Eternity Ending Explained: Who Elizabeth Olsen Ultimately Chooses
Elizabeth Olsen anchors David Freyne’s Eternity with a gut-punch dilemma: will Joan chase the spark of her first love or stand by the man who shaped her life? One choice, a lifetime of consequences.
Spoilers ahead for Elizabeth Olsen's new one, Eternity. If you want to go in clean, bail now.
Here’s the hook: you die, and you have to pick who you’ll spend eternity with. Simple. Except Joan (Elizabeth Olsen) has two options. One is Larry (Miles Teller), the man she married and actually lived a whole life with. The other is Luke (Callum Turner), her first husband who died in the Korean War and has basically been waiting around in the afterlife for decades. Yes, it’s messy. Yes, it’s weirdly romantic. And yes, it gets complicated fast.
The setup
- Joan: Elizabeth Olsen, torn between a lifetime partner and a first love frozen in time
- Larry: Miles Teller, the husband of six decades who wants an actual decision
- Luke: Callum Turner, the wartime love who died young and never moved on
David Freyne directs, and the movie leans right into the afterlife logistics of all this. Joan tries to duck the choice entirely. At one point, she even decides to go it alone. She also floats a third option: skip both guys and spend infinity with her friend Karen. (Honestly, relatable.) But Larry isn’t letting it end in a non-answer. He pushes for a real decision.
The first choice... and the turn
Seeing how deliriously happy Joan and Luke were back then, Larry steps aside. He basically gives Joan permission to choose her first love. So Joan and Luke walk into their forever together, holding hands, off to a picture-postcard mountain setup.
And then reality sinks in. That young love was real, but Joan isn’t that person anymore. She realizes she chose wrong. Luke, in a genuinely gracious final act, helps her navigate the afterlife’s bureaucratic maze (think archives, records, the cosmic front desk) to find Larry. He’s tending bar. Joan and Larry reunite. That’s the forever she was meant for.
Why Olsen says Joan got it right
Elizabeth Olsen is firmly Team Larry. In an interview via USA Today, she said:
"I thought she needed to be with Larry."
Her take tracks with the movie: Joan had to actually try the Luke path to realize she’d changed. The person who loved Luke died with him; the person who lived an entire life chose Larry again and again — and that matters. Olsen also cops to being a bit of a romantic about it: there’s a kind of comfort in the chaos of the person who drives you up the wall but is still your person. In her mind, Joan’s final choice was the right one.
About that 'what if she chose neither' idea
Remember Joan’s plan to just peace out and spend eternity with Karen? That raises another question: if Joan had left both guys, would Larry and Luke have become pals out of sheer cosmic proximity?
Callum Turner told The Wrap that, sorry, but no. He gets why people might think exes of the same person could vibe — there’s a shared DNA to that connection — but in this story, a full-on Larry/Luke buddy ending wasn’t in the cards. Maybe in some alternate universe, they’re grabbing beers. Not here.
The bottom line
Eternity doesn’t just do the easy nostalgia trip. It drags the idea of soulmates into the daylight and asks if your forever person is the one who made your heart race at 22 or the one who held your hand at 82. Joan makes her choice — twice — and the second one is the one that sticks.
Eternity is an A24 release and is currently playing in theaters.