Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
WhatToWatch
WhatToWatch
Entertainment
Michael Balderston

The Last Voyage of the Demeter ending explained: does anyone survive?

Javier Botet and Corey Hawkins in The Last Voyage of the Demeter

NOTE: this post contains spoilers for The Last Voyage of the Demeter ending.

The story of Dracula is more than 125 years old, as Bram Stoker's original novel was published in 1897. However, The Last Voyage of the Demeter tells a previously skimmed-over section of the story, Dracula's journey from Transylvania to London aboard the titular ship. So how does (or does it at all) The Last Voyage of the Demeter ending change the Dracula legend?

The Last Voyage of the Demeter is based on the chapter "The Captain's Log" from Stoker's novel. It follows the crew, including Captain Eliot (Liam Cunningham) and a doctor, Clemens (Corey Hawkins), as they make the long journey from the Black Sea to London. Soon members of the crew start to disappear and fear begins to set in. With insight from a stowaway named Anna (Aisling Franciosi), the crew learns they are dealing with a monstrous creature known as Dracula (Javier Botet).

As they continue to be picked off night after night and just days away from London, the crew realizes they must figure out how to stop the creature from getting ashore and continuing his horrible killing spree.

What do they do and does anyone survive? Read on for our breakdown of The Last Voyage of the Demeter ending. (If you have not yet seen the movie, here's how to watch The Last Voyage of the Demeter.)

Does anyone survive in The Last Voyage of the Demeter?

Corey Hawkins and Aisling Franciosi in The Last Voyage of the Demeter (Image credit: Rainer Bajo/Universal Pictures and Amblin Entertainment)

Throughout the journey, Dracula picks off the crew of the Demeter one by one. First Petrofsky (Nikolai Nikolaeff), then Larsen (Martin Furulund), completely draining them and killing them. He also attacks Olgaren (Stefan Kapicic), but Dracula doesn't kill him. Instead, his bite infects Olgaren and causes him to act mad and be restrained.

This is when the crew truly becomes concerned with what is happening, as Clemens notices Olgaren has bite marks on him as Anna did. The next night they try to be more prepared for Dracula's emergence on the deck, but instead, he possesses Olgaren and uses him to chase Toby (Woody Norman) below the deck.

Toby hides in the captain's quarters, while Olgaren attempts to break in. However, Dracula himself is able to get into the quarters and bites Toby. While the rest of the crew arrives and stops Dracula from killing Toby, he is now infected.

The next morning, Olgaren is tied to the mast of the ship when the sun rises, causing him to burst into flames and die. When Toby does not respond to the blood transfusions that helped Anna recover, they prepare to give him a sea burial. But Captain Eliot refuses to believe Toby is dead, convinced he saw him move under the sheet. He removes the sheet and Toby does pop up, but possessed like Olgaren was. He bites the Captain and then bursts into flames from the sun. The crew quickly throws Toby overboard.

The next night, the ship's cook Joseph (Jon Jon Briones) attempts to flee on a lifeboat, but Dracula, now with his wings regenerated after feeding on the crew, flies out to him and kills him.

With only Clemens, Anna, Captain Eliot, Wojchek (David Dastmalchian) and Abrams (Chris Walley) still alive, they decide to sink the ship with Dracula on it and try to make their escape with one of the lifeboats. Using Anna as bait (she says Dracula's bite allows him to feel her, and she him), Wojchek and Abrams are in the crow's nest ready to open fire, while Clemens hides near Anna. However, a storm hits and Dracula uses it as cover to snuff out the plan, quickly killing Abrams and Wojchek. 

Anna and Clemens scramble, while Captain Eliot straps himself to the helm and tries to take the ship out to sea and away from the English coast, but Dracula kills him as well.

This just leaves Anna and Clemens, who fight Dracula, trying to wound him, but nothing seems to work. Anna then gets the idea to cut the support for one of the masts, bringing it down and trapping Dracula. With the monster pinned and the Demeter blindly being thrown in the storm, Anna and Clemens abandon ship.

The Demeter crashes along the coastline, just as we see in the movie's opening moments, but Dracula was able to free himself and make his escape.

At sea, Clemens and Anna float on some of the ship's wreckage. The sun is about to rise and Anna reveals to Clemens she is still infected by Dracula. Not having had a blood transfusion in a while, her eyes are beginning to look like Olgaren and Toby's did. Clemens says he can still save her, but Anna tells him that it's OK, it is her choice to die and end being under Dracula's terror. She pushes herself away toward the rising sun, bursting into flames as it hits her.

That only leaves Clemens as the sole survivor of the Demeter.

Is there going to be a The Last Voyage of the Demeter sequel?

The movie ends with Clemens is in London, asking around for information about where Dracula's cargo from the Demeter has been taken. While in a pub, Clemens says in voiceover that he will hunt Dracula down at all costs.

It is then that he hears a knock, knock, knock, just like what was used as a signal on the Demeter. He looks around but does not see where it is coming from. We see, however, that the knocking is coming from Dracula with his cane, sitting just a short distance away, taunting Clemens.

Dracula gets up to leave, continuing to knock. Clemens follows the noise outside, but does not see Dracula. Yet he continues to hear the knocking.

This scene appears to set up a potential sequel for the movie, where Clemens would continue his pursuit of the vampire. However, as of publication, a sequel has not been greenlit.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.