‘X’ Movie Ending Explained: Who Played the Old Lady? (2024)

If you missed the buzzy horror movie X when it first premiered back in 2022, you’re officially out of excuses, because X is now streaming on Netflix.

This slasher pic from writer/director Ti West is the first in a new horror trilogy and was followed up by the prequel film Pearl, which was filmed immediately after X and was released just months after X opened in theaters. (Unfortunately, Pearl is not streaming on Netflix at this time, but it is available on Showtime.) This year, West is expected to release his third and final film in the trilogy, MaxXxine, which will once again star Mia Goth.

All this is to say, now is the perfect time to stream X, which stars Goth both as a young, beautiful aspiring p*rn actress and as the creepy, wrinkled old lady who lusts after her forgotten youth and sexuality. Buckle up for a bloody ride. And if you get lost along the way, don’t worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for a full analysis of the X movie plot summary and the X movie ending explained.

Who played the old lady in X?

The old lady in X is played by Mia Goth herself, in heavy prosthetics and makeup. In an interview with Thrillist, Goth said she spent hours in make-up to become Pearl. She also said that while she initially would act her scenes with both characters with a body double, she later asked West to film those scenes by herself. “It was very freeing,” she said.

X movie plot summary:

The year is 1979, and police arrive at a crime scene, at a farmhouse in rural Texas. On the house TV set, a conservative Christian preacher rants about the sin of sexuality and the modern, sinful American youth. We see numerous bloody body bags and watch as the cops discover something particularly shocking in the house basem*nt. But we don’t see what it is that they’ve found.

Cut to 24 hours earlier: An aspiring p*rn star Maxine (Mia Goth) does a hit of co*ke before hitting the road with her boyfriend, Wayne (Martin Henderson). Wayne is producing a p*rn film starring Maxine, another p*rn actress named Bobby-Lynne (Brittany Snow), and their male lead Jackson (Scott Mescudi). The film will be shot on a desolate farmhouse in rural Texas, and filmed by a cinematographer named RJ (Owen Campbell). RJ insists to his girlfriend Lorraine (Jenna Ortega)—also along for the ride as a production assistant—that a dirty movie can also be high art. When she objects, he accuses her of being a prude.

When the film crew arrives at the house, they are not greeted warmly by the old couple that lives there. The old man, Howard (Stephen Ure), warns the crew that his wife Pearl is not well, and she should not be disturbed. Maxine runs into Pearl (also played by Mia Goth, in heavy prosthetics and make-up) while wandering the property, and has an unsettling conversation with the creepy old lady. Pearl shows Maxine a photo of when she herself was young and beautiful. Pearls tells Maxine she used to be a dancer, and have power in the same way that Maxine does. She warns Maxine that someday, that beauty and power will fade. Pearl reaches out a hand hungrily to stroke Maxine’s skin. When Maxine pulls away, Pearl tells her it will be their secret.

On set, Pearl films her big sex scene, and nails it (pun intended). Everyone on set is enchanted by her erotic sensuality… and so is Pearl, who watches from the shadows. Pearl returns home and tries to have sex with her husband, but Howard rejects her, citing his heart condition. That night, Lorraine asks the actors why they are OK with having sex with other people when they are supposedly in love with their partners. Maxine replies that it’s “just sex. Attraction out of our control. It ain’t healthy keeping those feelings locked away inside.” Maxine also obliquely references her past, which we assume must be rough, and that she’s using the dream of p*rn stardom as a way to escape that past life.

Lorraine, inspired by this talk, decides that she wants to star in the movie, too. Her boyfriend RJ attempts to forbid it, but Wayne convinces RJ that Lorraine will find another way to be a p*rn star if she wants to be. Lorraine shoots a sex scene with Jackson. That night, RJ is so upset that he decides to leave. But before he can drive away, Pearl blocks the road. When RJ approaches Pearl to see if she’s OK, she tries to kiss him. He pushes her away, and tells her he doesn’t want to see her naked body. Pearl responds by stabbing RJ to death.

When Lorraine wakes up and finds RJ missing, she goes out to look for him. She’s joined by Wayne, who searches for RJ in the barn, wearing only the tiniest of briefs. Wayne steps barefoot onto a nail and shouts to RJ and Lorraine for help. Instead, he gets stabbed in the eye with a pitchfork, courtesy of Pearl. Another one bites the dust! Meanwhile, Lorraine runs into Howard. Howard informs Lorraine that his wife Pearl has also gone missing. He lures Lorraine into the house basem*nt and traps her there. In the basem*nt, Lorraine discovers the corpse of a naked man strung up by his wrists, suggesting that this is not the first time Pearl has killed someone—and also that Howard is in on it.

Unfortunately, Jackson is unaware of this when he volunteers to help Howard search for his wife. Even though the p*rn star is super nice to this creepy old dude, Howard is jealous of Jackson, but he can still have sex, and Howard can’t. He accuses him of enticing his wife, just like “the last Bohemian who stayed” with them. That must be the naked corpse in the basem*nt. Howard shoots and kills Jackson.

Meanwhile, Pearl gets naked and climbs into Maxine’s bed. Maxine is understandably freaked when she wakes up. She screams and wakes up Bobby-Lynne. Pearl runs, and Bobby-Lynne finds her standing by the pond. Bobby-Lynne offers to help Pearl, commenting that her nana is in a nursing home. Pearl replies she doesn’t need a nurse, and pushes Bobby-Lynne into the alligator-infested pond. Sure enough, Bobby-Lynne is promptly chomped up by gator.

X movie ending explained:

Maxine and Lorraine are the only two left alive. Lorraine chops her way out of the basem*nt, while Maxine hides under her bed. While she is under the bed, Maxine overhears Pearl convince her husband to have sex with her, despite his heart. He feels bad for her, because she wasn’t able to kill Maxine, whom Pearl resents for having that something special “X factor” that she once used to have. So to comfort her, he agrees to have sex. And he doesn’t die! Yay!

While they are distracted, Maxine makes her escape. She discovers that the tires on the van have been slashed. She runs into Lorraine and hopes to work together to find the keys to the old couple’s truck. But Lorraine, hysterical, blames Maxine for everything gone wrong and tries to flee to save herself. Lorraine runs out of the house, and is shot and killed by Howard.

Howard and Pearl drag Lorraine’s body into the house, but she’s not quite dead. She twitches, which startles Howard and causes him to have a heart attack. Maxine uses the pistol she took from the van, points it at Pearl, and demands the keys to the truck. She tries to shoot Pearl after getting the keys, revealing the gun is unloaded. Pearl tries to shoot Maxine with the shot gun, but it backfires and blasts Pearl instead. The preacher on TV—which has been blasting this whole time—chooses that moment to talk about “divine intervention.”

Maxine loads into the truck, with Pearl hurling insults at her for being a whor* who had sex on camera. Maxine backs the truck up over Pearl, crushing her head, and drives away. The next morning the police arrive, and discover the bodies—including the naked corpse in the basem*nt.

Who is Maxine in X?

In the final scene of the movie, as the cops examine the crime scene, we watch the televangelist preachers on TV talk about their daughter, who they say they’ve “lost.” The preacher reveals a picture of Maxine. “There she is, my beautiful little daughter Maxine, lured into a life of sin by the very deviants we warn of here on a daily basis.”

We understand that Maxine doesn’t come from a poor or troubled background necessarily, but instead from a Puritan, conservative, Christian background, which she is now rebelling against. It’s just like Maxine said: That’s what happens when you try to repress people! It’s not healthy.