The Beast (2023) ending explained: Why did Gabrielle scream at the end?

The Beast (La Bête in French) is a French-Canadian movie that blends elements of science fiction and romantic drama to tell the tale of a world dominated by Artificial Intelligence. Written and directed by Bertrand Bonello, the film premiered at the esteemed 80th Venice International Film Festival on September 3, 2023.

Following its release at the film festival, the movie was theatrically released in France, Canada, and the United States earlier this year.

The premise of The Beast is set in 2044 when Artificial Intelligence is experiencing a boom. The film sees AI taking over human jobs and its sudden popularity has resulted in the creation of a parallel DNA purification market. The highly guided process makes humans less emotional and more AI-like, allowing them to perform better in an industry that values these traits.

The Beast's central character, Gabrielle, portrayed by Léa Seydoux is one of the people who goes through this purification process. She makes several visits to the center at the beginning, hoping to be transformed into a less emotional version of herself. There, she meets Louis, whom she is instantly attracted to and he becomes an important part of her journey to her past lives, which is part of the purification process.

When the course is finally completed Gabrielle realizes that she is one of the few people who did not respond to the process. She reaches out to Louis and finds out that he too had undergone the process of DNA purification. However, unlike her, the procedure had worked on him. It is at this moment that Gabrielle lets out a scream after she realizes that Louis is no longer the emotional being she had met in her past lives.

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Gabrielle realizes that the DNA purification process has not worked on her

When the DNA purification process is completed, Gabrielle realizes that she is one of the few people on whom the process did not work. One of the reasons behind this could be Gabrielle's doubts and agitation concerning the same.

Although she wanted to transform into an AI version of herself and be more efficient, she was constantly wary of losing complete touch with her emotions. This fear accelerated when she met Louis in both her past lives. She was also happy for a brief moment when the procedure did not work on her but was broken when she learned that Louis had been impacted by it.

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Gabrielle realizes that Louis is no longer in touch with his emotions in The Beast

After going through the DNA purification process in The Beast, Gabrielle realizes that although her DNA isn't purified Louis' is. She learns this when the entire process has come to an end and she meets Louis at a club.

Unaware that Louis had gone forward with the process, Gabrielle greets him as usual. However, she is surprised when he claims to have heard Roy Orbison's Evergreen with her several times when it was first released. This revelation makes Gabrielle realize that Louis also went forward with the procedure as she recalled hearing the song with him in one of their past lives during her purification process.

This shatters all the hopes that Gabrielle had concerning Louis as she realizes he is no longer the emotional being she met during one of her journeys to her past life.

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The Beast is a commentary on changing times

The makers of The Beast take viewers on a journey across decades of changing times through the usage of the DNA purification trope. The aspect of change is most starkly depicted through Louis' character portrayed by George MacKay.

While Louis is a common man romantically attracted to Gabrielle in one of his past lives, in another, he is an incel with severe stalking tendencies.

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The Beast is available to stream on MUBI and Apple TV.