'Wonka' Ends With a Final Splash of Magical, Chocolatey Mystery
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We all know what happens to Willy Wonka after Wonka. We've seen the movies, read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and eaten the everlasting gobstoppers. But if you're unclear about what happens at the end of Wonka or trying to spoil yourself? You don't need a golden ticket to find out how the Timothée Chalamet movie wraps up.
In the new movie, Willy Wonka has a time and a half getting his start in the mysterious city that's not quite London and not quite New York in a series of Roald Dahl-esque misfortunes. First he gets tricked into indentured servitude at an evil laundromat. Then the "Chocolate Cartel" wants him dead (literally) to prevent him from competing with them. And on top of all that, he's being stalked by a mysterious orange man with green hair who calls himself an "Oompa Loompa" and claims they need to settle a chocolate debt. But he makes friends with his landlady's bookish orphan ward, Noodle, and other employees.
Here's what happens in Wonka's ending.
The Chocolate Cartel pays off everyone's debt on one condition
After a disaster, Willy promises to leave the city and never make chocolate again. He complies because he feels like he owes it to Noodle. But what he doesn't know is the trio of baddies have sent him out on a boat full of explosives. Willy realizes this at the last second and manages to swim to shore.
The gang pulls off a heist to expose the bad guys
Back on land, Willy and his washroom friends reunite and rescue Noodle from boarding house matron Mrs. Scrubitt and her henchman Mr. Bleacher. They make a plan to break into the cartel's underground lair and steal the accounting book that exposes their criminal behavior. With the last-minute help of Willy's Oompa Loompa nemesis, they pull it off. The bad guys get arrested, and Willy Wonka is finally free to re-open his chocolate shop and share his gifts with the world.
Willy learns his mother's secret, too
While Willly's mom doesn't physically show up, he opens the chocolate bar his mother left him before she died. Inside is a message written on a golden ticket. The secret isn't what it's the chocolate, the message says, it's who you share it with. He then appears to see his mother in the crowd, but she isn't really there. It's just a memory wishing him well.
He also tracks down Noodle's birth mother
Noodle's father was Mr. Slugworth's brother, but her mother is still alive. She lives and works at the library in town, so Willy takes Noodle to meet her and sings "Pure Imagination" for the first time. Yes, reading is a world of pure imagination just like a chocolate factory. (And yes, I did start crying.)
About the factory, though....
At the end of the movie, Willy takes Lofty the Oompa Loompa to visit the ruins of a castle, where he wants to expand his business. As he sings a reprise of "Pure Imagination," his imagination brings the factory to life–at least in his head, if not also in reality. That part of the movie is left to your interpretation.
How does Willy Wonka end up being friends with Slugworth?
Wasn't that a thing in the 1971 movie? No! The man who reveals he's in cahoots with Wonka at the end of the Gene Wilder movie was not the real Mr. Slugworth but someone pretending to be Mr. Slugworth to test Wonka's prospective heirs. His real name was Mr. Wilkinson, and he is not mentioned in the film Wonka. Unsolved mystery? Sequel potential? We'll have to wait and see.
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