‘Uglies’ Ending Explained: What Happens to Tally in Joey King’s New Netflix Movie?

Uglies on Netflix is sure to bring back lots of memories for 30-somethings who once read every book in the Young Adult section of Barnes and Noble.

Based on the best-selling 2005 novel of the same name by Scott Westerfeld, this new teen sci-fi movie stars Joey King as a 16-year-old girl living in a dystopian future, where everyone is forced to get plastic surgery to become “Pretty.” The film, which began streaming on Netflix today, was directed by McG, with a screenplay by Jacob Forman, Vanessa Taylor, and Whit Anderson. In addition to King, the cast includes Keith Powers, Chase Stoke, Brianne Tju, and Laverne Cox.

Fans of the book will know that Uglies is a series, and that the first book ends with a major cliffhanger. In an interview with Decider, Uglies author Scott Westerfeld said he would like to make a Pretties movie for the book’s sequel, but that it will depend on “how many people watch [the first movie], how many times.”

But those who haven’t read the book may be surprised—and even confused—by the Uglies ending. Don’t worry. Decider is here to help. Read on for a full analysis of the Uglies plot summary and the Uglies ending, explained.

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Tally Youngblood (Joey King) is counting down the days until she turns 16 and can finally get the beautifying cosmetic surgery that will turn her from an “Ugly” into a “Pretty.” Then she’ll finally be allowed to leave the Uglies dorm and join the Pretties in the real world. Her best friend Peris (Chase Stokes) is a few months older than her, and gets the surgery first. When they say goodbye, Peris tells Tally to meet him on the bridge between the Uglies dorm and New Pretty Town in a month, and he’ll tell her all about it. He also promises not to get rid of the scar on his hand, where he and Tally once signed a blood oath to be friends forever.

When Peris doesn’t show on the meeting day, Tally sneaks into New Pretty Town. She finds Peris, who is now Pretty. He tells her they can’t be friends until she is Pretty too, and she’ll understand after the operation. He also got rid of his scar in the surgery—he wanted to be perfect. Tally is devastated, and on her journey back to the Uglies dorm, she runs into another Ugly, Shay (Brianne Tju). Tally and Shay become close friends. Shay teaches Tally how to hoverboard (a magnetic skateboard that needs metal to hover), and Tally teaches Shay how to bypass the futuristic security system in the dorms.

On the day before both Tally and Shay’s 16th birthday, she reveals to Tally that she is not getting the Pretty surgery. Instead, she is going to run away to the Smoke with a man named David. Tally thought David and the Smoke—a place where Uglies run away and never get surgery—was a myth. Shay says it’s real, and asks Tally to come with her. Tally declines. Shay leaves Tally with a letter written in code, describing how to get to the Smoke, in case she changes her mind.

On her 16th birthday, Tally gets called into a meeting with the big boss, Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox), about Shay’s disappearance. Dr. Cable knows Tally knows where Shay went, and she knows about the Smoke. Dr. Cable tells Tally the Smoke is a dangerous terrorist organization that is building a weapon to attack the Pretties. Tally must infiltrate the Smoke, spy on them, and report back about this weapon, in order to save the Pretties. Oh, and if she refuses? She won’t get her Pretty surgery. Tally reluctantly agrees. Dr. Cable gives her a necklace with a tracking device, and tells her to activate it when she has located the weapon.

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Following Shay’s instruction, Tally makes it to the Smoke. She meets David (Keith Powers), and learns about life at the Smoke, which is an idyllic “Ugly” commune. Everyone chips in, and no one is made to feel bad about how they look. Tally and David form a romantic connection, and he introduces her to his parents, Maddy and Az, who used to work for Dr. Cable doing Pretty surgeries. Maddy and Az tell Tally that they discover the surgery causes lesions on the brain that make humans more docile and easy to control. They have been working on a cure that will restore Pretties into their former, free-thinking, Ugly selves.

Tally realizes the “weapon” Dr. Cable wants her to look for is actually the cure that Maddy and Az are working on. She realizes she’s been so wrong about the Pretties, and decides she will not sell out the Smoke. She burns her necklace in a campfire. Unfortunately, this activates the tracking device. The Smoke is soon attacked by Specials, aka Pretties who have undergone another surgery that turned them in to super-strong, mindless soldiers. One of those Specials is Tally’s former friend, Peris.

In the attack on the Smoke, Dr. Cable outs Tally as a spy, and has Peris kill David’s father. Then she orders her Specials to destroy the Smoke and Maddy’s lab. What she doesn’t know is that that Maddy hid a vial of the cure on David. Tally and David manage to get away, but Shay and Maddy are taken prisoner.

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Tally begs a rightfully pissed-off David to help her make things right. With some help from some Uglies still living in the dorm, who create a diversion, Tally and David manage to break the Smokies, including Maddy, out of a Pretty holding cell. However, they are too late to save Shay, who has been forced to undergo her surgery and is now Pretty.

They break out Shay, even though she insists she likes her new life as a Pretty. In a final confrontation with Peris, he seems to remember his friendship with Tally, referring to her by an old nickname, “Squint.” But it’s hard to say, because right after that, he falls off a cliff, perhaps to his watery death. (Or perhaps not—after all, we don’t see a body!)

After they escape the Specials, Maddy reveals that she took something from Dr. Cable’s lab, and now has all the ingredients needed for the cure. Tally wants to use it to cure Shay—but Shay says she doesn’t want to be cured. Maddy refuses to perform on an unwilling test subject, especially because they aren’t sure if the cure will work, or have unintended side effects. Tally volunteers to be a consensual test subject. She will give herself up and undergo the Pretty surgery. She tells David she’ll give him a sign that she’s still herself, and then they can test the cure on her.

In the final scene of the movie, we see Tally after her Pretty surgery. She tells the computer she feels “at peace.” However, the camera zooms in on her hand, and we see that Tally has kept the scar on her hand—the same one that Peris had removed. We therefore know that despite the surgery, she is still Tally, and will still fight for the Smoke. Tally looks at the camera, and we see her eyes are now gold, like she wanted. With that, the movie ends.

Phew! What a cliffhanger, right? If you want to find out what happens next, you can read the second book in the Uglies series , Pretties . There is also a third book in the series, Specials , and a fourth book, Extras. As for whether there will be an Uglies sequel movie, aka a Pretties movie?

According to author Scott Westerfeld, we’ll just have to wait and see. When asked by Decider if he, McG, and Netflix wanted to make a Pretties movie, the author replied, “I want to do it. I’m pretty sure McG wants to do it. And obviously when it comes down to it, with Netflix and the other powers that be, is how many people watch it, how many times. So, I will leave that up to the viewers to decide. “

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