47 Meters Down Ending Explained: What Happened To Kate

Summary The 47 Meters Down ending offers a dark twist after a dramatic escape from sharks.

Director Johannes Roberts considered a bleaker ending but added hope.

The movie's ending echoes the brutal twist of The Descent, leaving a lasting impact.

The 47 Meters Down ending featured a miraculous escape from deadly sharks, only for the salvation of its central characters to be dashed by a dark last-minute twist. The 2017 survival horror movie follows two sisters, Lisa (Mandy Moore) and Kate (Claire Holt), stranded in a cage at the bottom of the ocean floor surrounded by hungry sharks. Right until its ending, 47 Meters Down is a taut, suspenseful thriller, and also features a number of great jump scares.

The shark movie was directed by Johannes Roberts and is notable for a surprise twist that reframes the ending after Lisa finds herself alone in the cage after Kate is seemingly killed by a shark. Lisa's leg is pinned, and she's breathing air from a new oxygen tank that Kate retrieved for her. When she hears Kate's voice over the radio, she summons the strength to free herself and find her wounded sister. The two sisters then make the desperate swim back to the boat. However, the final scene of 47 Meters Down reveals that was not what actually happened.

Related Is 47 Meters Down: Uncaged Based On A True Story? Johannes Roberts' 2019 thriller film 47 Meters Down: Uncaged reveals the dangers of deep sea diving, but is the film based on real events?

47 Meters Down Ending Explained

The Happy Ending Is Not As It Seems

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An early scene set up the 47 Meters Down ending as Captain Taylor, (Matthew Modine) had previously informed the sisters that if they swam up to the surface, they needed to stop for five minutes halfway to avoid the bends. During this nail-biting escape sequence at 47 Meters Down's end, Lisa lights flares to ward off the prowling sharks. The sisters eventually reach the surface and race to the boat, only for Lisa to get bitten and dragged down by a shark, but she is able to scratch out the creature's eye and is pulled onto the boat.

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The wounded sisters are being treated when Lisa notices the wound on her hand — which she cut in the cage — is bleeding into the air. It turns out Lisa had been hallucinating this entire escape and is still pinned to the bottom of the cage. Previously, Taylor had warned that switching tanks increased the danger of "nitrogen narcosis," which led to Lisa's vivid hallucination of saving Kate. Lisa is eventually saved by divers and is taken back to the boat, and comes to accept her sister was killed by the shark.

Johannes Roberts had considered an even bleaker ending for 47 Meters Down where Lisa was left to die, but he realized the movie needed some hope. The director also returned for the 2019 sequel where 47 Meters Down: Uncaged's new characters are endangered by sharks.

Is 47 Meters Down Based on a True Story?

The Shark Movie Has Been Criticized For Unrealistic Aspects

The impact of the 47 Meters Down ending inspired some to wonder if it was a true story. The basic premise of a diving excursion gone awry due to faulty equipment and overly trusting tourists looking to have a good time doesn't seem all that far-fetched. However, though the plot may very well be loosely based on similar stories when it comes to the specific story of Lisa and Kate fighting for their lives in Mexico's waters, the project isn't actually based on any true survival stories.

Sizeable chunks of 47 Meters Down are quite unrealistic. Naturally, these inaccuracies only further separate the plot from the concept of a true story. However, Johannes Roberts addressed these elements in a 2019 interview (via: Bloody Disgusting) where he himself called the two 47 Meters Down movies "preposterous." He went on to emphasize the importance of suspending one's disbelief while watching films and pointed out:

"[i]f you went down 47 meters in a cage to the bottom of the ocean, with a tank, and you were an inexperienced diver, you would probably last about three minutes before you died or ran out of air. So yeah, sure, it is ridiculous. [...] But it is a movie, you know?”

The 47 Meters Down Ending Mirrors A Modern Horror Classic

Johanne Roberts' 2017 Survival Horror Echoes The End Of The Descent

The 47 Meters Down ending draws parallels between the film's ending and the ending of The Descent, another dark horror movie about survival. The Descent, from director Neil Marshall, follows a group of women trapped in a cave and hunted by flesh-eating creatures. In the end, Sarah (Shauna Macdonald) seems to be the only survivor who makes it out of the cave. However, while escaping in her car, she suddenly wakes up from her hallucinations as she finds she is still in the cave with the creatures closing in on her.

The ending proved too bleak for American test audiences, so it was changed to one in which Sarah survives the ordeal, though she is clearly traumatized by it. Like 47 Meters Down's ending, the original ending to The Descent leaves audiences with a brutal gut punch. It is not an ending that's designed to sit well with everyone as it's somewhat cruel to suggest an ending where Sarah lives only to take it away. However, sometimes such brutal horror movie endings can be more memorable than the safe and victorious endings usually seen in Hollywood movies.

Did 47 Meters Down: Uncaged Repeat The Ending Twist?

Which Ending Is Better?

The sequel, 47 Meters Down: Uncaged had a similar setup, but Jonannes Roberts had to be mindful of not simply repeating the 47 Meters Down ending. Having the same twist ending would never work a second time, so it would be interesting to see how the director went about bringing the action back to the deep water without retreading what the first movie did. In the sequel to 47 Meters Down, four friends go cave diving in Mexico and encounter killer sharks.

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These include stepsisters Mia and Sasha and their friends Nicole and Alexa. There are also a pair of assistants working in the caves and the stepsisters' dad, Grant (John Corbett). In 48 Meters Down: Uncaged, everyone dies except the stepsisters. The biggest change to the 47 Meters Down ending is that director Johannes Roberts chooses not to go through with the fake-out this time.

Instead of the twist, which almost makes the end of that original movie seem meaningless, this one is a straightforward survival story. In the first movie, one sister saves the other, only for it to be a hallucination where one of them actually dies. Here, the two sisters also fight to save each other, and actually succeed. While not in the best headspace, they actually both survived thanks to their new bond, already making it a more satisfying ending than 47 Meters Down.

The Real Meaning Of 47 Meters Down

The Movie Has A Little More To Offer In Terms Of Reasons To Fear Open Waters

Like most survival horror movies, 47 Meters Down doesn't bank itself much on hidden meanings or thematic depth. That's not to its detriment either, as director Johannes Roberts clearly understands the genre and how to squeeze every ounce of tension possible from Lisa and Kates' situation. However, thanks to the twist and the detail about nitrogen narcosis, the ending of 47 Meters Down does have a little more to offer than most other films in the subgenre.

Most shark movies, such as The Meg or Deep Blue Sea, rely solely on the terrifying aquatic predators as the sole source of danger and threat. However, 47 Meters Down takes a note from the 1975 Jaws in a key way that allows it to stand out from other survival horrors about shark attacks. In Jaws, it's clear that the real danger is more the apathy of the Mayor of Amity Island and his insistence that the beach has to open. Had the Mayor simply closed the beach, the shark would have had no more victims and simply moved on.

Of course, 47 Meters Down isn't quite as subversively deep as Jaws (though, again, this isn't to its detriment, as few shark movies have managed to be). However, it does show through Lisa's nitrogen narcosis that its sharks aren't the only danger when it comes to diving in open waters. The twist has more-or-less nothing to do with the sharks, and is arguably the most memorable part of the finale. It also mirrors the ending of 2022's Fall, which also features a character death fake-out.

Because of this, the meaning of 47 Meters Down manages to be a little more than simply "big sharks are scary". However, while it doesn't have much to offer beyond this when it comes to its themes and core message, it also doesn't need to, as the enduring cult success of the 2017 survival horror shows.