The Ending of 'Elio' Explained

Cosmopolitan

21-06-2025

If you haven't seen Disney and Pixar's latest movie, Elio, then you need to hop in a spaceship and zip on down to the theatre because it is the cutest thing you'll see all year. It's about Elio, an orphaned kid who's obsessed with space and aliens, and more than anything, wants to be abducted and taken away from Earth where he feels like he isn't wanted. Well, his wishes come true after he messes with a satellite message at the Air Force base his aunt works at and aliens send a ship to come get him, mistakenly thinking he's the leader of Earth.
He's zipped through space to the Communiverse, a place where advanced species of the universe come together. In exchange for a permanent spot in the Communiverse, Elio volunteers to deal with the scary Lord Grigon, who's threatening to destroy the Communiverse after not being admitted. That decision ends up sending Elio, and Grigon's son Glordon, on a wild adventure.
So how does it all end? Let's get into it!
After Elio's negotiations with Lord Grigon take a sharp turn for the worse, he gets thrown into a jail cell. But pretty quickly, he manages to climb out a broken window. On his escape, he meets Glordon, the son of Grigon. The two bond and it seems like for the first time, Elio might actually be making a friend. He tells Glordon he needs a bargaining chip against Grigon, and Glordon, who's also never had a friend before, agrees to go with Elio and pretend he's being held hostage.
The two go back to the Communiverse where they video call Grigon and Elio threatens (but not really) to hurt his son if he doesn't leave the Communiverse alone. Glordon, not really wanting to go back with his dad since he has zero desire to be a weapon-wielding machine like Grigon is, has Elio create a clone of himself to send back in his place. But Grigon figures it out pretty quickly and goes ballistic, locking up all the Communiverse ambassadors as he searches for his real son.
It might take the Communiverse a little longer than you'd think for what are supposed to be the smartest aliens around to figure out that a literal child is not the leader of Earth, but they eventually get there. Grigon makes Ambassador Questa read Elio's mind to find out where the real Glordon is and by doing so, she sees the whole truth, including who he really is. As Grigons soldiers take over the Communiverse, Elio gets knocked through a portal back to Earth.
Elio's Aunt Olga might seem kinda excited about the clone version of Elio that's been sent to Earth so that no one gets suspicious that he's missing. This Elio is being chatty, helpful, and has stopped being so obsessed with aliens and space–all the things she's wanted him to be. But Olga is no dummy. She secretly plucks one of clone Elio's hairs and takes it to investigate under a microscope, clearly suspicious of his change in behavior. She's also surrounded by books on alien abductions, so yeah, she knows what's going on.
Her suspicions are confirmed when the strand of hair comes to life and busts its way out of the microscope slide and crawls back down the hall to the rest of Elio's clone. She follows it and lifts up Elio's eyepatch to see there's no actual eye behind it, so this can't be her real nephew.
Yes! But he's not in the best condition when he arrives. The real Elio, now reunited with Olga after getting kicked out of the Communiverse, sees some commotion going on at the Air Force base. The two of them take a closer look and see the spaceship Glordon was in is being hauled inside a warehouse. They break in, and seeing that Glordon is fading away (he's freezing cold now that he's out of his usual climate), start the ship back up and fly into outer space.
Thankfully, also yes! With an unexpected assist, that is...
After dodging dangerous debris fields and zooming through at warp speed, Elio, Olga, and Glordon make it to the Communiverse, which has been taken over by Grigon. At this point, Glordon is unresponsive and Grigon, seeing his son's state, shockingly rips off his suit of armor, sacrificing his honor, so that he can climb down and save his son.
When Glordon wakes back up, he tells his dad he doesn't want to be a killing machine trapped in armor like him. Grigon says that even though he doesn't understand Glordon, he'll always love him. He apologizes to Elio and tells his cronies to release all the people of the Communiverse.
Having saved the day after all, Elio is finally offered a permanent place in the Communiverse. But his initial excitement is stopped when he sees his aunt's heartbroken face at the thought of him staying in space. Elio tells the Communiverse ambassadors that he wants to give Earth another chance and that this isn't goodbye, it's not yet.
Elio is all about feeling like an outsider and searching for acceptance. On that acceptance journey, Elio, who at the beginning of the movie shuts out his aunt and other kids, learns to connect with someone else thanks to Glordon. Elio feels like his aunt doesn't really want him and he sees that Glordon shares his same fears, but with his dad. By the end of the movie, Elio learns that his aunt loves him and would even jump in a dinky-looking spaceship for him, and Glordon realizes his dad will love him no matter what he wants to do with his life.
Ambassador Questa sums it up nicely towards the end, telling Elio, "Unique can sometimes feel like alone, but you're not alone." And now we're crying again!