After the Hunt ending explained: Truth, power, and survival collide in Luca Guadagnino’s morally ambiguous finale

Directed by Luca Guadagnino, After the Hunt is a psychological thriller set in the world of academia, featuring Julia Roberts as philosophy professor Alma Imhoff. The main story revolves around an allegation of sexual assault made by Alma's student, Maggie Resnick ( played byAyo Edebiri), against her colleague and close friend, Professor Hank Gibson (played by Andrew Garfield).

The story follows Alma as she deals with her own buried past and the allegations against her colleague. The story explores power, ethics, human error, and the complexities of the #MeToo movement while the university and Alma's career are at stake. After The Hunt also features Michael Stuhlbarg as Alma’s husband, Frederik, and Chloë Sevigny as Dr. Kim Sayers, among other supporting cast.

Disclaimer: This article contains spoilers about the film. Viewers discretion advised.

After the Hunt ending is not entirely conclusive, however, five years later, Alma is revealed to have become a Dean, despite her previous professional troubles. Hank currently works as a spin doctor after being dismissed from the university. Alma and Maggie's final ambiguous meeting, in which Maggie declares that Alma "won," hints at a complicated conclusion in which survival and career ambition took precedence over moral justice.

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After the Hunt ending explained: What really happened to Hank, Alma, and Maggie in the film’s final moments

A still from the film's trailer (Image via YouTube/Amazon MGM Studios)

The futures of the main characters, Hank, Alma, and Maggie, are left linked to the weight of their shared suffering and moral compromises during the conclusion of After the Hunt. The film's final scenes resolve the central mystery surrounding the death of a student, and in doing so, reveal the devastating truth that Maggie, a student and key witness, has been hiding from everyone.

The ending also confirms that Hank, the respected professor and Alma’s father, did not commit the crime of murder. Maggie's confession eventually reveals all the details of those events, but there is still a great deal of suspicion regarding her honesty. Whether Maggie is entirely truthful about the sequence of events and her own level of involvement remains questionable even until the end.

After being suspended, investigated, and caught in the aftermath of the accusation, Alma Imhoff has unexpectedly risen to the position of dean at Yale, as shown in the epilogue set after five years. Her return to a position of power implies that the film explores the unequal distribution of consequences rather than merely punishing or rewarding.

A still from the film's trailer (Image via YouTube/Amazon MGM Studios)

Maggie meets Alma in a restaurant and casually tells her, “You won.” She then leaves a $20 bill on the table and walks out, and in a moment staged as a break in the story, the director’s voice offscreen calls “Cut!” On the other hand, Maggie’s accusation against Hank led to his dismissal, and he is likely working for a political campaign as a “spin doctor,” doing better financially than many might expect.

After the Hunt screenwriter Nora Garrett stated that the film was never intended to be an ethical drama with clear-cut conclusions. Garrett also noted that through her collaboration with director Luca Guadagnino, the ending evolved from a more black-and-white conclusion to one full of nuance and open interpretation.

She has stated that she was drawn to flawed, ambitious, and self-absorbed characters, particularly those like Alma, who gained popularity by suppressing and hiding aspects of herself. Garrett has also discussed the intentional meta-touch at the end, the "Cut!" as a reminder that this is a fictional drama and that viewers need to understand who is "filming" it and whose perspective carries more weight.

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After the Hunt was released on October 10, 2025. Stay tuned for more updates.

Edited by Suchita Patnaha