Warning: This post contains spoilers for Together.
If a gnarly body horror film that reads as an obvious metaphor for codependency sounds like it’s up your alley, then writer-director Michael Shanks’ feature debut Together may be your favorite new movie of the summer.
Starring real-life husband and wife Dave Franco and Alison Brie as Tim and Millie, a couple who have fallen into a romantic rut after a decade of dating, Together plays on our fears surrounding toxic long-term relationship dynamics by bringing those worries to life in visceral, physical form. The film follows Tim and Millie as they move away from their friends and family in the city to a more remote country town, where Millie has accepted a teaching job. Tensions are already high between the pair, but after a day of hiking turns into an unexpected overnight stay in a mysterious and seemingly supernatural underground cavern, things go from bad to worse when they find their bodies are suddenly, uncontrollably drawn to each other—to increasingly squirm-inducing effect.
After selling to Neon for a whopping $17 million following its breakthrough at Sundance—and facing a copyright lawsuit over allegations of idea theft that Shanks has described as “devastating” and “entirely untrue”—Together hit theaters on July 30 and is predicted to bring in upwards of $11 million across its five-day opening run. The movie has also received high praise from critics and currently boasts a near-perfect approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Still, your thoughts on Together‘s third-act twists will likely depend on how straightforward of an explanation you require out of your fright flicks. Let’s break down how the buzzy body-horror dramedy ends.
More show, less tell
As Tim and Millie’s need to be in each other’s presence becomes all-consuming, causing their bodies to start to literally fuse together, the couple turns to muscle relaxers to slow down the process and reluctantly decides to use a buzzsaw to separate their merged arms. They’re then able to split up long enough for Mille to head to the neighboring home of her fellow teacher Jamie (Damon Herriman) and try to retrieve the car keys she accidentally left there while Tim returns to the otherworldly cave in the woods where their plight began.
At Jamie’s, Millie discovers an old home video playing of two people who both look somewhat like Jamie participating in what appears to be an occult wedding ritual that involves both of them slicing open their wrists and pressing them together. The video, combined with Jamie’s subsequent creepy behavior and suggestion that Millie and Tim should accept their fate as the alternative is much more unpleasant, confirms what those who have been paying attention will likely have already guessed: that Jamie was once two individuals who willingly underwent the same process and ultimately melded into one. Millie manages to escape the house but not before Jamie violently slices her arm open.
Meanwhile, in the cavern, Tim discovers the couple they were told about who went missing in the forest before they moved to the area are still stuck underground in a grotesquely merged mutant form—showcasing the apparent horrific alternative Jamie was referencing. We don’t get a ton of explanation about the cult that created the ritual or where the supernatural water that sets the transformation in motion came from, but, in this case, the show, don’t tell approach keeps the movie from getting bogged down in its own lore.
Once Millie and Tim both make it back home, Tim is prepared to sacrifice himself to stop the transformation and allow Millie to live on without him. But after he professes his abiding love to her, Millie reveals her wound and makes it clear she’s ready to accept her own death right before she falls unconscious from blood loss.
Spice up your life
When Millie wakes up inside the house, she realizes Tim has allowed their arms to fuse together in order to keep her alive. They decide to let the transformation take its course and “become whole,” as Jamie described it. The two then embrace and give into their corporeal union as the Spice Girls’ “2 Become 1” soundtracks their metamorphosis.
That weekend, when Millie’s parents (Tom Considine and Melanie Beddie) arrive at the house for a visit, an androgynous-looking amalgamation of Tim and Millie (who we’ll refer to as Tillie) answers the door, signifying the change is complete. We also see that a bell, a symbol of the cult, is now hanging at Tillie’s door, seemingly hinting they have accepted the cult’s belief system and may be planning on converting Millie’s parents next.
As far as the subtext of the movie goes, Shanks has said the story is based, “in many ways,” on his ongoing relationship with his partner of 16 years. “These characters have been together for over 10 years, and Dave and Alison have been in their relationship for over 10 years,” he told Slant. “They’re playing this abstraction of the relationship that my partner and I have, but in this heightened, crazy, and much less kind way. You feel it with them, as they have a history, and they bring that emotional authenticity and history onto the screen.”
Considering Shanks has referred to the ending as a “romantic and loving resolution,” it seems safe to assume the filmmaker intended the movie to be more of a love story than a cautionary tale. But in an interview with Variety, Brie also had a warning for those in a relationship who plan to see Together together: “‘I think if couples leave our movie and end up breaking up, it wasn’t meant to be.”