Warning! Spoilers for ChronicleChronicle is a movie that ends on quite the bleak note, though it doesn’t definitively resolve every lingering thread created by its superhero origin story. Directed by Josh Trank of 2015’s Fantastic Four infamy, Chronicle tells the story of a trio of teenage boys living in Seattle who find a mysterious glowing crystal that grants them all powerful telekinesis and a limited degree of telepathy with each other. After a honeymoon period, their powers eventually grow a schism thanks to their personalities and home lives, resulting in one of them going on a rampage.

Chronicle is a found-footage movie told through a series of video diaries taken by the outcast Andrew, who deals with a terminally ill mother and an abusive father at home. Compared to the other two recipients of the film’s power, his average cousin Matt and their popular, successful friend Steve, Andrew’s powers aren’t just an additional bonus on top of an already decent life — They’re his only means of seizing back control. As a result, Andrew becomes cruel and twisted with his use of telekinesis, eventually harming others and even accidentally killing Steve.

Chronicle ends with Matt setting out to put a stop to Andrew’s reign of terror when he goes on a destructive murder spree with his powers, causing havoc in downtown Seattle. After a long, drawn-out fight, Matt eventually manages to come out on top, killing his cousin by impaling him with a statue’s pear (rather than the spire of the Space Needle, as can be commonly misremembered in a sort of movie Mandela effect). Remorseful for what he had to do, Matt records himself in Tibet with Andrew’s camera, pledging to only use his powers for good.

Why Matt Kills Andrew In Their Final Confrontation

Andrew Did What He Had To Do

Dane DeHaan does a convincing job portraying Andrew’s slow descent into madness as a result of his power usage. Andrew already suspects his killing of Steve by this point in the story, an act which may have been partially accidental, but was still a result of Andrew’s unstable powers and psyche. That’s not to mention the murder of his father, and the hundreds of people he’d harmed or even killed by the end of his rampage. More terrifyingly, in the original script, Andrew was to murder his father in the same way he kills a spider earlier, quartering his limbs.

Sadly, Matt realizes that he’s the only one capable of bringing Andrew down, a fact that’s made plain for him to see as Andrew is approached by the cops, inches away from killing him. It’s there that Matt deals the killing blow, preventing any further bloodshed. While Matt might have been outmatched in a straight-up fight, it says a lot that Andrew is too distracted with the prospect of killing more “normal” people to notice his cousin readying the spear of a statue to impale him with.

The Tragedy Of Andrew

Sympathetic, But Also A Monster

To a degree, Andrew is something of a sympathetic villain due to his abysmal life prior to getting powers. Between the tragedy of his dying mother, his father’s emotional and physical abuse, and the bullying he faced at school, Andrew is an outcast through and through with little in his life to lean on. Granted, it still speaks to a disturbing side to his nature when he quickly begins viewing himself as an “apex predator” upon getting his powers.

However, with a better home life or a stronger support system, it could very well be that Andrew’s power usage would have been as harmless as Steve or Matt’s. This is something Matt is very much able to recognize, directly apologizing to the camera and claiming that Andrew wasn’t a bad person to begin with. Rather, it was his oppressive circumstances that turned his sudden new powers into a dangerous threat against everyone around him, his only foothold into gaining control of his life.

Why Matt Goes To Tibet

The Location Has Some Significance To Andrew

The very final scene of the film sees Matt go to Tibet, taking advantage of his newfound power of flight to travel across entire continents without so much as a plane ticket. This is a callback to an earlier scene where the group first realizes that they can fly, promising to go on a trip together flying all around the world after graduation. Andrew mentions wanting to see Tibet, enjoying the idea of a place that inspires the peaceful, tranquil serenity of the monks the country is famous for. This stands in stark contrast to the chaos he creates later.

Thus, traveling to Tibet is Matt’s way of paying homage to his cousin, who he still cared for despite having to put him down for the good of everyone else. Making the most out of Chronicle’s found footage format, Matt speaks into the camera therapeutically as if it were Andrew, pledging to only use his telekinetic powers for good and to get to the bottom of the mysterious object that bestowed the boys with the fantastic abilities in the first place. These lines raise more questions than answers for Chronicle‘s final moments.

What Matt Is Trying To Find Out About The Group’s Powers

The Origins Of The Crystal Object Are More Bizarre Than Imaginable

Chronicle never definitively explains what exactly the crystalline structure that Matt, Steve, and Andrew gain their powers from is, but screenwriter Max Landis actually quite the developed lore for the object that gave the Chronicle teens their powers. According to Landis, the crystal is actually an ancient subterranean rock-like organism called a MOGO, or a Mᴀssive Organic Geoelectric Objects. These creatures live deep within the center of the Earth, but occasionally rise up to feed, controlling the brains of animals and giving them telekinetic powers to bring them food (Via SlashFilm).

In the case of Chronicle, the MOGO infecting the minds of Matt, Steve, and Andrew dies partway through the feeding process, leaving the trio with their powers and free will. Landis elaborated that the MOGOs are responsible for all sorts of supernatural phenomena, and another MOGO that infected a town of people would have been the next antagonist of a sequel. But the long-awaited Chronicle 2 may not ever get a chance to elaborate in the wake of the serious allegations accusing Max Landis of Sєxual abuse, leading to a schism between him and his professional relationships.

Either way, as far as the universe of the first film is concerned, it seems clear that Matt would be destined to have another encounter with a MOGO in his search to find out the truth behind his powers. After all, the government seems to have retrieved the corpse of the MOGO in Chronicle following the teens’ escape, so Matt may have even found himself infiltrating the United States military. Either way, Chronicle still works just fine as a self-contained story.