Woken Movie Ending Explained And Full Story: Is Anna Dead Or Alive?

I’ve always liked stories about spooky islands and confused people. If it’s moody and a little grim too, that’s just a bonus. Alan Friel’s dystopian sci-fi, “Woken,” fits nicely into that niche I’m so fond of, and even though the ending isn’t quite what I expected, I’m more than willing to let it slide, especially because it leans toward a happier note. Although there are some elements of the film that come off as “Rosemary’s Baby”-esque in the first half, it eventually turns out to be a lot less dark than that. I mean, for a post-apocalyptic film, “Woken” does a fairly good job with its limited characters and what feels like a budget that barely covers a Costco snack run.

Spoilers Ahead

What happens in the film?

A young woman finds herself on the edge of a cliff, and the look on her face tells you that she’s being chased by someone. Having no other option, she decides to jump off the cliff. Now, if you notice the landscape well enough, there’s no way someone could survive this fall. But cut to a rustic cottage, where the girl comes back to her senses, and she finds a woman named Helen looking after her. Helen reveals that the girl’s name is Anna, even though she can’t remember anything about who she is or why she is. Anna has a husband named James, and she’s also pregnant. Anna feels weirded out, and she also doesn’t recall anything about her fall. But from the looks of it, Helen comes across as a really sweet woman who only wants what’s best for her and her baby. Helen’s husband, Peter, is a weird guy who brings his handgun to the dinner table but still manages to ask Anna about her health. These people live on an isolated island, and the two couples have their homes on two different sides of the island. A doctor from the mainland, Henry, comes to check on Anna and her unborn child, and he confirms that they’re both perfectly fine. But beneath the smiling faces of everyone around her, Anna knows something is off, and it’s only a matter of time before she starts to put the pieces of her life back together. 

Why can’t Anna leave the island? 

Anna notices a few odd things about James. She sees him using the boat to travel back and forth to the mainland, but when she asks to take her with him, he says he won’t until the baby is born. Helen and James do show her old pictures and videos where she’s hanging out by the beach, being mushy with James, but it’s pretty clear that she doesn’t look content in any of those. When they take her out, Anna touches the grass and the sand like a baby would, as if she’s experiencing the outside world for the first time. Anna tries to believe that she has indeed lost her memory and what Helen and James claim is true, so she even lets James sleep with her at night. But as soon as the man gets in the bed, he takes advantage of that, despite Anna clearly being icky about it. The next morning, she sneaks out of the house to try and find any sign of civilization outside the island. And voila, she finds a couple in a boat arriving at the shore. Anna goes to talk to them, but when she sees their faces, she’s horrified. The couple are deformed as hell, and they look like they’re infected with something far worse than cordyceps. Even though they don’t behave like zombies, and they have the ability to communicate like normal humans, Anna is terrified. The couple asks her if this island is one of the “safe islands,” and before she can answer, Helen has initiated an alarm, seeing Anna isn’t home. James, using a sniper rifle, takes out the couple, and he burns their corpses on the spot. Both he and Helen have gas masks on, and Helen is freaking out over the fact that these people might’ve touched Anna. She is made to scrub her body with rubbing alcohol, and Helen makes her husband burn the clothes they were wearing. Anna is now quarantined in a room, and James visits her in a hazmat suit. He claims that he was protecting her from the horrible truth and that two-thirds of the population of the planet is already dead. Dr. Henry appears again, visibly upset at Helen and James, and he checks Anna and her baby with some fancy equipment. He’s both relieved and surprised that Anna is safe, and he also reveals that she’ll be having a little girl. 

Does Anna have a son?

