In The Sixth Sense film, when it’s finally revealed, who or what Bruce Willis is, it shocks audiences because the reveal lines up with everything that has been shown and told in the film.
The audience gasps because all the threads come together at the moment of revelation. That’s exactly what viewers of Antebellum (2020) expected from directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz. But nothing like that happens.
Antebellum is listed online as a psychological thriller that explores the present and past racial inequalities in America through the eyes of an African American 21st-century woman working on a slave plantation.
The film stars Jena Malone, Janelle Monáe, Kiersey Clemons, Eric Lange, and more. The movie was harshly criticized for its treatment of its characters as well as the twisted plot. So what was the sinister plot twist in the end?
Antebellum reveals that Eden hasn’t time-traveled back to pre-Civil War-era plantations. Instead, she’s Veronica, a successful author and public speaker with a family. Veronica gets abducted by Elizabeth, a headhunter, so that she can play a slave in the Civil War reenactment park called Antebellum. It’s a twist similar to M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village.
What Is the Story Behind the Movie Antebellum?
Antebellum isn’t based on a true story. It’s completely fictional and was developed by first-time feature directors Gerard Bush and Christopher Renz. Initially, the trailer hinted that the film might be inspired by Octavia Butler’s book Kindred, where an African American woman time travels back to pre-civil war plantations. But that isn’t the case here.
The film begins with protagonist Eden (Janelle Monáe) living on a plantation. There she and other slaves are tortured, sexually assaulted, beaten, and murdered almost daily by the Confederate plantation owners. Many try to escape, but almost no one has the luck. Those who get caught are brought back and tortured more.
Initially, there isn’t much of a hint that something is amiss except for a murdered slave woman wearing a modern-day septum piercing. Eden’s owner is called just ‘Him,’ and he sexually assaults her almost every night before falling asleep beside her. Over time, she grows complacent as her hopes of being able to escape dwindle.
Other characters include The Professor, who is sympathetic to Eden, and Elizabeth, the headhunter, who brought her to the plantation. As a viewer, you want Eden to escape, but there’s no way to figure out how she can return home. There’s a dream sequence where Veronica, looking exactly like Eden, is n a modern-day apartment with her husband and daughter.
Here it feels like there’s a time travel twist or a past-and-present connection of some kind coming. But the reality becomes much more disappointing once Eden hears a cell phone ringing while sleeping beside ‘Him.’
What Is the Big Twist in Antebellum?
The twist in Antebellum is that there’s no time travel or even anything remotely clever. It’s a version of M. Night Shyamalan’s The Village. It’s revealed that the opening isn’t a dream at all, and Eden is Veronica herself. The entire plantation is a Civil War reenactment park known as Antebellum, and it’s a playground for racists to cosplay as plantation owners and torture slaves.
So, they play out their twisted and sick fantasies without caring about the people they have abducted from their regular lives. Veronica is a successful author and lives a good life with her husband and daughter. But she gets handpicked by Elizabeth and her father, Senator Denton, because of her outspoken personality. In fact, these racists tend to pick only successful Black people.
The only reason Eden/ Veronica gets to know about the truth of the plantation is that her owner- ‘Him,’ disregards a rule that says no cell phones are allowed in the reenactment park. So overall, she was never far from ‘modern’ civilization. The protagonist was unwillingly and unknowingly stuck playing the part of a slave in someone’s fantasy who wanted the world to revert to how it was.
However, it’s hard to understand how no one from the outside ever wondered what was happening at the park. Also, how did they hide all the murders committed there? It’s probably better not to poke too deep into the plot.
What Does the End of Antebellum Mean?
In the movie, Eden/ Veronica prepares to escape, and the last straw that forces her to act is the suicide of a fellow slave, Julia. In the final scene, Eden/Veronica struggles with ‘Him’/ Senator Denton before The Professor steps in to help her. However, he gets mortally injured by Senator Denton. Eden/Veronica snatches the phone from the Senator and kills him. She then wraps him up in a Confederate flag.
Eden/Veronica then calls his brigade to help him before locking them all in the incinerator. She burns them alive. The final villain to vanquish is Elizabeth. When Jena Malone’s villain arrives, Eden/ Veronica manages to overpower her and ties her to a horse. As Eden/ Veronica escapes on the horse, Elizabeth gets dragged and eventually dies at the base of Robert E. Lee’s statue.
Eden/ Veronica then uses her phone to call her husband as help arrives. However, the protagonist’s triumph feels hollow because it’s a surface-level victory. Many questions also swirl after the ending- How could the murders and suicides be hidden for such a long time? Did no one from the outside question what was happening at the reenactment park?
The movie could have dug deeper to expose a possible rot in society that goes beyond plantation cosplay. Many viewers also complained that there was no emotional compensation provided by the ending after scenes of brutal torture and sexual assault were shown in the beginning. The characters feel like caricatures, and that adds to the film’s hollowness.
Overall, the film could have been written way better to prevent the waste of talent.
Who Is Eden in the Movie Antebellum?
Janelle Monáe plays Eden, a slave woman who gets brought to a southern plantation. There she is beaten, tortured, and raped. Eden is also branded by a plantation overseer on her lower back. It’s later revealed that Eden is actually Veronica, a modern wealthy and successful author and a public speaker.
She is married and has a daughter. Veronica gets kidnapped during a work trip, and it’s revealed that the first half wasn’t a dream or time travel plot. She gets taken to Antebellum, a Civil War cosplay or reenactment park. Every night, Eden gets sexually assaulted by her owner, ‘Him,’ a Confederate general.
He then sleeps beside her. One day, Eden hears a cell phone ringing that, lets viewers know what could be happening. Over the course of the film, she and her fellow abductees kill their captors, and Eden/Veronica rides off on a horse as the police arrive in the end.
What Happened to Julia in Antebellum?
Julia, played by Kiersey Clemons, is a slave woman at a southern plantation with Eden. She is the one who demands that Eden lead an escape or rebellion. But Eden never lets Julia know of her plans to escape. She doesn’t tell her friend that she’s planning on getting the phone of the general to call for help and run away.
So when Julia endures a brutal beating by a young soldier and suffers a miscarriage, there’s no hope for her to hold onto. As a result, she hangs herself. It is only this catalyst that prompts Eden to enact her escape plan. While Eden/ Veronica escapes, Julia remains a casualty of a faulty writing team.
Antebellum is available on Amazon Prime Video.
So what did you think of the twist in Antebellum?
Was the big twist in the end satisfactory? Did it make sense for Eden to hide her escape plan from Julia? Should the writers have instead gone with a time travel twist?
Let us know in the comments below.
