Aahana Swrup
‘Mona Lisa and The Blood Moon’ is a thriller fantasy film directed by Ana Lily Amirpour revolving around the story of a peculiar telepath in her pursuit of freedom. Starring Jeon Jong-seo and Kate Hudson in central roles, the film follows Mona “Lisa” Lee, a young woman with inexplicable psychic abilities who escapes from her imprisonment in a mental institution. Shortly after, Mona runs into a stripper, Bonnie Hunt, who helps out the telepath, giving her a place to lay low. However, once Police Officer Harold discovers Mona and tries to take her back to the institute, Mona tries to make a run for it. Here is everything you need to know about the ending of ‘Mona and The Blood Moon.’ SPOILERS AHEAD!
Mona Lisa and The Blood Moon Plot Synopsis
On the night of a full moon, Mona ‘Lisa’ Lee, a patient at the Home of Mentally Insane Adolescents in New Orleans, manages to escape from her cell, leaving behind an injured receptionist and an employee with stab wounds on her leg. While the cops are notified of her escape, Mona stumbles into a store, looking for food. There, she meets Fuzz, a DJ/occasional drug dealer, who is instantly attracted to her. Nevertheless, their connection breaks after Officer Harold, reporting to another minor crime at the scene, recognizes Mona and pursues after her.
Although Mona tries to run at first, eventually, Harold catches up to her and asks her to return to the station with him. Unwilling to give her freedom up so quickly, Mona bolts after using her telepathic abilities to make Harold shoot himself in the knee. Arriving at a diner, looking for more food, Mona helps out a woman from a petty brawl with a stranger and earns a meal in return. The woman, Bonnie Hunt, finds Mona’s abilities to control other people fascinating and takes her along on her job at the strip club.
Using Mona’s powers, Bonnie makes a group of young men pay her more for tips and realizes her new friend can help her financially. The next day the duo goes out and waits by an ATM to make unwitting locals withdraw cash and hand it over to them before sending them their way. Meanwhile, Officer Harold recovers from his injury and investigates Mona Lisa’s case, tracking her connection to Bonnie Hunt.
Back at Bonnie’s house, her pre-teen son, Charlie, bonds with Mona and accuses his mother of only using her for financial gain. Bonnie ignores him and takes Mona with her to work again, using her to make customers rain down all their money on Bonnie. Soon, Harold finds the establishment Bonnie works at, looking for the two women. Bonnie and Mona try to escape on foot, but Harold catches up to them. Backed in a corner, Bonnie tries to claim she doesn’t know Mona to get out of trouble.
Realizing Bonnie never cared about her, Mona uses her powers to freeze Harold, handcuffing him to a fence, and flees from the scene. Bonnie also seizes the opportunity and runs away but finds herself in trouble later when the group of men from the strip club earlier find her and beat her up in a dark empty alley.
At Bonnie’s house, Mona returns for Charlie and asks him to run away with her. Charlie, who feels neglected by his mother and thinks she hates him, agrees and packs up his bags taking his savings with him. Mona takes the two of them back to the store, looking to find help from Fuzz.
Mona Lisa and The Blood Moon Ending: Does Mona Lisa Escape From New Orleans?
When we meet Mona “Lisa” Lee at the film’s beginning, she has been locked inside the HOMIA facility for twelve years since she was ten. Trapped inside a small room, bound by a straightjacket, Mona has little knowledge about the world and other people. Still, she years for freedom. Although she is pretty satisfied staying with Bonnie at first, once she realizes the latter is only using her, she decides to seek help from the only person who has shown her unconditional kindness yet: Fuzz.
Retracing her steps, Mona and Charlie find Fuzz, who is delighted to see Mona again, convinced she is his soulmate. As such, he agrees to help them out, no questions asked, and gives Charlie and Mona haircuts as disguises and fake IDs. While the police look for Mona and Charlie, they get a ride from Fuzz to the airport, where they book two tickets to Detroit.
However, before boarding, Charlie decides to call his mother one last time to say his final goodbyes. Because of her injuries, Bonnie is at the hospital awaiting several surgeries, where Harold and other officers are monitoring her, knowing her son ran away with Mona. Consequently, the officers track down the call and learn Mona’s location.
Once the police arrive at the airport, they implement security checks on all the upcoming flights. Even though Charlie and Mona have fake IDs, their disguises are hardly good enough to remain undetected in the face of intentional inspections. Nevertheless, Charlie creates a distraction at the last moment. Running up to a random Asian woman, Charlie calls out his name, catching the officer’s attention.
The police fail to double-check the woman’s identity and arrest her in a feat of startling subtle racism. Since everyone believes the officers have already caught the criminal, the airport security assumes trouble has passed and lets Mona board the plane without any problems. In the end, Mona, although alone, is able to leave New Orleans and start her life anew away from Officer Harold and HOMIA.
Why Does Charlie Return to His Mother?
Ultimately, without Charlie’s sacrifice, Mona would not have escaped from the country as smoothly as she does. However, by calling attention to himself, Charlie ends up getting caught with the promise of returning to his neglectful mother. At a young age, Charlie has had to grow up quickly, partly due to his mother’s constant absence. Bonnies struggle as a single parent without a reliable job is obvious. Still, her irresponsible parenting weighs down on Charlie.
Charlie believes she’s holding his mother back since she complains about having to spend all her money and time on him. Due to the same, he dislikes his mother. Likewise, his first meeting with Mona doesn’t go over too well either. He doesn’t want Mona at his house for long and believes she doesn’t have good intentions. But soon, he sees Mona’s genuineness and realizes his mother is using her.
As such, their friendship grows, and Charlie starts to care for Mona. As a result, he decides to give up his chance of escape to ensure Mona’s freedom. Even when Officer Harold interrogates him, Charlie doesn’t budge and gives them fake information about Mona’s flight.
It’s also important to note that although wise for his age, Charlie is still only a kid. Therefore, regardless of their differences, Charlie still loves his mother. He proves the same by speaking to her one last time at the airport, knowing his goodbye note at home won’t suffice. In the end, an amalgamation of all these reasons makes Charlie say his teary goodbye to Mona at the airport and return to his mother.
What Happens To Bonnie?
Throughout the movie, Bonnie appears as an opportunistic woman, only trying to get by. Although she is an inadequate parent and uses naive Mona for money, her raw authenticity as a character appeals to the audience. Toward the film’s end, Bonnie is in the hospital with severe injuries after getting beaten up by a group of men from whom she stole earlier.
While in the hospital, Bonnie gets a Karmic reality check after learning that her little kid has finally run away from home. Like Charlie, Bonnie also clearly loves her son regardless of the plethora of problems in her life. Even though she has been an awful parent to Charlie so far, she tries to do her best wherever she can.
At the film’s end, Bonnie learns a lesson that should send her into a transformative character arc. Still, the world is not kind to her yet, and more troubles await her on the other side. The monumental hospital bills she will likely rack up from her surgeries would prove to be difficult for her to pay off regardless of whatever money was able to steal with Mona’s help.
Moreover, Officer Harold is already on her case about her crimes of harboring a fugitive and petty theft. She likely finds it hard to battle these issues in her position. Ultimately, Bonnie would have to face the consequences of her actions, and one can only hope her run-in with Mona taught her some important lessons.
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