It’s What’s Inside Ending Explained: Who’s Actually Who?

While Netflix hasn’t exactly done a great job promoting its new horror-comedy It’s What’s Inside, the twist-filled thrill ride is doing a great job of finding an audience on its own. Greg Jardin’s trippy body-swap tale has been getting some serious attention on Netflix since dropping over the weekend, which means quite a few movie fans have experienced that script-flipping wallop of a twist ending. The final few minutes of It’s What’s Inside pulls the rug out from under viewers with a major reveal that was right in front of our faces the entire time, re-framing how we see the entire film. It also gives folks a pretty clear picture of which characters end up in which bodies when all is said and done.

WARNING: This article contains MAJOR SPOILERS for It’s What’s Inside! Continue reading at your own risk…

There’s a lot to break down and explain about the lead-up to the wild conclusion of It’s What’s Inside, so if you’re still reading at this point, we’re going to assume you’ve already seen the movie. Trying to explain what brings the film to the final act would take an entire article on its own.

Picking up after the “Coda” title card pops up with just a little bit of movie left, the crew of friends who had been swapping bodies with Forbes’ (David Thompson) machine have arrived at the morning after. The physical bodies of Maya (Nina Bloomgarden) and Dennis (Gavin Leatherwood) were killed in their balcony accident, along with the minds of Brooke (Reina Hardesty) and Reuben (Devon Terrell). That seemingly leaves six minds and bodies to be sorted out, but the ending reveals that one more character has been in play the entire time.

Dennis wakes up in Forbes’ body and is approached by Beatrice (Madison Davenport), Forbes’ younger sister that we learned earlier was used and very hurt by Dennis years prior, leading to a psychotic break. What we soon find out, however, is that Beatrice is actually Forbes in his sister’s body. The Forbes that we’ve been watching for the entire movie was actually Beatrice the entire time, having knocked him out and stolen the briefcase prior to the wedding.

There were clues to this earlier in the film, when the “real” Forbes was never actually shown in the red-lighting shots that showed the actual minds of the characters, rather than the bodies that they were in. This was to keep those red sequences as absolute truth, while also preserving the secret of Beatrice’s involvement. She planned the entire thing to get back at Dennis and the others, while ultimately getting away in an entirely new body, ready to try out a brand new life (with all of Dennis’ money).

So Who’s Who at the End of It’s What’s Inside?

There are a lot of moving parts coming together at the end of It’s What’s Inside, but Dennis (in Forbes’ body) and Forbes (in Beatrice’s body) do a good job of breaking it all down for us.

Beatrice got away in the body of Nikki (Alycia Debnam-Carey), the Instagram model that it seemed like everyone wanted to either be or be with. Nikki, much to her dismay, was sent into the body of Reuben, who was supposed to get married the following day. We know where the minds of Forbes and Dennis ended up already. Maya wound up in the body of Brooke and the real Brooke (along with the real Reuben) remained dead inside the bodies of Maya and Dennis.

The real fun and interesting part about the final swap is that Shelby and Cyrus ended up back in their own bodies, but Shelby’s experience as Nikki the night before helped her bring out the truth of her longtime boyfriend’s true character. Cyrus is a horrible guy who always wanted to be with Nikki instead. When Dennis was in Cyrus’ body, he called the police and confessed to killing Maya and Dennis, even though their deaths were accidental. That meant whoever was in Cyrus’ body when the cops arrived would go to jail. That ended up being Cyrus, who could’ve been bailed out if anyone decided to tell the authorities even a fraction of the truth. Shelby could have set him free, but she chose not to, instead letting him end up with the fate he deserved for how he treated her over the years. 

Knowing what you know at the end of It’s What’s inside, it feels like a movie that probably deserves a rewatch or two in order to get the full experience.