‘Carrie’ Ending Explained: Who Lives, Who Dies & What Exactly Happened on Prom Night?

Mike Flanagan‘s Carrie may be based on Stephen King‘s classic novel, but by the time the eight-episode Prime Video series reaches prom night, it’s clear this version of Carrie White’s story isn’t going to end exactly the way fans remember.

The classic horror tale of comeuppance, the story of Carrie White, played here by Summer H. Howell, is brought into contemporary times. Social media gives Carrie’s classmates an entirely new way to humiliate her, while the eight-episode format allows the series to dig deeper into Carrie, her classmates, her mother Margaret (Samantha Sloyan) and the events that ultimately push her over the edge.

The finale delivers all the moments you expect, hitting all the classic Carrie tropes, including the prom queen crown, the bucket of blood, and Carrie finally unleashing her powers on the people who tormented her, but Flanagan also makes some major changes, including Carrie’s ultimate fate.

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So, who survives prom night? What really happens to Carrie? And just how different is the ending from King’s book and the 1976 movie? Here’s how Carrie ends and the biggest ways Flanagan changes the story. Warning: A whole bucketful of spoilers for Carrie ahead. Be wary. 

What happens to Carrie at the prom?

Prom night actually starts out pretty well for Carrie. She dances the waltz with Tommy (Joel Oulette), and when the votes are counted, the two are crowned prom queen and king. But Chris (Alison Thornton) and Billy (Arthur Conti) are already inside the school, thanks to Tina (Josie Totah), and Sue (Siena Agudong) is racing toward Ewen High after spotting Billy’s car in the background of an Instagram photo and realizing something is wrong.

She arrives at 9:25 p.m., just in time to see the bucket of pig’s blood dumped over Carrie, courtesy of Billy and Chris.

As the crowd begins to laugh and pull out their phones to film her, the moment becomes overwhelming. Carrie blocks it all out and unleashes an electrical blast that shorts out the phones, sending glass flying into the faces and hands of students. According to Tina’s later account, all cellular activity stops at 9:27. Even the watches in the room stop working.

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And then things get really bad.

Carrie spots Chris and brings down the catwalk above her, but it hits Tommy, killing him. A light strikes Principal Grayle (Matthew Lillard) in the head and sparks a fire. Former imaginary friend (actually a pal with astral projection) Emaline (Thalia Dudek) appears and offers to “take the wheel,” while Amanda (Katee Sackhoff) attempts to stop Carrie permanently, only to be intercepted by one of the mysterious strangers lurking around the prom.

Sue manages to jump onto the stage before a massive ripple of power tears through the gym. Fires erupt, electrical wires break loose, and Carrie floats down from the stage before locking the exits. Water pipes burst, the bleachers catch fire, and Mrs. Desjardin (Amber Midthunder) is thrown into the fire of the stage curtains when she tries to intervene.

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Carrie eventually walks out of the auditorium after flooding the floor. When a live electrical wire hits the water, anyone who hasn’t managed to get off the ground is electrocuted, killing a majority of promgoers.

Sue survives on the stage, along with a handful of students and those mysterious strangers. And her later account raises an even bigger question about the massacre. She remembers seeing a shadow behind Carrie just before everything exploded.

“Everyone asks about Carrie,” Sue tells her interviewer. “But nobody asks about the other people who were there…It wasn’t just Carrie.”

Who else was at the prom?

In this version, there is a mysterious organization at play, as well. Several strangers, including women played by Ruth Codd and Cassandra Naud, are watching the chaos unfold and appear connected to the shadowy organization investigating people with psychic abilities.

Sue later tells the interviewer (Kate Siegel) that one of these figures intervened during the massacre and insists, “It wasn’t just Carrie.” The organization’s larger purpose remains mysterious, but the finale reveals that it is tracking people with abilities like Carrie and Emaline (Thalia Dudek).

What happens to Chris and Billy?

Chris and Billy manage to escape the school and take off in Billy’s car. As they drive through town, Billy insists everyone at the prom “f**king deserved it.” Then they see Carrie standing in the road.

