The following contains spoilers for Sinners, now playing in theatersSinners‘ ending underscores the importance of music and love in the face of monstrous threats and grounded dangers. Set in Mississippi in 1932, the film follows twin brothers Smoke and Stack, alongside their guitar-playing cousin Sammie, as they set up a new juke joint. However, the night is crashed by the vampiric Remmick, who seeks to claim the power that Sammie possesses as a musician.

By the end of the film, almost every character in Sinners has been killed — although two key survivors turn up in the first post-credits scene to great effect. This underscores the themes of the film while also laying the groundwork for a potential continuation. Here’s how the ending of Sinners expands on the themes of the film by revealing the true motivations of the vampires and who the film considers to be the true final threat of the film.

Why Remmick Is After Sammie In Sinners

Sammie’s Musical Abilities Attract The Attention Of Remmick

Remmick wants access to Sammie’s musical abilities in Sinners, setting up his attack on the new juke joint set up by Smoke and Stack. Remmick encounters the group by complete coincidence, admitting as much to Smoke late in the film. He was on the run from Native Americans when he encountered Bert and Joan, whom he turned into vampires before they could take part in a planned KKK attack on the juke joint. Drawn to Sammie’s music, Remmick reveals Sammie is one of the people capable of playing music so truthfully that it can connect the spirits of different eras.

Remmick wants access to this power, as it would allow him to reconnect with the spirits of his loved ones long gone. This is why he wants to break into the juke joint and only offers to spare the others if they hand over Sammie. It’s a surprisingly emotional motivation for the vampire, who seems to genuinely long to make his own “tribe” and seeks to reconnect with those he has lost. While this understandable motivation has been warped by his monstrous appeтιтe and traits, it gives Remmick a surprising amount of humanity as an antagonist.

The Real Villains Of Sinners Explained (It’s Not The Vampires)

The Final Fight Of Sinners Isn’t Against The Unᴅᴇᴀᴅ

Although much of the film’s latter half is spent facing off with Remmick and his fellow vampires, his death at the hands of Smoke doesn’t end the film. Rather, the true threat Smoke had been wary all along finally returns in the form of a racist posse. Led by Hogwood, the group is revealed to be affiliated with the local chapter of the KKK. Although Smoke had sought to prevent any tensions from boiling over by refusing to serve people who appear white at their establishment, Hogwood and his men have no problem shooting innocent people.

This bigoted and hateful view is presented as a truly monstrous quality, even in the eyes of a vampire like Remmick. The ancient evil implies his family were among those driven from Ireland centuries before the events of Sinners, giving him a certain amount of empathy for the African-American community that is all too often targeted by others. Notably, while his death does come with a certain amount of tragic realization, Smoke’s slaughter of the clansmen is presented as a more overt moment of violent catharsis, suggesting the film has far more sympathy for Remmick than Hogwood.

What Happens To Smoke In Sinners’ Ending

Smoke Finally Finds Peace, But Only After He Seemingly Dies

Smoke is one of the only characters to actually survive the events of Sinners‘ fateful night, ensuring that Sammie survives. However, Smoke decides to stay behind and kill the KKK members who planned to slaughter everyone at the juke joint. While Smoke does very well in the ensuing firefight and kills all of the KKK members, he is wounded in the side by one of the men as they try to flee. While the wound may not seem like an instantly mortal one, the ending of the film suggests that Smoke didn’t survive the encounter.

Before the fight begins, Smoke pulls off the charms Annie made to protect him while he was overseas in World War I. The pouch even seemed to help push away Stack when he tried to bite Smoke. Without the pouch, Smoke is fatally wounded — but sees the spirit of Annie and their deceased baby daughter. After dropping his cigarette so he doesn’t get any “smoke on her,” Annie hands the baby to him and addresses him by his actual name, Elijah. This implies that Smoke dies from his wound but is at peace with Annie and their daughter.

Why Sammie Doesn’t Give Up The Blues In Sinners

Sammie Defies The Warnings Of His Father And Cousin

Sammie is caught between two worlds in Sinners, which pulls him in different directions regarding his musical ambitions. While his father and Smoke both believe that Sammie should give up any dreams of being a musician because of the ways it attracts evil and desperation, Sammie firmly believes in the power of his music. This is partly because he has a natural affinity for it, but it’s also shown repeatedly in the film that others only truly see him when he plays music.

Sammie’s bonds with Stack, Delta Jim, and Pearline are all rooted in his musical abilities, transforming him from a nice boy into a capable man. His music can transcend time and space, connecting him to others who died before him and will be born after him. As implied by his long and successful career in the film’s final moments, Sammie could never give up that part of himself, despite the horror of what he witnessed. There’s a reason Sammie believes everything before the vampires resulted in the best day of his life, explaining why he never gave up music.

How Stack & Mary’s Survival Sets Up A Potential Sinners Sequel

Mary And Stack Are Still Alive In 1992 (And Could Still Be Around Today)

One of the rules established about vampires in Sinners is that they are connected on a deep, empathic level but not dependent on a head vampire. Killing Remmick won’t restore the people he’s also cursed with vampirism. This includes Hailee Steinfeld’s Mary and Stack, who were likely injured by the death of Remmick. However, both had fled the battle by that point — a horrified Mary ran off when she saw Annie die, while Smoke spared Stack on the condition he leave Sammie alone — and found shadows to hide in when the sun rose and killed all the other vampires present.

As revealed in the post-credits scene, Mary and Stack are still alive in the 1990s, having seemingly adapted to the times and hiding in plain sight as immortal vampires. It’s a compelling reveal, as it sets the stage for all sorts of sequels. It’s also shown that the pair are openly romantic and have the confidence to flash their fangs, suggesting they’ve spent the last half-century adapting to their new state and coming into their own. A sequel to Sinners could easily revisit these two, revealing what happened to them and where they went after the events of Sinners.

The True Meaning Of Sinners

Fighting For A World Of Your Own

Sinners is a very powerful riff on the conventions of a typical vampire story, using the metaphor for immortal tribes as a response to the prejudice faced by people of color in America. Remmick’s apparent belief that anyone can be a vampire is apparently genuine. Bert and Joan drop their racial hatred when they are turned into vampires, and everyone seems happy to embrace Remmick afterward. However, his actions also seem to ᴀssimilate people like Stack and Mary, who had previously been far more at home in the juke joint with their friends and loved ones.

In a sense, the only people that prosper from the battle are bigots like the KKK, who get exactly what they wanted in the aftermath of the vampire slaughter. This is what makes Smoke’s decision to kill them all so meaningful, as it’s a refusal to let that kind of hatred earn a victory. Underneath all that violence and tension is a story about love. The strained relationships Smoke and Stack have with Annie and Mary are refined and eventually repaired, signifying their ability to move beyond who they were to embrace who they want to be with.

The marriage between the Chows, the budding romance between Sammie and Pearline, even the brief snippets of Cornbread’s relationship with his wife all showcase how love can make hard situations better. This love even extends to familial bonds, with Sammie, Smoke, and Stack having a clear connection that still impacts Sammie and Stack decades later. That love is what keeps them going in the world of Sinners, even when vampires and bigots try to burn everything down around them.