The 2021 film has created a splash since landing on Netflix.
British indie movie Bull has become an unlikely favourite this summer, charging its way to the top of Netflix UK’s rankings.
Written and directed by Paul Andrew Williams, the film tells the story of Bull (Neil Maskell), a mob enforcer who returns home after a decade to find his estranged son and exact revenge on his father-in-law who is also the leader of a brutal gang.
Bull ferociously tears through his past life in order to get to his father-in-law and also save his son from heroin addiction. There are severed hands, fairground murders and enough torture to make Jigsaw wince.
Released in 2021, the film went somewhat under the radar due to Covid-19 ravaging the entertainment sector, leaving many independent films in purgatory. But now, thanks to Netflix, it’s reaching a new audience.
Those that did see the film upon its initial release had nothing but high praise for the searing thriller, which is not for the queasy or those that suffer from hemophobia.
Bull, of course, gets his revenge – murdering his ex-wife and father-in-law (shooting the former and suffocating the latter) before finding his son shooting up on heroin.
But what happens next – in a church – is a little bit more complicated, and if you’ve been left scratching your head over the ending of Bull, then you’re in luck: RadioTimes.com has assembled everything you need to know about the film’s finale. But be warned: spoilers follow.
Bull ending explained
Earlier in the film, we are shown a flashback to a fateful night where Bull is double-crossed by his wife and father-in-law. He is burned alive in front of his son with the gang believing him to be dead, which is why they’re so shocked when his vengeful rampage begins.
It’s witnessing this event that also turns his son towards heroin.
After finding his son, Bull takes him to a church and lays him at the altar until a vicar (Daniele Lydon) comes the next morning. They look at Bull and scream, scared that he has entered a place of God. We then see that Bull’s eyes have turned entirely black, as if he is the Devil. He asks the vicar for his son’s salvation and leaves, with the last shot being an image of Bull standing over a grave.
It’s the same grave we see in the film’s opening – presumably Bull’s grave. At the beginning of his underworld odyssey, Bull says he came from Hell, and the film’s ending implies this is literally true – that he made a deal with the Devil to save his son, adding a metaphysical tilt to what was up to that moment, a gritty story steeped in reality.
How did Bull survive?
Without stating so specifically, it is fair to assume that Bull was allowed out of Hell to avenge his murder after actually dying when he was set on fire by his father-in-law. Bull is really dead in every scene of the film (except the flashbacks) and has to return to Hell once his quest for revenge and salvation is over.
It would also explain why Bull seemingly comes from nowhere and why he bears no scars from the night he was set on fire. Bull also takes no notice of witnesses or the matter of leaving evidence behind during his murder spree, killing people in broad daylight and increasingly grisly fashion.
Bull is now showing on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £4.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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