'The Green Mile' ending explained: All you need to know about the film's final moments

The Green Mile is a 1999 film directed by Frank Darabont and stars the likes of Tom Hanks, Sam Rockwell, Patricia Clarkson and the late Michael Clarke Duncan. The feature presentation is a book-to-screen adaptation of a novel by Stephen King of the same name. Here's what happens in the final few moments of the Frank Darabont directorial and what are its possible interpretations.

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The Green Mile Ending Explained

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The ending of The Green Mile sees Michael Clarke Duncan's John Coffey smiling in his final moments as he realizes that his special abilities will live on after him and hopes that the person who he has transferred it to will put it to good use. In the film, he can be seen serving justice to those who he felt deserved it and granting life to those who were, at some point in the movie, looking at death in the eyes. In order to answer the question, "Why did they kill John in The Green Mile?", it is because he was convicted of sexually assaulting two young girls, which, as the makers of the film reveal soon enough, is a crime committed by Sam Rockwell's "Wild Bill" Wharton. Duncan's John Coffey's execution is also informed by the fact that he was discovered with the corpses of the two girls by his side and their blood on his clothes. In a sense, the ending is supposed to highlight the prejudice, the bias that was held against people of African American descent during that time period.

What does John Coffey say at the end?

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The final few lines that come out of Coffey's mouth, seconds before his execution are, "He killed them with their love. That's how it is every day, all over the world". The executioner, at this point, flips the switch that causes Coffey's demise. His last words intend to reflect the reality of the world as perceived by him.

Does the mouse die at the end of Green Mile?

Both, the mouse, Mr. Jingles and the film's protagonist, Tom Hanks' Paul Edgecomb are discovered to be alive at the end of the movie. At this point in the film, Hanks' Edgecomb is all of 108 years old and has seen/lived a full life. One of the reasons why the two have survived for so long is because shortly before his death, John Coffey had transferred some of his special abilities to Edgecomb. Edgecomb, later on, passed some of Coffey's gift to Mr. Jingles.

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