Good Boy Ending Explained & Plot Analysis

The solution to the ending of the thriller Good Boy (2023): Who is the third pet? Plot of the film, explanation and meaning of the ending, description of the denouement, essence of the film, similar movie.

Country: Norway

Genre: thriller

Year of production: 2022

Director: Villar Bohe

Actors: Katrin Lovise Epstad Fredriksen, Gahr Fartein Løkke Goli, Amalia Willock Nyastad

Slogan: “In short, he’s a dog”

The plot of the film Good Boy, filmed in the spirit of European horror films of the new wave, which scare mostly with their atmosphere and cause a state of discomfort, is quite predictable. It naturally leads to a sad ending. However, one small detail in the ending can be confusing. Let’s figure out what meaning the director intended in the final scene and in the picture as a whole.

Plot of the film Good Boy

Let’s look at the plot of the film Good Boy.

Rich Christian lives with a man named (or rather, nicknamed) Frank. He not only wears a dog costume all the time, but also behaves like a real dog. The rich man takes care of him, walking him and even washing him.

Gar Fartein Løkke Goli played the role of Christian, and Katrin Lovise Epstad Fredriksen played the role of Singrid. Still from the film.

Christian sets up a date with a girl named Sigrid through a dating app. The communication between young people that began in a cafe ends in bed. In the morning, Sigrid discovers a man in a dog costume – Frank – near the bed. The day before, the rich man said that he had a pet, but the girl was not ready for this. Without listening to an explanation, she leaves the mansion – however, Christian gives her a lift.

Sigrid tells her neighbor Aurora about Christian’s unusual “friend”. And only here she learns that the guy is fabulously rich – he inherited a huge fortune from his father. Aurora says that one should not immediately discount such a promising candidate because of “just an unusual hobby” – especially since it is not unique. So Sigrid decides to meet Christian again. On the next date, he gives his interpretation of what the girl saw. From his description it follows that Frank is his old friend who has no one but Christian. It’s just that one day he began to consider himself a dog, and the rich man played along with him. Christian does not provide clues as to why such a transformation occurred.

Communication between young people continues as if nothing had happened. Aurora advises her friend not to rush things and not to rush recklessly into the arms of a rich man with oddities. However, Sigrid, only trying to follow her advice at first, eventually becomes close to Christian again. She even supports the rich man’s idea to go with the “dog” to his country estate. And having arrived there, he agrees to the terms of a “digital detox”, which involves giving up phones for several days. So Christian hides smartphones from the girl.

In the evening, Sigrid drinks wine and plays with the “dog”. When Christian leaves for a minute, Frank suddenly pulls the dog mask off his face and tells the girl that the rich man is dangerous and needs to run away from him. Now Sigrid is scared, her romantic mood is fading.

The next morning, the girl tries to quietly escape from her dangerous friend, but Christian locked the front doors with the only keys. And now he is keeping a close eye on Sigrid. The girl is feeling sick. She makes another clumsy attempt to escape: she asks the guy to give her the phone for a few minutes, since her mother is supposedly sick. Christian agrees. But in order not to arouse suspicion, Sigrid has to call on speakerphone. A short conversation takes place with the mother, showing that she is not sick at all and is generally quite indifferent to her daughter’s sudden concern.

Amalia Villock Nyastad as Aurora. Still from the film.

Sigrid “walks the dog” so the prisoners are left alone. Frank tells the girl that there is no point in running after all, because the villain is always on the alert, but killing him while he sleeps is quite possible. But Sigrid replies that she will not decide to kill. However, she hides the knife under her pillow.

Christian pesters the girl with lovemaking, but she pushes him away. At dinner, Sigrid suddenly becomes drowsy and the guy, who probably drugged her with sleeping pills, takes her to the bedroom.

In the morning, the girl discovers that the knife hidden in the bed has disappeared. It immediately turns out that Christian found him. Moreover, he is aware of the girl’s conversations with the “dog”, since they were recorded. Christian states that he is extremely disappointed.

