‘Uglies’ Ending Explained: Will There Be a Sequel?

NOTE: Major spoilers ahead for Netflix’s “Uglies” — turn back now if you don’t want to be spoiled

“Uglies” is now streaming on Netflix and it certainly sets the stage for at least one sequel, if not two (the book series it’s based on is a trilogy after all). But will it happen? Well, director McG sure hopes so, because his plans are all “perfectly laid out.”

Based on Scott Westerfeld’s 2005 novel of the same name, “Uglies” takes place in a dystopian future society where every single person gets an operation at 16 years old to become the perfect version of themselves. That means enhanced looks, enhanced abilities, personalities, everything you can think of. Post-surgery, people are what’s known as “pretties.”

The operation is presented as something everyone gets to do but Tally Youngblood (Joey King) eventually comes to learn that it is, in fact, not a gift, and it’s certainly not optional.

After being forced by Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox) to infiltrate The Smoke — a group of “uglies” led by a man named David (Keith Powers) who have run away from the city to live without technology and age normally — to find her friend Shay (Brianne Tju), Tally learns that the operations actually cause lesions on the brain.

These lesions strip everyone of their personality, making them feel happy and perfect but also keeping them fully under the control of the city.

Unfortunately, when Tally throws the tracking necklace that Cable gave her into the fire, the heat activates the beacon before destroying it, leading Cable and her goons straight to The Smoke. Capturing the runaways and bringing them back to the city, Shay is the first one forced to get the surgery.

Tally and David don’t arrive in time to save her and, because the new Shay insists she doesn’t want to be cured, they don’t force the reversal that David’s mom is creating upon her — especially since the cure hasn’t actually been proven successful yet.

So, Tally herself volunteers to be the first human trial; she’ll voluntarily get the operation and consent to being cured afterward. David is quick to remind Tally that she won’t be herself anymore and may not consent, but Tally assures him that she knows who she is now, and will leave him a sign that she’s still in her right mind.

“I’m Tally Youngblood,” she declares to the pretties hunting her. “Make me pretty.”

Fans of the books will certainly recognize that line of dialogue, as it’s the very last line of the first novel. According to McG, preserving that line was a key piece of the ending of the movie.

“To me, it was everything,” he told TheWrap. “I mean that that’s the line that propels you into what we’re certainly [hoping] are the second and third films.”

Indeed, it does lead straight to the cliffhanger. Because, while that line may be the final one in the book, it’s not where the movie fades to black. There’s one more scene after that — one that follows through on the sign that Tally promised David she would leave behind.

That sign is the scar on her hand that she previously matched with her former best friend Peris (Chase Stokes). As she tells her virtual assistant that she’s perfectly happy with how she looks, Tally looks down at the intact scar, indicating that she did indeed manage to keep control of her mind.

Still, her face and body are entirely different. As the camera pans out, we see that Tally is now a much more chiseled version of herself, matching the blueprint we see at the beginning of the film. And yes, it’s supposed to be a bit unsettling to look at.

“We really, really worked hard to get that right, from a place of the hair and makeup, and the practical effects on the face, but then also the visual effects on the face to enhance it,” McG explained. “And like I say, look at any Instagram, any Snapchat and any filter you could pick out there, that sort of face-tune is available, and people are deploying it and applying it with great regularity.”

“And we did a lot of that too. Simply took a lot of snapshots, studied the faces of our stars, and did a lot of R&D in regard to how we were going to express that in the end,” he continued. “We wanted it to feel ethereal and a little bit otherworldly. And, you know, the eyes are a little bit anime and larger than could realistically be achieved, and all these little subtleties all over the place, just to give that look, just so.”

So, will “Pretties” and “Specials” get to be adapted into sequels? McG says “the audience has to speak” on that one, noting that plenty of films that seemed ripe for sequels never got there simply because of performance.

But, should Netflix decide that any sequel or more be something they want to do, McG’s onboard to continue directing them.

“I think that’s safe to say, certainly. I mean, you’re not talking about a garden variety film where, ‘Hey, we had good numbers and people really liked it. Let’s cook up a sequel,’” he said. “You’re fundamentally talking about a book series that gets into specials and extras.”

“And, you know, obviously ‘Pretties’ is the second film. So yeah, we want to make sure that we do everything we can for the world to speak and make it an easy, easy decision for Bela [Bajaria, Chief content officer of Netflix], and Dan Lin [Film Chief at Netflix] and Ted Sarandos [CEO of Netflix] on down.”

McG added that he definitely hopes the sequels get the green light because, thanks to author Scott Westerfeld, the plans for those films are “perfectly laid out.”

“Uglies” is now streaming on Netflix.