This article discusses the ending of the Netflix film Rainbow (2022) and will contain spoilers.
Rainbow is a new Spanish film by the director Paco León. Inspired by L. Frank Braum’s The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, this is a modern retelling seen through an LGBTQ+ lens. The story revolves around Dora, a teenager who takes her little dog Toto for a walk to pick up a cake for the birthday her father ordered for her. Along the way, she overhears a pair of gossip-ridden middle-aged twins talking about her mother.
Precisely how she looks just like her mother but nothing like her father. This sounds like they are speculating that her father is not blood-related, but Dora asks her father if a woman he talked to at their door before she was a teenager was her mother. He confirms it and is upset that he lied to her (he initially tells her that she left and never saw her again). Dora then goes home during a bad storm to look for the mother and find out why she left.
That’s when Dora comes across a house of witches, including one that kicked her dog, Coco, arguing with her lover Maribel. Why? They are standing over a man in a coma who is Coco’s husband, and she will not pull the plug. The third witch finds her spying, and they confront Dora, who explains she thinks her mother used to work here, and one of them is her grandmother (the story can be convoluted, and I am not entirely sure how she came to this conclusion). Maribel confirms that she is the grandmother, and the younger witch says she knew Dora’s mom. She was nice to her and her cousin. She tells Dora that the last time they heard was that she was in the Capital city and had a pair of nice shoes.
The scene follows Coco trying to put a bullet in her lover’s head but blowing a piece of the dead man’s forehead off, lying in the hospital bed. The thing is, before the officials came, they had not confirmed she had already died. Coco then blames the shooting on Dora and points to her that she is a murderer. Dora runs, then wakes up, saying she had the worst dream. However, Coco and Maribel tell the cops the next day that their granddaughter shot the man. Coco also announces that she is pregnant, which is a miracle even God wouldn’t put his stamp of approval on.
Dora continues to explore and comes across Muneco, a young man whose manic and frantic behavior is troubling. He is chained, and she frees him. He is the Scarecrow. She then comes across an older man who tries to pull a Thelma & Louise, but his smart car prevents him from taking the nosedive of a lifetime. He seems to be the Tin Man, maybe because he has a large silver car they travel together in.
They finally fill out their party with Akin, a singer they meet at a club who is thrown out for being a homosexual. He though does not seem cowardly at all but shows inner strength (a few scenes later, Dora visualizes him as a real Lion). They end up not driving down a yellow brick road, but the drugs Muneco sprayed in their faces take them into outer space filled with asteroids and Michael Jackson riding a sting ray the size of Falkor in The Never Ending Story.
Dora gets a tip after arriving at a bar of crossdressing bingo players called “The Poppeyfield,” which her mother hard to work at. A bartender tells Dora she will make some phone calls but then dials up someone as if she knows more than she lets on. The next day they all take off for Capital City after seeing Dora on the news, and the bartender tells Dora to go to Chinatown, with Akin now a Lion on Dora’s head. While this is happening, Coco has a miscarriage and blames Maribel for the matter. Upset, she tells her long-time secret pheromone she gave up Dora’s mother, Pilar, to be with her and left Coco.
Rainbow ending explained
Most of the last third of Rainbow is convoluted, so let’s break it down. Dora finds out she was adopted and runs away from her father after spending a night in jail. Dora’s mother, Pilar, had an affair with Coco’s husband, the second richest man in the world. Dora is his granddaughter and is left with most of his inheritance, but Coco controls half of it. Coco tried to have another child to hold more or all the wealth. And if Coco pins the murder on her, she gets all the money.
After all the papers are signed, T’s crossed, and I’s dotted, they have a party to celebrate the next phase in the corporation. However, Coco tries to poison Dora, but the young girl tosses the drink aside. But Coco is the one later who feels woozy. She passed out because Maribel spiked her drink with toxins. Coco is now dead. The lion returns and drives everyone away from the party, but Maribel is unfazed. Perhaps, Maribel was the protective beast watching over Dora.
The final scenes have Dora stopping at a diner and being served by a server with the name tag Pilar. She walks out of the eatery happy and sees a rainbow only a dozen feet above the road, created by a truck cleaning the streets and spraying water in the sky.
What did you think of the ending of the film Rainbow (2022)? Comment below.
You can watch this film with a subscription to Netflix.
Additional Reading
- Will there be a sequel to Rainbow?
- Where was Rainbow filmed?
