Did the climax of 65 leave your brain saurus? Here's a look at all the events leading up to
the nail-biting ending of 65, and how it all came together. Spoilers ahead!
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, co-writers of the first A Quiet Place film,
deliver their third directed feature together with 65, a sci-fi action thriller that sees the
future collide with the past. The film follows Mills, a pilot whose mission to transport people
is upended after asteroids damage his ship, causing him to crash on an unknown planet.
"We've crash landed on an uncharted celestial body."
Although Mills has no idea where he is, the film tells us that he has landed on Earth — albeit 65
million years ago when dinosaurs roamed the land and human civilization was nowhere in sight. With
few options, Mills grabs Koa -– a young girl who's the only other survivor -– and begins traversing
these dangerous lands in the hopes of reaching the other half of his ship to possibly escape.
While it might seem strange to see a futuristic soldier like Mills stuck in the middle of a
prehistoric world, the film does delve into how he got there. Mills is actually from a
distant planet whose people act and speak like human beings. The film never clarifies
what species or race Mills people exactly are, so it's safe to assume that they must be humans too.
Mill's people are so advanced that they've been able to develop the sophisticated technology and
weapons that ultimately help him survive. Even with those tools, though, Mills faces
fierce opposition from both the environment and creatures he's forced to fight against, leading
to him nearly losing his life on more than one occasion. 65 is truly a future meets past scenario
that pits futuristic tech against prehistoric beasts to see who's really dominant.
Throughout the film, there is an obscure red-looking entity in the sky that seems
like it's drifting closer to Earth. Koa is the first to see it when she
notices a weird light phenomenon above her. However, when Mills sees it sometime later,
it looks much more ominous and massive. At first, you can't help but hope that maybe
it's just the rescue transport Mills called for coming down to Earth, but once Mills is able to
get an actual read on what this strange entity is, it's much worse than expected.
Mills' scanner says that it's actually a gigantic meteor with the mass to cause
cataclysmic destruction once it impacts Earth. Perhaps you are familiar with the idea that the
dinosaurs were killed by a massive asteroid that caused a mass extinction event? Well, this is that
meteor — and it surprisingly has a stronger connection to Mills' current situation. The
asteroid cluster that Mills encountered earlier, which ultimately caused the ship to crash,
actually came from this world-ending meteor, and it looks like it's coming to finish the job.
This meteor adds new stakes to Mills and Koa's escape and plays a big role
in making the finale of 65 super intense and visually stunning.
Mills crashing into this rough survival situation has a deeper effect on him than initially expected
and hints at a secret he hides throughout the film. Once he's able to get up after the crash,
he sees that nearly all the passengers are dead and that half of his ship is missing. Even worse
is that the part of the ship containing the escape pod is nowhere in sight, which means that there's
virtually no way off the planet. After his first few steps outside, Mills also sees how dangerous
the environment truly is. Rather than try to survive, he looks like he's ready to end things.
While he attempts to call for help at first, he eventually just tells them that he isn't
worth looking for and prepares to end his own life right then and there. However,
he soon finds Koa, and she gives him a reason to keep going. Given how harsh this environment is
and how vicious the creatures are, it's hard not to blame Mills for thinking that things are over.
It later becomes clear that Mills' hopelessness stems from the death of his daughter, Nevine.
Mills' willingness to accept his fate after the crash is the first moment that hints at that.
Mills' relationship with Koa starts on some rocky ground. Their inability to communicate — because
they don't speak the same language — makes for some frustrating moments between the two. However,
Mills eventually warms up to Koa because he sees her as something more than just a
helpless survivor — he almost begins to see her as a surrogate daughter. While
it at first appears to annoy Mills, he definitely appreciates Koa's interest
in learning about his daughter through video messages. They watch a hologram
of her together in the cave and it feels like a real bonding moment between them.
Ultimately, Mills and Koa have some real father/daughter energy in some of their
more light-hearted moments together. It's these moments, which connect back to Mills' daughter
and the way that he does everything he can to protect her, that make it clear that he sees
his daughter in Koa. Plus, once we learn that Mills already knows that his daughter is dead,
it becomes obvious that he's trying to make up for what he couldn't do for Nevine.
The vicious dinosaurs in 65 are certainly enough to make surviving in this world a
daunting task for Koa and Mills, but it's far from the only thing they have to worry about.
"Run!"
While the big creatures are tough to deal with on their own,
there are also some big nasty bugs that cause the pair some trouble in their
journey. There's a gut-wrenching moment when one of the bugs crawls down Koa's
throat while she's sleeping that is sure to leave a massive knot in your stomach.
Unfortunately, the environment is just as deadly as the creatures they find in it. As Mills learns,
it's very easy to walk into deadly tar fields or quicksand. Mills and Koa's cave exploration nearly
proves fatal when a cave-in occurs. Of course, there's also the geyser field that Mills first
comes across after landing on the planet, which spews water so hot that it could melt skin.
