Summary

• In Yesterday Jack's rise to stardom with Beatles music is based on a lie, leading to a dilemma with his newfound fame.
• The Yesterday movie ending leaves the world without the Beatles, sparking questions about the reality-altering blackout.
• Yesterday celebrates the timeless impact of the Beatles' music, highlighting the enduring power of their songs.

The Yesterday movie ending does something totally unexpected with the world it envisions where the Beatles never existed. In Yesterday, a struggling British musician named Jack Malik (Himesh Patel) becomes the only person in the world (or so he thinks) who remembers the Beatles and their music. He soon becomes a global pop superstar by claiming the songs John Lennon, Paul McCartney, George Harrison, and Ringo Starr as his own. Yesterday's reality-altering event is a sudden global blackout. For 12 seconds, the entire world lost power at 12:01 am. When electricity was restored, everything resumed as normal, almost.

Jack was struck by a bus during the blackout and ended up hospitalized. When he recovered, he played "Yesterday" by the Beatles, and he was baffled that no one recognized the song. When Jack realized the Beatles were somehow wiped from history, he began recording their music and touring with Ed Sheeran. Performing the Beatles' music unexpectedly propels Jack to a record deal, because everyone believed he had written some of the greatest rock songs ever. However, the Yesterday movie ending raises eyebrows by what it chooses not to resolve.

Yesterday is available to stream on Netflix.

What Happens In The Yesterday Ending

Jack Feels Guilty About Stealing The Beatles' Music And Confesses To The World

By the time the Yesterday movie ending has arrived, Jack struggles with the reality that he's a fraud benefiting from the work of legends — albeit legends no one has ever heard of. While his new Los Angeles-based record label and manager Debra Hammer (Kate McKinnon) oversee his burgeoning superstardom, Jack realizes that Ellie has loved him since they met as children, but he's now about to lose her forever.

Jack's solution is to confess that the Beatles wrote all of the songs, to not accept any money, and to release the Beatles' music digitally for free. He also publicly declares his love for Ellie at Wembley Stadium.

Yesterday's Ending Keeps The World Without The Beatles

The Altered World Isn't Corrected After Jack Does The Right Thing

The Yesterday movie ends without the world ever going back to the way things were before the blackout — and the Beatles continue to have never existed. Because the film is a romantic comedy primarily focused on Jack, Ellie, and their plight, there is little explanation for the blackout and how or why it occurred. It simply happened, was an odd event that everyone in the world knows about, but life otherwise continued unabated. Further, the new reality of the world without the Beatles caused by the blackout is never reversed, and the film simply lets it be.

Yesterday doesn't play by the rules of similar films where reality is changed, such as Groundhog Day.

Interestingly, Yesterday doesn't play by the rules of similar films where reality is changed, such as Groundhog Day. By the rules of Bill Murray's beloved film, the Groundhog Day time loop he was caught up in could only be reversed once he became a better person. Yesterday is similarly focused on Jack doing the right thing by admitting he'd been lying about writing the Beatles music and choosing Ellie over being a superstar, but once he did so, the world didn't change — meaning the blackout wasn't contingent at all on Jack's behavior.

Jack is further shocked when he gradually learns that the Beatles aren't the only things erased from history: Coca-Cola, cigarettes, and even Harry Potter no longer exist in Yesterday's post-blackout timeline. However, Jack also learns, to his relief, that he's not the only one who remembers the Beatles once existed. Two other Beatles fans are also aware that the world has been altered: a British woman named Liz (Sarah Lancashire) and a Russian named Leo (Justin Edwards). Perhaps even more people retain memories of how things used to be, but the Yesterday movie ending's main focus is the happiness of Jack and Ellie.

What Happened To John, Paul, George, And Ringo In Yesterday's World?

John Was Never Assassinated In 1980

The whereabouts of the Beatles are a mystery in Yesterday, with one major exception: John Lennon (Robert Carlyle) is shockingly alive. Thanks to Liz and Leo giving Jack Lennon's address, he was able to visit the founding Beatle-who-never-was at his seaside home. Amazingly, John is 78 years old and lives a quiet life in solitude. He never recorded any music or wrote any of the songs that would make him world-famous, and he was obviously never assassinated in 1980.

However, Yesterday doesn't reveal what became of Paul McCartney, Ringo Starr, and George Harrison. Paul and Ringo appear in the film during a dream sequence where Jack is a guest on The Late Late Show with James Corden, and he's horrified when the host surprises him with the two men who really wrote the famous songs. However, Paul and Ringo's faces are never seen in the film. Meanwhile, George Harrison is merely mentioned and doesn't make any kind of appearance, so it's possible that he still died in 2001 in Yesterday's altered reality.

What Yesterday's Ending Really Means

It's A Celebration Of The Beatles' Timeless Music

Yesterday celebrates the timelessness of the Beatles' music and its importance to the world. Even though the band itself was never formed, through Jack performing their music, the film clearly demonstrates that people all over the world in any era are still affected by the uplifting and joyful power of the Beatles' songs. However, since those songs were created in the 1960s and 1970s, Yesterday also notes how dated many aspects of the Beatles music are. For example, Jack's label rejects the band's classic album titles like Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Heart's Club Band and The White Album.

In the end, Yesterday reaffirms that the Beatles' catalog remains among the greatest songs ever written.

The straightforward simplicity of Jack supposedly writing and performing all of the songs himself, with no sampling, no mixing, no guest vocals from modern artists like Cardi B, becomes what is so paradoxically impactful about the Beatles' music reintroduced into this reality's current pop music scene. In the end, Yesterday reaffirms that the Beatles' catalog remains among the greatest songs ever written.

They both realized how much they missed the simpler times of their 'yesterday' when it was just the two of them struggling in vain to launch Jack's music career in Suffolk.

For Jack and Ellie, however, the Beatles' music charts the arc of their love story in Yesterday. Ellie quietly maintained an unrequited love for Jack for twenty years, though Jack was largely oblivious to her affections. After he recovered from his accident, Jack performing "Yesterday" affected Ellie the most and, as his sudden pop music career took Jack to L.A. and away from Ellie, they both realized how much they missed the simpler times of their 'yesterday' when it was just the two of them struggling in vain to launch Jack's music career in Suffolk.

After they finally get together as the couple they were meant to be, the Yesterday movies ends with a lovely montage of Jack and Ellie marrying, raising children, and living a happy life together set to "Ob-La-Di, Ob-La-Da". As a schoolteacher, Jack also continues to share the Beatles' music to a new generation. The message of Yesterday is simply that while the Beatles helped change the world, the true and lasting impact of their music is in how they can become the soundtrack of a person's life and add even deeper joy to your happiest moments.