weir might create wonder in the future. This movie is not that, but it is definitely worthy of many discussions.