Warning: Spoilers Ahead For The Midnight Sky
What is the significance of George Clooney’s sci-fi drama, The Midnight Sky? Based on Good Morning, Midnight, Lily Brooks-Dalton’s 2016 novel, The Midnight Sky chronicles the tale of a once-ambitious scientist, Augustine Lofthouse (Clooney), whose work centers around researching habitable planets for possible human colonization. The Midnight Sky is now available in theatres and can be streamed on Netflix.
In The Midnight Sky, the year 2049 marks a mysterious cataclysmic event on Earth that wipes out most of the population, spurring Lofthouse to work in the Arctic in an attempt to warn any space missions about the situation on earth. Right from the opening frame, Lofthouse is posited as a solitary figure, whose self-inflicted loneliness lies in stark contrast to his massive, empty Arctic base. Battling a serious illness that requires him to administrate routine blood transfusions, Lofthouse is acutely aware of his numbered days and is keen to make the most of this time in attempting to help out those unaware of the events on Earth.
Fluctuating between grim atmospheric mood and flickers of a hopeful future, The Midnight Sky is essentially a manifesto on the innate connections we humans crave, especially in the midst of crisis, and the hopes, fears, and desires that spring forth from it. Here’s the ending of The Midnight Sky, explained.
The Midnight Sky: What Happens to Earth and Why Lofthouse Chooses to Stay Behind
While the exact nature of the catastrophe that strikes Earth, leading to its near-extinction is not explicitly spelled out, visual cues hint towards the fact that powerful radiation had caused rapid deaths. An early scene sets this premise, wherein all scientists except Lofthouse leave the Arctic observatory to spend their final moments with their families. Lofthouse is also seen monitoring the Air Quality Index of the area somewhat obsessively, hinting towards the fact that the air has been subject to rising radiation levels, which would eventually render the air unbreathable. This implies that some sort of a radioactive catastrophe had wiped off most of humanity, affecting the polar regions the least, while others fell rapidly ill and spent their limited time underground. Further confirmation of this event being worldwide is the fact that Sully (Felicity Jones) has trouble contacting Earth from Aether, including countries like China, Russia, and India.
However, the event does not appear to have taken humanity by complete surprise, due to the fact that the reason Aether was in space was to confirm whether one of Jupiter’s moons, K-23, which was discovered by Lofthouse himself, was suitable for human life. Moreover, the reason why Lofthouse decides to stay back is that as he is in the last stages of a serious terminal illness, possibly radiation poisoning, and he might be staying back as a last attempt to help out those in space before death. Also, a series of flashbacks reveal that Lofthouse’s obsession with his research rendered him incapable of forging meaningful bonds, which led to an estrangement of sorts with the woman he was romantically involved with. Now that he is really alone, sick, with no one to turn to, and his hopes for human space settlement dashed due to the catastrophe, Lofthouse might be harboring pangs of guilt and solitary yearning for a love that was lost due to his own negligence.
The Midnight Sky: A Haunting Look Into The Inner Lives Of Broken, Solitary Souls
The crew of the spacecraft Aether, who were heading back from K-23 to Earth, was naturally unaware of the fact that the entirety of humanity had been wiped out in their absence. Whilst they were oblivious, the crew was in extremely high spirits, as their analysis of the planet’s surface pointed to the fact that K-23 was, in fact, habitable. After being unable to contact mission control or anyone on Earth for that matter, Sully is able to establish contact with Lofthouse who informs them that there is no Earth to look forward to. Having lost one of their crew, Maya (Tiffany Boone) in a comms repair spacewalk gone wrong, the rest of the astronauts are shattered by this revelation, especially Mitchell, who was looking forward to reuniting with his family after the mission.
A visual of Earth displays its molten, ashen exterior from space, crushing any remnants of hope for the crew of Aether. Moreover, Sully is pregnant with her partner, Commander Adewole’s child, which mounts an added layer of bleakness and urgency to the entire scenario. While crewmates Sanchez and Mitchell decide to make a trip to earth despite knowing about the absence of stable entry points, Sully and Adewole decide to head back to K-23, as the continuation of the human race rests upon their shoulders. Every character in The Midnight Sky, including Lofthouse, is a broken, solitary soul in one way or another, each being denied the luxury of returning to a home or a safe, loving space in the face of crisis. The Midnight Sky is a tale chronicling the innate human need for connection and comfort, even, and especially during times of duress, and the urgency of making up for lost time with the ones we love.
The Midnight Sky: The True Identity of Iris And What She Represents For Lofthouse
In conjunction with the space storyline, Lofthouse experiences his own emotionally jarring arc when he encounters a child named Iris in his Arctic stronghold, who seems to have been accidentally left behind by the evacuation team. The two bond in endearing ways, despite the fact that Lofthouse is initially hesitant to take up the responsibility of the child, saying that he is “the wrong person.” This hints that a deep-seated personal trauma, mired in guilt and self-deprecation, which is later revealed through a flashback concerning his partner Jean, and the child they had together. In the past, Lofthouse had chosen his work over Jean, who in turn, had lied about not being pregnant in order for him to be able to move on. However, this turns out to be untrue, as Lofthouse later finds out that he did have a daughter, but despite this knowledge, had chosen not to reach out to her or Jean when he had the time and the opportunity.
Having turned back on his child once before, Lofthouse decides to go on a search for a bigger antenna in order to establish communication and help the child reunite with her family. While his health progressively takes a turn for the worse, Lofthouse has one hast conversation with Sully, who reveals that she was inspired by him to join NASA, as her mother Jean had worked with him at some point. The narrative of The Midnight Sky weaves in a massive twist in which audiences are informed that Sully’s full name is, in fact, Iris Sullivan - through sheer luck, or cosmic harmony, Iris and Lofthouse finally get the chance to find comfort in the other, wherein the former becomes one of the last potential saviors of the human race. This revelation also unravels the fact that the child Lofthouse encounters is merely a ghost of a faded memory, a mere hallucination, or a manifestation of guilt-filled yearning, which eventually leads to an actual reconciliation, tinging the ending with a ray of hope.
The Midnight Sky: What The Ending Really Means
The twist ending of The Midnight Sky positions Lofthouse’s narrative arc as a quest for redemption, as he encounters a host of obstacles, both physical and psychological, during his journey to the Lake Hazen weather station. When Sully learns Lofthouse’s identity, she says, “It's very nice to finally meet you,” implying that she is aware of the fact that Lofthouse is her biological father. This moment completes Lofthouse’s redemption arc, as it is redemption he is constantly seeking, be it when he chooses to stay behind or decides to rage against snow wolves and blizzards alone in an attempt to reach Lake Hazen.
By contacting Aether, and by extension, informing them about the situation on Earth, he is able to avert the loss of his daughter, along with the possible utter extinction of the human race. With Sully being pregnant, it is likely that she will be able to ignite a fresh start for humanity on K-23, a planet with crisp air, orange skies, and lush, vibrant foliage. It is also an incredibly poignant moment for Iris, who must have been searching for her father her whole life, and it is only fitting that she was able to get closure before Lofthouse’s imminent death. The Midnight Sky ends with Lofthouse looking at the sunset with the child Iris, who vanishes, as she is simply a figment of his imagination - now Lofthouse can die in peace, without guilt or remorse, having performed the most selfless act that could potentially save the entirety of mankind.