Today marks the debut of Guillermo del Toro’s much-anticipated Frankenstein adaptation on Netflix. Fans of the legendary monster are eagerly tuning in to witness del Toro’s unique take on the classic tale.

This 2025 rendition is a heartfelt reimagining of Mary Shelley’s iconic 1818 novel, featuring Oscar Isaac as the ambitious Dr. Victor Frankenstein. Driven by a desire to conquer death and play god, the eccentric scientist embarks on a daring experiment. With financial backing from a wealthy patron, played by Christoph Waltz, Frankenstein stitches together a new being from the remains of various corpses, bringing to life a formidable Creature portrayed by Jacob Elordi. However, much like his own dismissive father, Frankenstein soon grows disillusioned with his creation and attempts to eliminate it. Yet, the Creature proves indestructible.

In addition to Isaac and Elordi, the film boasts a stellar cast including Mia Goth, Felix Kammerer, David Bradley, Lars Mikkelsen, Christian Convery, and Charles Dance. Rather than a straightforward horror flick, Frankenstein unfolds as a gothic family drama. If this shift in genre leaves you puzzled, don’t worry—Decider offers a thorough analysis of the plot and a detailed explanation of the film’s ending, shedding light on the deeper meanings behind del Toro’s vision.

2025 Frankenstein plot summary:

The story begins amid the icy expanse of the Arctic Ocean, where a Danish expedition ship is immobilized by ice. The crew stumbles upon a gravely injured man stranded on the ice and rushes him to the captain’s quarters. Shortly thereafter, a terrifying creature with superhuman strength assaults the crew. While bullets prove ineffective, a powerful explosion sends the creature plunging into the sea, presumed to meet its demise in the frigid waters.

The injured man reveals himself to the captain, played by Lars Mikkelsen, as Dr. Victor Frankenstein, portrayed by Oscar Isaac. He cautions the captain that the Creature is unkillable—he’s tried and failed. As the creator, Victor knows the relentless pursuit of his creation, which will not cease until Frankenstein himself is no more. He extracts a promise from the captain to abandon him on the ice upon their return. With this, Victor begins recounting his harrowing tale.

Victor is the son of a renowned physician, who trained him to be a doctor from a young age. Victor’s abusive father doesn’t like him or his mother. Victor blames his father for failing to save his mother, when she dies in childbirth delivering Victor’s younger brother, William. William quickly becomes the golden child, while Victor becomes obsessed with uncovering the scientific key to defeating death.

As an adult, Victor is close to achieving his goal. He able to reanimate a corpse for a brief period of time, but needs funding to achieve his full vision. A wealthy arms merchant, Henrich Harlander (Christoph Waltz)—who also happens to be the uncle of Victor’s soon-to-be sister-in-law—offers to fund Victor’s research. Harlander just asks that Victor grant him an undisclosed favor down the line. Victor reluctantly agrees.

Victor hires his brother William (Felix Kammerer) as a lab assistant. William brings along his fiancée, Elizabeth (Mia Goth), whom Victor is immediately taken with. Victor is distracted from his work to engage in an emotional affair with Elizabeth. But Elizabeth eventually rejects Victor. That rejection, plus an ultimatum from Harlander that he will pull funding if Victor doesn’t get results ASAP, motivates Victor to finally achieve his goal.

However, just before Victor is about to animate his Creature using the energy of a bolt of lightning, Harlander comes to collect on his favor. Harlander is dying of syphilis, and wants Victor to transfer his brain to the Creature’s body. Victor refuses, arguing that it won’t work, because Harlander’s brain has already been damaged by the disease. A desperate Harlander tries to sabotage the machine that is supposed to animated the creature. Harlander slips and falls to his death. Though the creature is hit with the electricity jolt, it fails to animate.

Victor—far more upset about his failed experiment than his dead companion—goes to bed. He wakes to find the Creature (Jacob Elordi), alive, standing over his bed. Amazed, Victor introduces himself as Victor. The Creature copies Victor’s motion and repeats the word, “Victor.” Victor is thrilled.

However, Victor soon finds himself resenting his creation. He grows weary of caring for the Creature, and frustrated that the Creature cannot speak any words beyond “Victor.” He’s also consumed by jealousy when Elizabeth visits, shows the Creature kindness, and berates Victor for his inhumane treatment. Just like his father before him, Victor writes his creation off as a disappointment.