Koa's main concern throughout the film is finding her parents. Mills initially
tells her that her parents are at the top of the mountain where the escape pod is,
but he only tells her this to get her to go on the journey with him. In reality,
Mills knows that her parents are dead and only tells her otherwise to keep her motivated.
"We need to get you to your family." "Family."
There's even a point where Mills becomes so frustrated by their situation and
language barrier that he tells her that he lied. Unfortunately, since Koa can't understand him,
she still doesn't know that her parents are dead until she finds the destroyed escape pods.
This realization that Mills has lied about her parents being dead understandably hurts
her and she becomes furious with him. For Koa, the journey to the ship likely feels like it was
for nothing now, and part of her would rather just stay on the planet and die rather than go
on without her parents. It's a tough moment for Koa, and it almost seems like she's not
going to go along with Mills to leave Earth. When Koa gets angry at Mills for lying about her
parents, he decides it's a good time to tell her about what really happened to his daughter Nevine.
When Mills first left, his daughter was set to go through a procedure that would cure her of a
mysterious illness. This procedure would be paid for by this transport job Mills was completing
when he crash landed on Earth. Although he would be away from his daughter for two years while
completing the trip, at least she would be healthy when he returned. Unfortunately, Nevine died
while he was out doing this job — which means Mills never got to see her again after he left.
The death of Mills' daughter is hinted at throughout the film,
and there are some key moments that show Mills' frustration. As noted earlier,
his willingness to accept his fate at the start of the film shows the lingering pain he has from
his daughter's death. The video messages from her also start to take a dour turn that matches the
gut-wrenching feelings of some of the dreams Mills has about her. Further, the way Mills views Koa as
a daughter and how he protects her also make more sense once it's clear that his daughter is gone.
Mills eventually opens up to Koa about his lingering pain and how he felt that protecting her
was a way for him to feel like he did something right. This admission helps Koa forgive Mills,
and she decides to continue on with him to try and return to their home.
"I need to get us home." Now that Koa and Mills have
unpacked some of their emotional baggage with one another, they have little time
to spare. Fragments of the meteor are crashing all over the place, and there isn't much time
left until the meteor collides with Earth. They quickly hop into the escape craft and
start the launch sequence. Unfortunately, the fragments begin to impact the mountain
they're on and cause the terrain to collapse, sending the ship hurtling toward the ground.
Miraculously, not only are Koa and Mills somehow not dead from that violent crash,
but the escape pod is also still seemingly operable. However,
it's been flipped upside-down. As they scramble to deal with the inverted spacecraft, they soon
realize they have bigger problems on their hands — two giant dinosaurs are approaching them,
creating a deadly predicament. Although safety seems right in their grasp, this meteor once
again causes Mills and Koa problems that could put the final nails in their coffins.
Mills and Koa have a lot on their plate — an unflyable ship, a giant meteor racing towards
them, and two dinosaurs looking to gobble them up — so Mills springs into action. He's able
to distract the two dinosaurs away from the ship, but his gun is malfunctioning which
leaves him a sitting duck. Everything seems hopeless again, but Koa is able to show him
a hologram of his daughter that motivates him to kill the two dinosaurs. Even better, one of
the dinosaurs has actually reoriented the ship by slamming into it, which means it can fly again.
However, before they can escape, the dinosaur Mills has wounded approaches
them seeking revenge. To protect Koa, Mills sacrifices himself to lead the dinosaur away
from the ship towards the hot geysers he came across at the start of the film. At first,
the geysers don't seem to do much damage to the dinosaur, and Mills' wounded leg
makes him easy prey. Luckily, Koa is there to rescue him by stabbing the dinosaur in the eye
with the makeshift weapon she crafted earlier. This causes the beast to fall into the geyser,
where the intense heat causes its skin to melt and ultimately kills it.
Having killed the dinosaur, Mills and Koa have one last thing to do — escape! With the
world-ending meteor nearing impact and Mills severely injured, there's no time to waste.
Koa helps Mills back to the escape ship and Mills launches the ship. They narrowly fly into space,
just missing the meteor, and make their escape from this prehistoric hellscape.
Mills and Koa even get some satisfaction knowing that all the dinosaurs that have
been hunting them down have been wiped out by the meteor and will no longer roam Earth.
Mills and Koa's fates are never truly revealed, but they should be heading to
the interception point, which implies that they will be rescued. Throughout the end credits,
the film even shows what happens after the meteor causes the extinction of the dinosaurs
and the evolution that eventually leads to human civilization. Although the climax of 65 kept Mills
and Koa on the run and near death the entire time, they finally have a moment of well-earned rest.