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Billy turns the car around and heads straight for her, intending to kill her. But at the last second, Chris grabs the wheel. The car flips over a ravine and lands in a field. Both survive the crash, but neither can move. Carrie approaches them, and when Billy begins screaming, she crushes his side of the car. She then turns to Chris, who starts to apologize, but Carrie crushes the rest of the car. It is too late for apologies.

It’s one of the finale’s more interesting changes for Chris. She spends much of the series tormenting Carrie, but when Billy tries to murder her, Chris is ultimately the one who stops him.

How is the prom different from the book and the movie?

In Brian De Palma‘s 1976 movie, Carrie deliberately traps everyone inside the gym and kills her classmates using her telekinesis. King’s novel goes even further, with Carrie leaving the school and continuing her rampage through Chamberlain, destroying much of the town in the process.

The series keeps that widespread destruction, but introduces the possibility that Carrie isn’t responsible for all of it. Sue sees something behind her during the massacre, while the presence of Emaline and the mysterious agency figures suggests there are other supernatural forces at work.

For Chris and Billy, in King’s novel, Billy is driving when he attempts to hit Carrie, with Chris beside him. Carrie uses her powers to send the car crashing, killing them both. The 1976 movie flips things around. Chris is behind the wheel and intentionally tries to mow Carrie down while Billy encourages her. Carrie sends the car flipping before causing it to explode.

In this Carrie, neither girl is purely villainous, reflecting Mike Flanagan’s larger approach to Carrie: everyone has their limits, and no one is treated as the monster.  “People are three-dimensional. In the same way that Mike said there are no monsters, what he meant by that is that these people have all these sides to them. They come to their decisions from different places. [Chris] has a point of view from a place of pain. For Tina, it’s a place of insecurity. And I think seeing their evolution and finding their own humanity, even if it takes them a very long time for Tina, the last couple of episodes, and for Chris, the last few seconds of her screen time, is important because humans are that way,” said star Josie Totah.

How does Carrie end?

After Chris and Billy’s deaths, Carrie begins to lose control. Emaline appears and asks her to dance, and the two make their way through a burning Chamberlain as the destruction spreads down Main Street. Carrie eventually snaps out of it and races home, leaving a massive chasm opening through the center of town behind her.

Margaret initially comforts Carrie, bathing her as her daughter admits that everyone at school — and possibly more people — are dead. But while Carrie prays, Margaret attempts to kill her. Carrie fights back, eventually bringing the house down around them.

Except Margaret has a surprise of her own: She has powers, too.

Robert Falconer/Prime

Margaret uses telekinesis to survive the collapse, while Carrie also makes it out alive. Emaline finds the injured Carrie and takes her away, but not before Margaret sees her.

Later, Margaret tells an interviewer that she displayed telekinetic abilities as a child and used them again to survive the house. She also learns the woman with Carrie is Emaline West, an astral projector. Margaret doesn’t survive the interview: She is killed, and the mysterious organization prepares to cover up her death.

Carrie takes off with Emaline. The real Emaline. In the flesh.

This is where Flanagan makes his biggest change: Carrie White lives.

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In King’s novel, Carrie returns home after destroying much of Chamberlain and confronts Margaret. After Margaret stabs her, Carrie uses her telepathy to stop her mother’s heart. Carrie then makes it out of the house but eventually dies from her injuries after encountering Sue. De Palma’s movie gives Margaret an even more memorable death. Carrie telekinetically sends knives and other sharp objects flying into her mother, leaving Margaret posed like the crucified Jesus. Carrie then brings the house down around them, killing herself in the process.

Flanagan lets both women survive the collapse, at least initially, while also revealing that Margaret possesses the same abilities as her daughter. Rather than being an anomaly, Carrie’s powers are something she inherited. But Margaret’s survival is short-lived. She is killed by the mysterious agency, leaving Carrie as the only White to make it out alive.

In Flanagan’s version, Carrie gets something she never had before: A future.

Carrie, Streaming Now, Prime Video