SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
A live-action film based on the popular doll franchise, following Barbie as she explores different careers, lifestyles, and worlds.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Barbie Plot Summary and Synopsis
Stereotypical Barbie (“Barbie”) and fellow dolls reside in Barbieland; a matriarchal society with different variations of Barbies, Kens, and a group of discontinued models, who are treated like outcasts due to their unconventional traits. While the Kens spend their days playing at the beach, considering it as their profession, the Barbies hold prestigious jobs such as doctors, lawyers, and politicians. Beach Ken (“Ken”) is only happy when he is with Barbie and seeks a closer relationship, but Barbie rebuffs him in favor of independence and female friendships.
One evening at a dance party, Barbie is suddenly stricken with worries about mortality. Overnight, she develops bad breath, cellulite, and flat feet, disrupting her usual routines the next day. Weird Barbie, an outcast due to her disfigurement, tells her she must find the child playing with her in the real world to cure her afflictions. Ken stows away in her convertible to join her, to which Barbie reluctantly agrees.
Arriving at Venice Beach, the pair cause multiple antics and are briefly arrested. Alarmed by their presence, Mattel’s CEO orders their recapture. Barbie tracks down her owner, a tween girl named Sasha, who criticizes her for encouraging unrealistic beauty standards. Distraught, Barbie discovers that Gloria, a Mattel employee and Sasha’s mother, inadvertently catalyzed her existential crisis after Gloria began playing with Sasha’s old Barbie toys in a similar state. Mattel attempts to put Barbie in a toy box for remanufacturing, but she escapes with Gloria and Sasha’s help and the three travel to Barbieland with Mattel executives in pursuit.
Meanwhile, Ken learns about the patriarchal system and feels respected for the first time. Returning to Barbieland, he persuades the other Kens to take over, and the Barbies are indoctrinated into submissive roles, such as agreeable girlfriends, housewives, and maids. Barbie arrives and unsuccessfully tries to convince Ken and the Barbies to return to the way things were. She becomes depressed, but Gloria gives an inspirational speech about society’s conflicting expectations of women, restoring Barbie’s self-confidence.
With the assistance of Sasha, Weird Barbie, Allan, and the discontinued dolls, Gloria convinces the Barbies to free themselves from subordination. The Barbies manipulate the Kens into fighting amongst themselves, distracting them from enshrining male superiority into Barbieland’s constitution, and the Barbies regain power. Having now experienced systemic oppression for themselves, the Barbies resolve to rectify the faults of their previous society, emphasizing better treatment of the Kens and all outcasts.
Barbie and Ken apologize to each other, acknowledging their mistakes. Ken bemoans that he has no purpose without Barbie, so Barbie encourages him to find an autonomous identity. Barbie, who remains unsure of her own identity, meets with the spirit of Ruth Handler, Mattel co-founder and creator of the Barbie doll, who explains that Barbie’s story has no set ending and her ever-evolving history surpasses her roots.
After the Barbies, Kens, and Mattel executives bid Barbie goodbye, she decides to become human and return to the real world.
Barbie Ending
Sometime later, Gloria, her husband, and Sasha take Barbie, now going by the name “Barbara Handler”, to her first gynaecologist appointment.
Barbie Ending Explained
Barbie makes a big decision. Rather than remaining in Barbieland where she is perfect and every day is a great day, Barbie chooses to permanently become human. She is fully aware that living as a human means that she will eventually die. Yet Barbie takes her chances; she would rather live a life full of meaning and put something meaningful into the world than live forever as an idea.
Barbie Plot Twist
Ken (played by Ryan Gosling) becomes the villain of “Barbie”. As he ventures into the real world, he learns about patriarchy and embraces it, bringing it back to Barbieland. However, his plans for Kendom fail and Barbie helps him realize it’s okay to be vulnerable, lost and emotional.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).