In Run Rabbit Run, a mother grows concerned about her daughter, who seems to remember her past life. The movie is now streaming on Netflix.
Warning: This article contains heavy spoilers
Plot summary
Sarah wakes up from a grim dream. It’s her daughter’s birthday, and she has prepared surprises and arranged a party for her in the evening.
Sarah’s family recently lost Sarah’s father. Sarah’s daughter, Mia, is bummed out that everyone is coming to her party except for her grandpa this time.
After bringing Mia back from school, Mia and Sarah notice their garage door open. Mia’s mood lightens up when she finds a mysterious white rabbit nearby. While she is happy to see this rabbit, thinking it’s a gift, Sarah feels uncomfortable about having it.
In the evening, after the party, Sarah shows the rabbit a way to escape. However, the rabbit bites her when she attempts to throw it out. Mia notices this exchange from their house’s balcony.
The next day, Mia distances herself from her mother and shows no love to her. She also starts wearing a homemade pink rabbit mask, which she refuses to take off, and starts acting strange.
Sarah once finds Mia acting as if she is locked inside a room. For some reason, Mia also longs for Joan, her grandmother, and gets nosebleeds from time to time.
For a school project, Mia asks for images of Joan. Sarah promises to find one for her in her father’s boxes. When Sarah opens her father’s box, she looks at her photo with her sister, Alice. Mia shows up out of nowhere, claiming that she has been looking for this picture. She also says it’s her photo.
Sarah tries to keep Mia away from that picture. Mia, on the other hand, keeps demanding to see Joan. Sarah eventually takes her to the facility where Joan is admitted.
Joan is suffering from dementia, and when she first meets Mia, she recognizes her as Alice, forcing Sarah to take Mia away from Joan. Mia’s hatred for her mother grows.
Sarah discovers dark drawings of Mia that are of a person and a rabbit. Sarah wonders if Mia is sick. Sarah’s ex-husband, Pete, advises Sarah to take Mia to Joan if that’s all she wants.
Sarah instead decides to communicate with her daughter. She takes Mia to her childhood home, which is in the middle of a desert, and finally tells her about Alice. Apparently, Alice went missing when she was 7. Upon hearing Alice’s story, Mia deduces that she is probably Alice, who has now come back to life.
The next time they visit Joan, Mia goes mad when Joan recognizes her as Sarah’s daughter now. Back at Sarah’s childhood home, Sarah fulfills Mia’s wishes by telling her more about Alice.
She mentions that she and Alice used to fight a lot. Alice loved animals and didn’t like her father hunting rabbits down and Sarah helping him.
Mia continues to overreact to Alice’s stories and act as if she is Alice. A troubled Sarah gets rid of the old pictures at her house and puts them in the cabinet in a barn near their house, which is full of rabbit traps.
The next day, she also plans to sell her childhood home. Sarah’s dreams continue to haunt her. Similarly, even Mia dreams of something nightmarish. Sarah starts seeing things and almost hurts her own daughter.
Run Rabbit Run ending explained in detail:
What had really happened to Alice?
Once Mia falls asleep peacefully, Sarah notices the barn’s door thudding. She opens the cabinet inside the barn, and out comes a little Alice, who claims that Sarah locked her inside.
Sarah attacks Alice using a rabbit trap. Mia sees all of this. She runs toward her house and locks herself inside her room.
Sarah keeps banging on the door, wanting to apologize, believing it’s Alice inside. She hits herself and falls unconscious. A flashback scene reveals that Sarah chased Alice just like this when they were young.
Locking Alice inside the cabinet in the barn and hitting her with a rabbit trap had all happened. Sarah chased Alice to a cliff and pushed her off it.
Is Mia dead?
When Pete arrives at Sarah’s childhood home, Sarah is lost, drawing on the floor. She comes to her senses when she hears Pete’s voice and him knocking on the door.
They find Mia missing and start looking for her in the desert and around the cliff. Sarah fears that she may have pushed her daughter off the cliff.
In the waters, Sarah sees a body floating and jumps in. She sees Alice inside. Pete comes from behind and saves Sarah, who seems to be saving nobody. After coming out of the waters, Sarah notices Mia all alone nearby. She is safe and was hiding.
What happens to Mia?
After this incident, Sarah visits her mother, who always hoped that Alice would return one day. While she lets her mother know that Alice is dead, she doesn’t tell her that she is responsible for her death.
Back at her childhood home, Sarah apologizes to Alice for hurting her and lying to their mother. Alice calls Sarah a monster, and Sarah admits that she is.
In the morning, when Sarah wakes up, she finds Mia missing. From the window, she sees Alice taking Mia to the cliff from where Sarah pushed Alice off, possibly to kill Mia the way Sarah killed Alice.
Whether this scene is supernatural or just part of Sarah’s hallucinations is open for debate. Throughout the film, it is hinted that Sarah could be hallucinating about Mia’s nosebleeds and injuries, and most probably Alice’s presence too, as Mia once finds her fighting nobody in Sarah’s childhood home’s barn.
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