This article discusses the ending of the Netflix film Je Suis Karl so it will contain major spoilers.
Je Suis Karl begins with handheld footage of Alex Baier (Milan Peschel) and Inès Baier (Mélanie Fouché) on their way to meet Yusuf (Aziz Dyab) after they previously met him and kept in touch through Facebook. Once they cross the border and reach the Czech Republic, they pick him up.
A couple of years later, Alex meets his daughter Maxi Baier (Luna Wedler) and takes her back to the family apartment, bringing up some parcels in the process. However, once Alex goes outside to collect more parcels, the apartment blows up. Alex tends to a bird before he turns to look at the damage. The apartment is no more, and his family is dead.
As he answers questions from the police, Maxi arrives. She was at her friends, not in the apartment like her father believed. She’s distraught to learn that her family has died, but there’s small happiness for Alex who had thought she was in the apartment.
After the funeral gets held, Maxi is understandably grief-stricken and traumatized. During this time, she becomes friends with Karl (Jannis Niewöhner) after he protects her from reporters who attempt to chase her down the street. After they go for a coffee, he suggests that she attends Re/Generation, a summer academy that he is a part of in Prague. A friendship begins. After finding her father lying in grief on the floor, Maxi looks up the Re/Generation website.
But unknowingly to her, one of the members, Ante (Edin Hasanovic), is the individual who planted the bomb in her family’s apartment. After which, Karl observes the carnage and watches Maxi as she attends the funerals of her family.
Netflix film Je Suis Karl ending explained
Unaware of the truth behind Re/Generation, Maxi joins the academy in Prague. “We are the New Europe” is the main feeling of the conference. With the camp officially open, Karl introduces Maxi to his gang, which includes Ante, Pankraz (Marlon Boess), and Jitka (Anna Fialová). Alone with Maxi, Karl states that he doesn’t agree with the death sentence but does agree with Odile Duval (Fleur Geffrier), who represents a new way of life for the younger generation.
Meanwhile, back in Berlin, Alex searches for Maxi. Upon failing to do so, he gets back in touch with Yusuf. Maxi tells Karl that she is glad that he approached her, and it takes her mind away from her family’s death. Karl groups with his followers and suggests that one of them needs to get murdered. “The idea is brilliant, but who do you want to shoot”. Karl suggests he should be the one to die, to which Jitka says she will be the one to shoot him.
After Karl and Maxi have sex, they attend The Command Concert. As the others party, Karl kisses his reflection in the bathroom. With his followers joining him, they huddle as they brace themselves for Karl’s murder. Yusuf meets with Alex, and after they mourn Inès, Yusuf rings Maxi.
Maxi makes a speech at the academy and moves those in attendance with the story of her family’s death. Shortly afterward, Karl takes to the stage and voices his support to Odile, who follows up with her own powerful speech. Alex tracks Maxi down and warns her that Re/Generation is using her. With the clip of Maxi’s speech reaching 250,000 views, Karl kisses her and heads outside.
Outside, Karl signs posters before he films a video to the public. Just as planned, Karl gets shot. Maxi rushes to his side, but he’s already dead. Odile tells the public is now; Je Suis Karl. Following Karl’s death, a riot begins with people getting shot and people taking to the streets across Europe. Yusuf hides in a car as it starts to get vandalized.
After Alex and Maxi go to him, they take shelter in an underground tunnel, as they hear explosions above them. Je Suis Karl ends with Yusuf, Alex, and Maxi walking through the dark underground tunnel.
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