Summary

• Men's unexpected twist is hinted at early on, leading to a wild and unorthodox ending that cements its status as unique.
• Rory Kinnear's characters in Men reproduce asexually, foreshadowed by a dandelion moment, adding depth to the storyline.
• The male characters in Men, played by Kinnear, harass Harper in various ways, embodying her fear and distrust of men.

While it would be tough for even experienced horror viewers to guess where Men is going, the horror movie does hint at its twist early on. Like 2018’s Annihilation and 2015’s Ex Machina, 2022’s Men is another dark psychological thriller by director Alex Garland. However, this horror movie set in the English countryside is much stranger and more offbeat than Garland's earlier offerings. By the time Men’s wild ending rolls around, the movie has cemented its status as the most unapologetically unorthodox of Garland's offerings. That said, its story does make sense.

Men sees Jessie Buckley’s lonely widow Harper visit a secluded lodge in the British countryside to recover from a past trauma. Soon after Harper arrives, she is accosted by a variety of characters all played by Men’s star Rory Kinnear. Her stay slowly devolves into a trippy, nightmarish odyssey as it becomes increasingly unclear whether Harper is imagining her plight. Eventually, in Men’s daring ending, the many male characters played by Kinnear gruesomely give birth to each other in succession. The final form of this self-replicating man is Harper’s late abusive husband, who pleads for her to love him.

Men's Dandelions Moment Foreshadowed The Real Nature Of Rory Kinnear's Characters

Rory Kinnear’s Characters Are Implied To Reproduce Asexually Before This Is Confirmed

Although Men’s full cast of characters includes a couple of other supporting stars, Harper and Kinnear’s various male antagonists dominate the movie’s runtime. Even Harper's husband is only glimpsed in a few brief flashbacks before the movie’s ending, meaning it can be tough to guess where Men’s story is heading. However, there is one strange piece of symbolism that hints at the true nature of Kinnear’s inhuman villains. Dandelions reproduce asexually and are effectively cloned from an original dandelion, which explains why the nude Kinnear character who accosts Harper blows the seeds of a dandelion in her face.

Men's villagers are all clones of each other and the original character at their core is Harper’s dead husband. Since he is deceased, viewers could reasonably conclude that Harper imagines some of the confrontations with Kinnear’s characters as they represent her guilt over his death. Garland’s Men missed an incredible gag when Harper never complained that men are all the same since, in her mind, literally every male presence she encountered was as misogynistic and dangerous as her former partner. Strangely, this included a small boy, implying that Harper’s fear of male characters knew no age limit.

How The Naked Man Blowing The Dandelions Into Harper's Face Connects To Men's Themes & Twists

All Of Kinnear’s Characters Harass Harper Throughout Men’s Story In Various Ways

Whenever Harper meets a character played by Kinnear in Men, she is harassed by them. Some, like the Naked Man or the Vicar, are outright hostile and clearly dangerous, whereas others, like the young boy and Geoffrey the homeowner, are more subtly off-putting until they reveal their true colors. This explains why the Naked Man blows dandelion seeds in Harper’s face as he intends to propagate the fear and distrust of men that her late husband instilled in her. Throughout the remainder of 2022’s Men, new versions of Kinnear’s character spring up like dandelions to further justify Harper’s fear.