Finding Emily Ending, Explained: Does Owen Find the Right Emily?
How far would you go to track down someone you’ve fallen for? That question is central to Finding Emily, which involves an infatuated musician’s quest to find a girl he met at a nightclub and become a viral sensation in the process.
Along the way, Owen meets a psychology student (also named Emily) who decides to help him on his quest. But she isn’t exactly doing it out of the goodness of her heart: she is using him as a case study for her dissertation, which is all about love and self-sabotage.
Throughout rom-com Finding Emily, there are plenty of bumps in the road as the pair enact their hare-brained schemes, but how does the chaos end? Read on to find out, but be warned: there are spoilers ahead.
What Happens at the End of Finding Emily?
A lot happens in the final act of Finding Emily. First and foremost, Owen does indeed find Emily — although she’s actually called Amelie. She doesn’t reveal her identity because of how out of control everything got, but the pair still arrange a date.
Simultaneously, it’s clear that Emily (the psychology student) has feelings for Owen, but despite this, Emily finally submits her dissertation about Owen, which, again, he doesn’t know he’s the subject of.
After Owen’s date with Amelie is underwhelming, he goes to Emily’s flat and is let in to wait for her by her friend. Here, he goes into her room and discovers that he was her case study, leading to him cutting off contact with her.
Emily mopes around for a while, but ultimately decides to go on the student podcast to clear Owen’s name. This is because, after Owen pretended he got the Emilys’ emails by hacking into the university system, he was fired. However, Emily was actually the one who gave him the email addresses and encouraged him to send the emails.
As well as revealing her part in the chaos, she directly appeals to Owen to come to her dissertation presentation.
At the presentation, Emily publicly confesses her feelings for Owen, and also argues against her dissertation, which suggests that love is evolutionarily unnecessary. In doing this, she throws away her chance of getting a prestigious scholarship. Owen witnesses this, and ultimately, the two kiss and make up, becoming a proper couple.
Is Finding Emily Based On a True Story?
It’s not unreasonable to wonder if Finding Emily is based on a true story because of its realistic setting. However, it isn’t. The movie is an original story.
That being said, in an age of social media, I’ve certainly seen my fair share of people leverage apps like TikTok to track down someone they had a brief, sometimes romantic encounter with. In some cases, this has ended up going viral.
There are also Facebook pages like ‘Are We Dating The Same Guy’, which similarly allow people to use the hive mind of the Internet to track down someone they have a romantic attachment to — whether that be for good or bad reasons.
So, it’s possible that real-life elements like this inspired Finding Emily’s story, but we don’t know that for sure.
What to Watch Like Finding Emily
In terms of modern, quintessentially British rom-coms, if you liked Finding Emily, you’ll also love Rye Lane, which stars David Jonsson and Vivian Oparah. It’s a criminally underrated movie with the same kind of heart and British humour.
Finding Emily also rips on the manic pixie dream girl trope and the way men tend to idolise women they don’t actually know. In turn, a good movie to watch based on that trope would be (500) Days of Summer, which stars Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Zooey Deschanel.
There’s also the whole idea of a pair developing a very real bond under false pretences. Naturally, a classic like She’s All That, starring Rachel Leigh Cook and Freddie Prinze Jr., would be a good choice. Another film that fits this trope is 10 Things I Hate About You, a personal favourite of mine, starring Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles.