The rich man puts Frank in a cage and shows it to Sigrid. Christian came up with some kind of punishment for the girl. To do this, he begins to free the “dog”, but he rushes at the “master”. Taking advantage of the turmoil, the heroine takes the keys and runs away from the house. Christian is furious. He tortures Frank in various ways.

Meanwhile, Sigrid wanders through the forest, trying to get out, but realizes that she will not be able to find the road to civilization. So she returns to her dangerous friend’s country mansion. The girl sneaks up on Christian during the torture, hits him on the head with a stick, then tries to take Frank away. But one blow was not enough for the sadist to lose consciousness. So he immediately grabs a bat and hits the girl.

The plot seems to start all over again: we see Christian preparing breakfast, feeding dog food to Frank, who is again sitting in a cage. He also brings food to Sigrid, now sitting on a leash in the utility room, also in a dog costume. For good behavior, Christian promises to move her into the house.

The rich man returns to the mansion, where there is another cage. He opens it, puts food in the dog’s bowl and says: “It’s time for breakfast, son.” A light stomp is heard.

Good Boy Ending explained

What is the meaning of the ending of the movie Good Boy? It is clear that Sigrid was captured by Christian in the same way as Frank was in his time. The latter was with his “master” not at all voluntarily, as the rich man claimed. Christian forced Frank to be submissive and behave like a dog through torture. The same fate befell the girl.

But what is this mysterious third pet that remains behind the scenes? Apparently this is the son of Christian and Sigrid. It seems that the couple did not use protection during lovemaking at the very beginning. Or the girl was subjected to violence by the rich man after her capture, which is less likely (after all, Christian, turning people into “dogs,” tried to treat them as such).

One detail that may support this explanation of the ending of Good Boy is that we are shown Sigrid throwing up shortly after arriving at the country house, and then she reports that she is not hungry. It is quite possible that this happened under the influence of severe stress, because at that time the girl was already quite frightened by Frank’s words. But it could also be toxicosis caused by pregnancy – however, in this case at least several weeks should have passed since the moment of intimacy. And based on the events shown, it seems that no more than a week has passed since the first date. But the magic of editing is quite appropriate here: a country trip could not be scheduled for the very next weekend.

Why did Christian turn his son into a “dog”? The reason is the same as in the case of Frank and Sigrid. From the very beginning we are given to understand that the rich man in general does not get along with people. He is much more comfortable with animals. So he turns everyone who gets close to him into his pets.

Still from the film.

The meaning of the film Good Boy

If you want, you can find many meanings in the film Good Boy. The essence of abuse and domestic violence, the danger of the notorious European tolerance, and criticism of the influence of capitalism on personal life are revealed a little. The first is through the rapid transformation of a beautiful lover into a dangerous maniac; the second – through the heroine’s discussion with a friend of Christian’s oddities; the third is through Sigrid’s hasty immersion in a relationship under the influence of the prospect of seizing her partner’s wealth.

Looking at the history of the characters, you can think about the dangers of dating on the Internet through applications, and about fake friends who give destructive advice (Aurora’s line), and about the border between human and animal, and about the essence of power.

Alas, none of these topics are adequately explored. Events develop straightforwardly without any hidden meaning or deep morality. For the sake of the action-packed component, the authors of the film Good Boy do not show in detail how the destruction of the personality and suppression of the will of Frank, and then Sigrid, took place. Because of this, viewers are left with many questions that can be boiled down to one rhetorical question: “Was there really no way to escape?” This is especially true for Frank at the beginning of the film: apparently, he had more than one opportunity to escape. But he showed disobedience to the “master” only when he and Sigrid were taken away from civilization, and then completely locked in a cage.

This moment, together with the Russian-language localization of the film’s title (in the original it is called not Good Boy, but “Good Boy” – as praise for a pet) until the very denouement makes us think that the meaning of the film is somewhat different. It seems that there will be a powerful plot twist and Frank will suddenly turn out to be the main villain, to whom Christian is actually only helping, or even being a victim.

Perhaps the authors did not set out to lead viewers to serious reflection and analysis of the characters’ behavior. Most likely, the emphasis was consciously placed on the elements of “uncomfortable” horror, and the essence of the film lies precisely in them.