Blood Red Sky ending explained: Does Nadja save her son?

Netflix’s latest entry into the horror genre, Blood Red Sky, bends the conventional rules and curates a vampire gore fest on a Transatlantic flight from Germany to New York.

The film opens with Transatlantic Airlines flight 473, undergoing an emergency landing on an RAF base in Scotland, while the military prepares for action, hinting at something dangerous on board.

As the plane lands, a young boy, Elias (Carl Anton Koch), jumps out of the cargo bay and is rescued by the authorities who assign a German translator to ooze out facts from him. The narrative then shifts to a flashback as Elias, back in Germany, checks in luggage at the airport.

His mother, Nadja (Peri Baumeister), arrives later and seems to be suffering from a cancer of sorts that doesn’t let her body make sufficient blood, forcing her to wear a wig and inject herself with potent medicine frequently. The duo are travelling to the US for her treatment.

Aboard the flight, a group of terrorists hijack the plane and murder any security forces personnel among the passengers. One of the hijackers, codenamed Eightball (Alexander Scheer), is a labelled psycho and threatens to kill anyone who disobeys him.

Meanwhile, their leader, Berg (Dominic Purcell), rounds up a few Muslim travellers and forces them to read out a fake confession to make it seem like the hijack is a religious terrorist attack. The hijackers, however, belong to different countries, and are in fact hired guns, using the incident to crash stock markets and influence political events.

Nadja instructs Elias to stay put and do as the men say but he tries to run off and hide in the cargo hold. She chases after him only to be cornered by Eightball, who shoots her in the torso just to set an example — a move which is ridiculed by his comrades.

Elias is distraught and is dragged back to his seat as he weeps, but surprisingly Nadja still shows signs of life. She crawls into the cargo bay unnoticed and ends up killing and drinking the blood of a dog down there. Eventually, one of the hijackers also enters the hold and a now bald, clawed, and fanged Nadja rips his throat open.

She changes clothes and makes her way back up to save Elias, but this time, she has vengeance on her mind and a thirst for human blood.

Does she manage to kill the perpetrators and save the flight?

Here is the Blood Red Sky ending explained in detail:

History of the curse

In a collection of flashbacks, we find out how Nadja transformed into a vampire in the first place. Years ago, she was on a trip with her husband Nikolai and a baby Elias when their car broke down in the middle of nowhere.

As Nikolai went to look for help on foot and didn’t return, she followed his path into a rickety old farmhouse, where she found her him dead. She was then attacked by a lethal vampire who she killed by blocking him out of the basement as the sun rose, but he managed to bite her before that.

She eventually transformed herself, and finding it difficult to resist human blood and worrying about hurting Elias, she returned to the place of the incident. Waiting for her there was an elderly vampire who tried to kill her for letting his son burn, but, she managed to overpower him.

She then chanced upon vials of vampire suppressant, which she took and burned down the property. It is then that viewers find out that the injections are for her to control her cannibalistic urges and physical transformations, while she also wears contacts and dentures to hide her true form.

However, back on the flight, tasting the blood of the dog and one of the terrorists, she starts physically transforming into her true self, but manages to restrain herself enough to lock Elias and herself in the cockpit with another passenger who can fly the plane (since the pilot is killed).

Chaos on board

While the hijackers, rig the plane with explosives and prepare to parachute out of the plane, Eightball notices the vial of vampire suppressant and the trail of blood leading back up to the plane. Confirming that the woman he shot is still alive, he rushes back and attempts to confront her.

Nadja refuses to open the cockpit door as the man flying the plane starts turning it around. Sensing that their mission may fail, Berg kills a passenger and threatens to kill more if they’re not let inside the cockpit. Refusing to let more innocents perish, Nadja leaps out and kills Berg while the others are shocked to see what they’re dealing with.

Everyone retreats but the psychotic Eightball uses a UV light to subdue Nadja and extracts her blood in a syringe. As he is about to stab her heart, Elias points a gun at him, and in the resultant tussle, a window is shot open, disrupting the air pressure.

The hijackers succeed in controlling the plane and reduce altitude to normalise the pressure as Eightball retreats to the cargo hold and injects himself with the blood, transforming into a vampire too.

What follows is complete chaos as the passengers, teaming up with Nadja try to fend off the murderous Eightball. Most end up dead while others transform into thirsty blood-sucking beasts.

The last stand

One of the passengers, Farid (Kais Setti) who Elias had befriended on the airport now steers the plane. Nadja realises that if the plane lands and the doors open, the vampires will wreak havoc and decides to sacrifice herself by blowing it up just as Elias is safely out. However, just as she makes Farid promise to take care of her son, Elias manages to grab the detonator before her.

Meanwhile Eightball fights and drains Nadja off her blood and turns his attention to Elias. Just as he is about to kill him, Farid turns the plane into the path of the rising sun, burning Eightball for good. The threat, however, still lurks and Elias uses his own blood to revive Nadja but she moves away from him, having fully transformed.

As the flight lands, the narrative shifts back to the air base and Elias and Farid are the only two human survivors. While the former warns the authorities to not enter the plane, they try to arrest Farid, thinking he’s one of the hijackers.

The soldiers retrieve him from the cargo hold too. Unfortunately, they do not pay attention Elias’ warnings, enter the plane, and are met with a swarm of vampires, resulting in a massacre.

Elias catches a glimpse of his mother drinking the blood of a soldier, and realises there is no saving her. He uses the detonator he had earlier stolen and triggers the explosion, killing everyone on board.

The film ends with Farid and Elias sharing an embrace.


Also Read: Jolt ending explained: Does Lindy get her revenge?

More from The Envoy Web