‘Eternity’ Ending, Explained: Who Does Joan Choose?
David Freyne's Eternity (2025) is a unicorn of a romantic comedy that touches on familiar tropes and plays with nuanced narratives in a way that's wholly refreshing. Until the very end, the story keeps us on our toes with Joan's choice, but not for the sake of dangling the audience in a frustrating attempt to subvert expectations. Instead, it explores real human emotions through grief, similar to a show like The Good Place (2016) and Ghosts (2021) that touch on second chances in the afterlife. It's honest and vulnerable, while still being laugh-out-loud funny, allowing the whole movie to be a thoughtful map of agency.
Elizabeth Olsen delivers one of her best performances, allowing every moment in the movie to feel earned, heartfelt, and deeply human. Her choices aren't easy ones to make, yet, how she comes to them is what makes the movie a glowing success that's now streaming on Apple TV.
Who Does Joan Choose In ‘Eternity’?
The riveting part about Joan's choice is that even if it's expected for people who watch and read the genre often, it's still earned. And a large part of this reason is that Eternity spends ample time with both Callum Turner's Luke and Miles Teller's Larry. In less than two hours, the story builds on both relationships, not by telling us about the different bonds she's shared with both men, but by showing us.
First, as Larry points out, the fact that her hair is different in the afterlife, it must indicate that she was happiest when she was with Luke. Since these are rules that are actively set up in this universe, it makes it a no-brainer for us to momentarily believe that maybe he has a point. After all, she cut her hair off in her grief after Luke's death, then that must indicate the depth of her happiness and love for him to an enormous degree. But as their time in their chosen afterlife showcases, Joan's still searching—wandering back into the memory tunnel, reliving all her memories with Larry over and over again. This also doesn't mean she loved Luke any less or that she would've fallen out of love if he'd survived, but it's bigger than that, touching on the absence of ordinary moments in their lives that would've proven the kind of couple they could be.
Because the movie actively allows us to see all of Joan's emotions, and because Elizabeth Olsen is so expressive, it's straightforward to understand that the realization she's coming to isn't one that's driven by regrets, but a real sense of agency in her means of finding herself again through this journey. Interestingly, Eternity never paints any of the men as villains in order to allow us to immerse ourselves fully in Joan's headspace. Both Luke and Larry love her more than anything, but the agency, even in the afterlife, belongs solely to her.
That's why, when Joan finally chooses Larry, she chooses for herself. She doesn't choose based on the location they'll spend their afterlife in, but she chooses based on the person she wants to continue to live with in every lifetime. She chooses what she wants, based on her own emotions, and no one else's observations of her relationships but her own.
Why Joan's Choice Makes Perfect Sense For the Romance Genre
People who typically don't engage with the romance genre as intimately quickly dismiss formulaic endings as being "a cliche" or "predictable." But it's not about the ending, it's about the execution. A murder mystery has to conclude with us solving the murder at the end, doesn't it? And just because some eagle-eyed viewers can gather clues and piece together who the culprit will be doesn't make the story predictable. It simply means that the viewer is paying attention.
In Eternity, so much of this version of the afterlife is about human choices. These characters might not have chosen their deaths, but they can certainly choose how to move on afterward. They can choose forever. And the detail that makes the movie so deeply endearing as a romantic comedy is that Joan's choice is completely hers. In choosing Luke, she was, in some ways, taking Larry's advice. She let him show her an out, while he chose to be selfless in order to ensure her happiness.
But in the time spent with Luke again, Joan recognizes that it's not about, "One happy moment, it's a million. And it's bickering in the car and supporting someone when they need it, and it's growing together." It's not about their memories before his death; it's about the ordinary moments they never lived through. It's about trying to get back to Larry, even if it means she can be stuck in a void for all eternity.
In order for a romance to stick the landing, viewers need unmistakable proof that this love story will endure. They need to believe that the couple isn't just going to be happy for now, but for as long as it's possible. The stakes matter as much as the love does, and Eternity never once shies away from exploring the stakes, even in some artificial place where everything is presumably rainbows and butterflies. That's why every moment of it is earned, rewarding, and comforting.
