Editor’s Note: The following contains spoilers for Sinners.Sinners is layered with rich ideas, bringing together different perspectives to allow every viewer to take away something different from the movie. This personal interpretation becomes even more apparent after the credits, with the reveal of Mary (Hailee Steinfeld) and Stack’s (Michael B. Jordan) fate raising questions on whether their survival was actually a curse. When speaking with Collider’s Taylor Gates, Steinfeld herself highlighted that the filming the ending caused her to question her own stance, asking whether if she had the chance to live forever, would that actually be desirable and claiming that the end credits will purposefully have “you questioning where you might lie on that”.
Death is a prominent theme in Sinners, with characters grieving and then grappling with their own mortality, creating this through-line discussion of the limits of humanity. This leads to ideas of perpetuity, as the arrival of the vampires, led by Remmick (Jack O’Connell), presents the opportunity of eternal life. Remmick lures the cast in with a conversation of transcendence from a world of hatred and adversity. Yet, Mary and Stack, the two characters who get to live this extended life, feel as though they are actually suffering the most, and this feeds into Steinfield’s comments about the positive and negative aspects of their fate.
Is ‘Sinners’ A Happy Ending For Anyone?

The post-credits scene of Sinners reveals that Smoke (Michael B. Jordan) never killed Stack, instead letting him live as long as he never goes near Sammie (Miles Caton). The time cut moves the story from the 1930s to a jazz club in the 1990s, where a new elderly Sammie (Buddy Guy) is still performing. After the patrons have left, Stack and Mary arrive, now dressed in vibrant ’90s attire. Stack asks Sammie to play for him one last time, and the three of them appear to bond over their nostalgia over the night Sinners has just recounted.
At first glance, Mary and Stack seem happy; they appear to be living glamorous lives, molding themselves to the aesthetic of each new time period. The pair gets to experience the world in a way the majority don’t, staying forever young. Steinfeld mentions the upside of their fate, as they are able to “see (their) kids’ kids’ kids’ grow up and watch them become what they dream of.” However, they are not the real Mary and Stack; instead, they are merely two vampires with their memories.
This is evidenced when the pair gets turned into vampires early in the movie, as they become much more vicious and selfish, feeling as though their true nature was gone forever. However, the post-credits show a more mellow version of Stack and Mary, which causes the audience to forget that these vampires have their victims’ souls captive rather than facilitatimg the advantages of eternal life.
The ‘Sinners’ Post-Credits Scene Has A Hidden Meaning

The true fate of Stack and Mary is revealed through Coogler’s use of comparison. Annie (Wunmi Mosaku) and Smoke are two of the only characters who do not succumb to the vampires’ evil and never turn. Whilst Smoke manages to survive the night, he kills Annie after she begs him to let her soul rest and not let her transform should she be bitten. Stenfield talks about the beauty of this perspective as “(Annie) has someone she wants to see on the other side,” her and Smoke’s daughter, who died as a baby. If Annie were to live forever, it would be a condemnation, as she would never be reunited with her child.
This perspective is only fully realized when Smoke takes on the Klan members and is fatally wounded during the movie’s ending. As he dies, he turns to his side to see Annie, dressed all in white, breastfeeding their baby. Through this shot, Coogler portrays real death as a heavenly respite where one is united with their family and at peace. Annie is dressed all in white and feels like an ethereal and angelic presence welcoming Smoke to the afterlife. When you have this moment of calm to compare to Stack and Mary’s fate, you realize that the fact that they get to live forever is far from a happy ending for the vampires.
‘Sinners’ Doesn’t Glamourize the Idea of Eternal Life

Image via Warner Bros.

In the moments of his death, Smoke may have come to the realization that, by allowing his brother to live, he actually denied him ever knowing what true peace is. In the post-credits scene, as Stack speaks to Sammie, they lament on how that night at the juke bar was the best night of their lives, with Stack recalling that it was the last time he saw his brother alive and saw sunlight. It is ambiguous whether death would’ve reunited Smoke and Stack, but it is shown in bleak clarity that eternal life guarantees their eternal separation.
There is no denying the ending of Sinners is incredibly harrowing, as Ryan Coogler shows each character who has died by using moments of them dancing in the juke bar. It creates this incredibly reflective atmosphere, where you can’t help but feel heartache for these exuberant people who lost everything in one night. However, this post-credits scene actually suggests that those who were killed by the sunlight were the lucky ones, and Mary and Stack’s ability to live forever is actually a curse. It reframes the final moments, and as Stenfield poses, it raises questions for the viewer about whether they actually would want to live forever if they were given the chance.

Sinners

Release Date

April 18, 2025

Runtime

138 Minutes

Director

Ryan Coogler

Writers

Ryan Coogler