In a fit of anger, Victor tortures the Creature, and is met with alarming rage and strength. Victor realizes that the Creature’s strength and rapid healing ability means the Creature could easily kill him. He lies to William by showing him Harlander’s dead body, and claims the Creature killed him. Victor asks William to take Elizabeth away for her own safety. Then he sets his lab on fire in an attempt to kill the Creature.

However, the Creature survives. Back on the ship in the Arctic, the Creature bursts into the captain’s quarters and announces it’s his turn to tell his side of the story. Go off king!

The Creature reveals he was able to escape the burning lab and stumbled into an empty home on a remote farm. While hidden in the house, he spies on the family that lives there, including a blind old man who teaches his grand-daughter to read. The Creature longs to be a part of the family, and secretly helps around the farm, causing the family to believe they have been blessed by a spirit of the forest.

One day, when the rest of the family is away, the Creature reveals himself to the old man. They become friends. The Creature learns to speak and read, but admits to the old man he remembers nothing of where he came from. At the old man’s urging, the Creature returns to the ruins of Victor’s lab, where he discovers papers that reveal the truth: The Creature is an unnatural creation of science. Noooo!

When the Creature returns to the old man, he finds he has been attacked by wolves. The Creature kills the wolves, but the old man’s family returns, and blames the Creature for the Old Man’s death. The family shoots the Creature, and he goes down. But he once again is resurrected. Realizing he cannot die, the Creature hunts down Victor to demand his creator make him a companion, so that he will no longer be alone.

The Creature finds and confronts Victor on Elizabeth’s wedding day. Victor refuses the Creatures request, saying it was a mistake to ever bring one monster into the world. In a rage, the Creature attacks Victor. Hearing the commotion, Elizabeth rushes into the room, and is thrilled to see the Creature alive. They embrace. But Victor shoots at the Creature, accidentally hitting and killing Elizabeth instead.

Victor once again falsely blames the Creature to the crowd, claiming he killed Elizabeth. While fighting off the angry mob of guests, the Creature kills William. A dying William tells Victor he always feared him. The Creature mourns Elizabeth, and deforms Victor in revenge, calling him the monster. The Creature informs Victor that hence forward, the Creature is Victor’s master.

2025 Frankenstein ending explained:

Victor is more determined than ever to kill the Creature. He hunts the Creature up to the Arctic Circle. Victor tries to kill the Creature with dynamite, but this doesn’t work, either. Now we’re all caught up to where the Danish sailers found Victor dying in the snow.

Back in the captain’s quarters, Victor lays dying in bed. He takes the Creature’s hand, and with, his last breath, apologizes to the Creature. He calls the Creature his son, asks for forgiveness, and advises him to live as best he can. He also asks the Creature to say his name one last time. “My father gave me that name, and it meant nothing. Now I ask you to give it back to me, one last time, the way you said it at the beginning, when it meant the world to you.”

The Creature obliges. He says Victor’s name, and holds his creator’s hand as he dies. Then the Creature kisses Victor’s forehead in farewell. The captain orders his crew to let the Creature leave in peace. As he leaves, the Creature stops to free the ship from the ice, allowing the men to finally sail home. The sun comes up, and the Creature lowers his hood to bask in the sunlight, as Victor once showed him to do when he first woke up. A tear rolls down the Creature’s cheek as he watches the sun rise on a new day, and with that, the movie ends.

So what does it all mean? My interpretation is that the 2024 Frankenstein movie is a story about fathers, sons, and forgiveness. Victor never forgave his father, and ended up passing on the cycle of abuse to his “son,” the Creature. But at the end of the movie, the Creature does forgive his abusive creator, and is able to find peace. He even uses one of the skills his father taught him to get more out of life—he soaks up the sun.

Even though Victor’s father was abusive, he still taught him something he loved, which was the study of medicine. In other words, even with bad fathers, there is still some good. And there is still peace to be found in forgiveness. In the end, no one was the monster. Just flawed, complicated humans.

But hey, that’s just my interpretation of the movie. If you have a different take, let me know in the comments.