After the stunt she pulled with the infected, James and Helen start being more careful about how much information they share around Anna. But Anna still gets alarmed by things that just seem odd to her. Like the fact that she can remember having goats, whereas they don’t have any on their property. When Anna checks the sweaters Helen has been knitting for her baby, the number of the same sweaters freaks her out. Dr. Henry has prescribed her some sleeping pills, and James is adamant about making sure that she takes them. Anna doesn’t take the pills one night and tries to crush them to mix in James’ soup, hoping to knock him out. But James is smarter than he looks, and he just dumps the whole thing. Not to mention, the man preys on Anna every night. Anna does get her shot to sneak out one morning, and she goes to Helen and Peter’s, where she overhears a conversation between them. Peter is upset at Helen for spending all her time over at James’ place, and he’s condemning her for her idea of free range babies. Now, does the word “free range” ring a bell? It basically applies to hens who are allowed to roam outside and lay eggs, which is still better than the condition Anna is in. Helen also said that her son is long dead, but Anna notices that a young boy, Joshua, is playing near the house and calling Helen his mother. Helen also owns a goat, which connects to the fact that Anna remembers goats. When Helen and Peter realize Anna is missing, she throws them off her scent and tries to talk to Joshua, who’s mad at Anna. Joshua claims that Anna promised him she’d never leave, and yet she did. Anna is confused, and Helen gets hold of her. James deceptively makes her unconscious, and Anna finds herself waking up restrained inside a laboratory. 

Is Anna even a human being? 

James finally reveals that he was never Anna’s husband, but an army man assigned to protect her until she delivers the baby. He doesn’t leak any more information to her, but when Peter comes around to check on Anna, she realizes that this is her chance to be free. Peter thinks Anna shouldn’t be so miserable because she’s living a better life than the majority of the people living on the hellish mainland. Peter also tells her that it’s a bummer that he has to cut her up again and again, and just when he’s about to inject her to put her to sleep, Anna tells him that she’s in labor. As Peter leans over to check on her, Anna manages to get one of her hands free and stabs Peter with the syringe. Peter collapses to the ground, and his handgun drops with him as well. With the safety off, the weapon discharges on impact, firing straight into him and killing him instantly. 

Anna is free, and she looks around the laboratory to find that there have been many clones who look just like her, and she’s just another clone. But since the other ones got infected, they were killed by gas. There are records of many babies as well, none of them immune, all put to sleep. She then comes across a box where she finds a clone of her being put together by a bunch of tiny robots, and it’s obvious that she’ll only get her answers from Helen now. Anna turns the power off in Helen’s house, and as she comes out of the house to fix it, she takes her hostage. James can’t do anything heroic, partly because it’s dark and Helen is in danger, and mostly because the dude is not a hero. Anna makes Helen tie him to a chair, and Helen finally reveals that before the world collapsed, the humans made great leaps in the field of genetic cloning. It was only a matter of time before the last of the humans of the earth were gone, so the government put her and Peter on this island to keep their research going. Helen used to think she was doing it to save the world, while in reality, anytime they produce an immune baby, the military sells the child to the highest bidder. But Helen tells Anna that even though they’ve made her from scratch 96 times, she is their greatest success. Not only is she immune herself, but the child in her womb is immune too, which is a big hope for humanity. When Anna asks Helen about the safe islands, she gets to know that there are some parts in the North where the virus hasn’t spread yet, and people are still safe. Anna convinces Helen to ambush the military to steal their boat and get to the North, where they can live as they wish.  

Does Anna survive the wrath of the military? 

As planned, Anna and Helen hide near the boat when Dr. Henry and his men arrive. Henry is finally now in his army uniform, ditching the whole doctor look for good, and he finds James tied up. But Anna and Helen get caught by a man in uniform when they try to steal the boat, and Henry finds himself with the upper hand. This time, Anna actually goes into labor, and as soon as she delivers the baby, the military takes her little girl. When Helen refuses to tell Henry about what they were planning to do with the boat, one of his men shoots Joshua in cold blood. Before leaving, Henry warns Helen to do a better job wiping Anna’s memory this time, and no more free-range babies from now on. But as Helen is about to reboot Anna, she shows Helen the gun stashed right there in the medicine box. Instead of going against her perfect creation, Helen takes the gun and takes out the soldiers guarding them. The women then wait patiently to trap a bunch of army men in a gas chamber and kill them. Henry realizes that his men are taking a bit too long to return, so he sends James, his last soldier, to check on things. James finds them in the forest, and after a frantic cat-and-mouse chase, Anna manages to shoot him when a goat distracts him. Anna then surrenders to Henry, and she tells him that James killed Helen, but he’s dead as well. Henry asks her to get on the boat, and just as he is about to leave, Helen shows up with the gun and shoots him at point-blank range. The film ends with Anna finally getting to live like a human being, reunited with her daughter, as the three of them sail to the North, hoping to start a new life. 

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