Slingshot Movie ending explained: Are Nash, Franks, and Zoe real?

Slingshot is a 2024 American science fiction psychological thriller directed by Mikael Håfström. Released on August 30, 2024, the film features Casey Affleck, Laurence Fishburne, and Emily Beecham. The storyline focuses on astronaut John, who wakes up from a hibernation cycle on a spacecraft called Odyssey 1 that is en route to Titan, a moon of Saturn.

The spacecraft's mission is to travel to Titan and collect a large amount of natural resources for Earth. John's reality collapses as he develops hallucinations and paranoia. John is convinced that the ship is under attack. The official synopsis of the movie says:

"A psychological thriller, SLINGSHOT follows an elite trio of astronauts aboard a years-long, possibly compromised mission to Saturn's moon Titan. As the team gears up for a highly dangerous slingshot maneuver that will either catapult them to Titan or into deep space, it becomes increasingly difficult for one astronaut to maintain his grip on reality."

John created Nash, Franks, and Zoe as figments of his imagination to comprehend his circumstances. They are merely his hallucinations.

At the same time, the ending teases that perhaps John was right in his belief that he was part of a psychological test, and his choice to step through the airlock was his way of escaping the nightmare he was living in.

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Explaining the ending of Slingshot movie (2024)

At the end of Slingshot, John's mental health starts to worsen after many cycles of hibernation and waking. He starts hearing voices, including Zoe, his girlfriend, requesting him to use an airlock to get off the spaceship.

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Hibernation side effects and preparing for the slingshot maneuver

Throughout the movie, John interacts with his crew members, Captain Franks, and aeronautics expert, Nash. John is unsettled by the effects of hibernation, to the point of forgetting his girlfriend Zoe's last name and hearing her voice faintly.

Nash reassures him that the powerful drugs used for hibernation are causing temporary side effects, and his memory will come back. After checking the ship’s systems, the crew confirms their course for the challenging slingshot maneuver around Jupiter, setting them toward Titan. John feels relieved after recalling how he met Zoe, and returns to sleep with the crew.

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Impact on the ship and mutiny plans

When John is knocked out by a ceiling panel, the crew figures out that the ship may have been compromised, even though the computers don't show any damage.

Nash is becoming more and more worried that the ship won't be able to make it through the next leg of their trip. He suggests that they should get back to Earth. John agrees to help, but only if they find clear evidence that the ship is compromised.

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Captain Franks’ interference and the slingshot maneuver

John and Nash get up early to carry out their plan to mutiny, but Captain Franks stops them since he knows what they are up to. John and Captain Franks go ahead with the slingshot maneuver around Jupiter, setting the crew on course for Titan. Nash's paranoia becomes more severe, and John starts to have hallucinations about Zoe.

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Nash's deterioration and reactor sabotage

When they wake up again, Nash's mental health gets a lot worse, and he claims that the reactor's performance will stop them from getting to Titan.

Captain Franks confirms that there is a problem with the reactor but accuses Nash of sabotage. Franks uses a handgun and forces Nash and John into hibernation so that they do not compromise the mission. However, before falling asleep, John notices that Frank may have killed Nash.

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John's hallucinations and Captain Franks' revelation

In the following awake cycle, Nash goes missing, and Captain Franks carries a gun everywhere, determined to prevent any disruption to the mission. John's hallucinations worsen, and he hears Zoe’s voice over the radio, while Captain Franks accuses John of losing his sanity.

Franks also reveals that Zoe was a psychological test and that John’s entire relationship with her was fabricated to assess his fitness for space travel.

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The truth is revealed: John has been alone all along

John questions Captain Franks, to know where Nash is. He checks Nash's status on the ship's computer after subduing Franks. The computer shows that John has been all by himself throughout the whole mission, hallucinating both Captain Franks and Nash.

John's real name is Captain John Nash Franks and his mind had been making up different personalities.

John calls Zoe on the short-distance radio as he needs to know what's going on. Zoe tells him that he is not in space but in an underground base in New Mexico.

A still from Slingshot. (Image via YouTube/@BleeckerStFilms)

He was deceived and kept in the underground facility to test the hibernation plan before the real space mission. The facility was damaged by an earthquake which caused a control issue and he was accidentally being given high doses of hibernation meds. Eventually, John is overdosed on drugs, resulting in his worsening mental health. Zoe tells John that if he leaves the simulation through the airlock, the company will have to fetch him.

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The final decision: Reality or Hallucination?

As John gets ready to leave through the airlock, Captain Franks tells him that everything Zoe said could have been a dream. John still decides to leave because he believes Zoe's story. He comes out of the airlock into what looks like an underground facility. However, he realizes that he has been hallucinating Zoe and is still in space as he gets closer to an emergency exit.

John’s hallucinations form a significant part of the movie’s narrative. The film explores how prolonged isolation and hibernation cycles, combined with the psychological pressures of space travel, can distort reality. The ending, where John realizes he has been hallucinating before being sucked into space, brings a powerful conclusion to the sci-fiction thriller.