Here's the ending of Amazon's The Vast Of Night explained. The Vast Of Night plays like an homage to classic b-movies from the 1950s, such as The Day The Earth Stood Still or The War Of The Worlds. Another overt nod is to The Twilight Zone, with the entire movie being presented as an episode of a fictional series dubbed Paradox Theater, and several scenes being filtered through an old TV set.
The Vast Of Night is a sci-fi drama that cast Sierra McCormick and Jake Horowitz as Fay and Everett respectively, two teenagers who live in the small town of Cayuga, New Mexico. The story opens with a high school basketball game that nearly everyone in town is attending aside from Fay - who works as a switchboard operator - and local DJ Everett. The two bond over Fay's new tape recorder before they start work, but while operating the board Fay hears a mysterious signal several times. She ropes Everett into the mystery of its origin, which kicks the story into gear.
The Vast Of Night is an indie gem that is considered one of the best sci-fi movies on Amazon Prime and is among the most underrated films of 2020. The Andrew Patterson film received good reviews for its two lead performances, eerie atmosphere and production design. Also of note is the movie's ambiguous ending, with a big turning point in the story being when a man named Billy (Bruce Davis) calls the radio station to tell Everett he's heard the signal before. He worked in the military, and years before he and others in his unit were tasked with helping bury a vast object in the desert that gave off the same sound, and he believes it gave him health issues years later.
Billy hints at the signal being alien in nature and it might be some form of communication. Billy also points them to an old military friend who lived in town who recorded the sound, and after he passed away his tapes were donated to the library. The Vast Of Night sees Everett and Fay throw caution to the wind and plays the recovered recording on the air - leading to the power going out. Soon there are local reports of an object floating in the sky near town, and the two are called out to talk with a local hermit named Mabel (Gail Cronauer, Walker, Texas Ranger), who claims to know what's happening.
The Vast Of Night's finale sees them visit Mabel - who is speaking a strange language when they enter - and they record the conversation. Mabel tells them about her son apparently being abducted by aliens years before, and she once hypnotized him by reciting a chant she heard him say in his sleep. She thinks the signal is from an alien ship that targets isolated towns like Cayuga and also filters negative messages to mankind. They refuse her request to go with them to see the ship, but later during a drive with their friends Gerald and Bertsie - with Fay now babysitting her infant sister Maddie - they playback Mabel's chant on the recorder, sending Gerald into a trace that nearly causes a crash.
The Vast Of Night's ending sees Fay and Everett get out of the car and run into the woods. They soon realize the aliens are real and look up to see a huge UFO hovering over them. The final scene finds the town leaving the high school after the game ends, and the movie cuts back to the woods where Everett, Fay and Maddie have vanished, with only their tape recorder left. This implies they were either abducted or vaporized - there's a large amount of ash scattered on the ground - with their fates being left up to viewers to decide for themselves.