'Brick's twisty ending, explained

You can't beat a good claustrophobic sci-fi about a group of characters trapped in a strange place, and on this front Netflix's Brick delivers.

Taking a bizarre metallic wall as its starting point, writer/director Philip Koch's mystery is filled with twists, turns, and an intriguing ending that's worth a bit of further discussion.

So what exactly happens at the end of Brick, and what does it all mean? We've broken it down below.

What's Brick about?

The premise is simple and compelling: A struggling couple, Tim (Matthias Schweighöfer) and Liv (Ruby O. Fee), wake one morning to discover that their apartment has been completely encased in a black wall. They can't leave through the front door or the windows, their water isn't working, and they no longer have phone signal. The pair's only choice is to drill through into the apartment next door, and then ultimately start burrowing down to the basement, in the hope of finding a way out.

On their journey through the apartment building, Tim and Liv meet various neighbours in the same predicament. One of these is conspiracy theorist Yuri (Murathan Muslu), who's staying in the apartment of his recently deceased friend Anton (Josef Berousek) — a programmer who works for local defence company, Epsilon Nanodefense, and whose pacemaker appears to have given out at some point after the wall came down. Epsilon Nanodense was ravaged by a fire the night before the wall appeared, and Anton believed the two events were connected.

After discovering that the recently refurbished apartment block has been kitted out with hidden ceiling cameras, the characters discover that Anton had managed to figure out a way to open the black wall before he died — and that it was actually Yuri who killed him, because he believes the wall has been put in place to protect them from outside contamination.

Yuri is the only character that doesn't want to leave. Credit: Sasha Ostrov / Netflix

What happens at the end of Brick?

The characters die one by one in a variety of creative ways, until finally it's just Tim and Liv left. Tim, with his own coding knowledge, is able to recreate the app Anton built to open the wall, figuring out that the wall responds to a specific sequence of light flashes. Using hidden camera footage of Anton they work out the sequence of these flashes and open a section of wall in the basement, overpowering Yuri when he reappears to try and stop them from leaving the building.

Escaping to the surface, Tim and Liv are greeted by a disturbing sight — every single nearby building is encased with the same black wall that was trapping them. The streets are deserted. As Tim and Liv climb into their van and start driving, a news broadcast comes over the radio.

"...state of emergency in Hamburg," read the announcers. "It has now been confirmed that the fire at Epsilon Nanodefense triggered a serious malfunction that activated a secret defense system. It remains unclear whether the fire was natural or an act of sabotage. People who have been able to reach safety are strongly advised to stay together."

In the final shot above the city we see that every building in the area is encased in the same wall, while emergency helicopters and planes fly overhead.

What was the deal with the hidden cameras?

The cameras were essentially a red herring that proved useful to the plot. They were installed by the creepy owner of the apartment block, Mr Friedman (Alexander Beyer), who also had a hidden room in his own apartment that he could use to monitor his tenants.

Although the characters initially think the cameras are connected to the wall, it turns out that they're completely unrelated.

Is the outside world contaminated?

Contaminated? No. Unsafe? Possibly. The ending of Brick makes the origin of the wall pretty clear, but the cause of the fire at Epsilon Nanodense that leads to the wall spiralling out of control is still a little murky.

The key line in that radio broadcast is, "It remains unclear whether was the fire was natural or an act of sabotage."

Turning a wall meant for defensive purposes into a weapon would be a pretty effective means of attack, so it does seem possible that the fire could be manmade. But we won't know for sure unless Brick gets a sequel.

Brick is streaming now on Netflix.