The following contains spoilers for EdenEden‘s ending focuses on the fates of the settlers who arrived on the island, with the true life mysteries fueling the film’s fatal dramatization. Directed by Ron Howard, Eden is an adaptation of the settling of Floreana in the Galápagos Islands by three different parties. Inspired by philosopher Friedrich and his partner Dore’s homes, two distinct groups (a family fleeing Germany and a wealthy socialite with outlandish ambitions) come to the island with their own intentions.
Eden is a character drama that increasingly takes on an edge as the tensions fester into lethal rage. Ron Howard’s drama notably pulls from the true story of what happened to the people who were setting up on Floreana, while also leaning more towards one of the conflicting stories about the island. Here’s who survives (and dies) by the end of Eden, and how much of the story was really pulling from real life.
Who Survives Eden’s ᴅᴇᴀᴅly Island?
Eden‘s lethal twists and turns end with multiple characters ᴅᴇᴀᴅ and with the Wittmer family as the last family standing on the isle of Floreana. Eden is a slow-burning drama, with the tensions between the Wittmers, Dr. Friedrich Ritter, and the Countess Eloise Bosquet de Wagner Wehrhorn steadily building to a fever pitch.
By the third act, Eloise’s thefts and manipulations drive Friedrich, Heinz, and her former lover, Rudolph Lorenz, to confront her and Robert Phillipson. While Heinz is forced to slay Robert in an ensuing melee that Robert starts, Friedrich shows little restraint when Eloise tries to barter for her life and shoots her ᴅᴇᴀᴅ.
Initially, this seems to settle much of the tension that had developed between Ritter and the Wittmers. However, Friedrich’s abusive treatment of Dore and dismissal of the wildlife she connected with led her to feed him tainted chicken. The result was a painful death for Ritter in his bed, cursing Dore with his dying breath in some of Eden’s final moments.
Ultimately, the only true survivors of Eden are the Wittmers. While Dore and Rudolph are shown to leave the island, neither of them lived much longer. Returning to the mainland, Dore pᴀssed away in Germany in 1943. Rudolph didn’t make it that far off the island at all, with the epilogue to the film revealing he (and the ship captain of a local vessel) died on the trek back home.
By contrast, the Wittmers are able to not only keep their home for generations, but ensure that the government acquits them for any potential ramifications over the deaths. The film ends with a reference to the real-life Margret Wittmer’s death in 2000, after she’d spent years expanding her family on the island — and building a H๏τel like Eloise once had intended.
How Eden’s Ending Compares To The True Story
The ending of Eden builds on the true facts about the chaos that occurred on the isle of Floreana, although it does dramatize some events and takes a clear belief in one side of the story over another. As explained by a piece from Lit Hub and ThoughtCo, the Baroness and Phillipson did disappear in March 1934, seemingly departing suddenly on a visit to Tahiti.
In Dore’s accounts of the story, she believes that Lorenz had killed the pair and then covered it up with the Wittmer family. She claimed she was the one who heard the gunsH๏τ that Margret notices in the film, as well as a scream. Her account did not suggest Frierich was involved.
Friedrich did die of food poisoning after eating spoiled chicken, as in the film. The full circumstances of his final moments remain ambiguous, however. The film takes inspiration from Margret’s accounting of Friedrich’s final moments, his dying words in the film taken from a handwritten note he left in Margret’s accounting of the story.
In Dore’s version of the story, Friedrich’s final moments were much more loving. The film’s ending does reference Dore’s conflicting accounts, which in real life were eventually released as a book тιтled Satan Came to Eden: A Survivor’s Account of the “Galapagos Affair” that revealed her perspective to the world. The Wittmer’s have maintained their own story as the truth as well.
The film also does not mention the eventual fate of Heinz and Harry Wittmer. Heinz eventually pᴀssed away, while Harry drowned not long after the events of the film. However, Rolf Wittmer and his family’s cruise company has been a generational success for the family, with Galapagos Cruises still going strong today and working with brands like Disney and National Geographic.
The Real Meaning Of Eden’s Ending
At the core of Eden is the interpersonal conflict that brews between three very different family units. For all the philosophical musings of Dr. Friedrich Ritter, lofty ambitions of the Countess, and simple desires of the Wittmers, the families can’t survive while they’re fighting. Even the land seems to turn on the inhabitants as the settlers become more intense and desperate.
This moral decline is clearest with the collapse of Friedrich and Dore’s relationship in the film. Initially portrayed as respectful and admiring of the woman who adores him, Friedrich’s casually cruel atтιтude towards her is only spurred on by comparisons to their neighbors and fury over their actions.
This feud ends up poisoning Friedrich’s mind long before Dore poisons his body, preventing him from getting any writing done and turning his vegetarian-rooted pacifism into a more vindictive embrace of meat. By giving in to the feud and without a true family to rely on, Friedrich becomes a far worse person in Eden.
While Heinz also crosses moral lines, the family bonds that Dore and Friedrich dismissed save Heinz’s relationship with Margret. They end the film happy, alive, and secure in their new home, while everyone else either flees the island or dies. At the core of Eden is a story about not being consumed by your worst impulses, or risk destroying the paradise you could build around yourself.
Source: Lit Hub, ThoughtCo
