Wonder Woman 1984 Ending Explained [SPOILER!]

SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk!

Wonder Woman 1984 Plot Summary

A young Diana Prince participates in an athletic event on Themyscira against older Amazons. After falling from her horse, Diana takes a shortcut and remounts but misses a checkpoint. Antiope removes her from the competition, explaining anything worthwhile must be obtained honestly.

In 1984, Diana works at the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C. while secretly performing heroic deeds as Wonder Woman. New museum employee Barbara Ann Minerva, a shy, mousey geologist and crypto-zoologist, is barely noticed by her co-workers. Barbara eventually comes to envy Diana. Later, the FBI asks the museum to identify stolen antiquities from a robbery that Wonder Woman recently foiled. Barbara and Diana notice one item, later identified as the “Dreamstone”, contains a Latin inscription claiming to grant the holder one wish. Diana unknowingly wishes for her deceased lover Steve Trevor to be alive. Barbara wishes to become like Diana without realizing it gives her the same superpowers.

Failing businessman Maxwell Lorenzano, also known as Max Lord, visits the Smithsonian under the pretext of being a wealthy donor. He hopes to obtain and use the stone’s power to save his bankrupt oil company. At a Smithsonian gala, Diana is reunited with a resurrected Steve, whose soul inhabits another man’s body. Only Diana sees him as Steve Trevor. During the gala, Max tricks Barbara and steals the Dreamstone. He then wishes to “become” the stone and gains its wish-granting powers. Max becomes a wealthy and powerful figure who creates chaos and destruction as his powers trigger worldwide instability.

Barbara, Diana, and Steve discover that the Dreamstone was created by Dolos, the god of lies, treachery, deception, and mischief. It grants a user’s wish while exacting a toll unless they renounce the wish or destroy the stone. Although Diana’s power and Barbara’s humanity diminish, both are unwilling to renounce their wishes. Learning from the U.S. President of a satellite system that broadcasts signals globally, Max, whose powers are causing his body to deteriorate, plans to globally grant wishes to rid himself of his power and regain his health. Diana and Steve confront him at the White House, but Barbara, now aligned with Max, defeats Diana. She and Max escape on Marine One. Steve convinces Diana to renounce her wish and let him go, restoring her strength and gaining an ability to fly.

Donning the armor of Amazon warrior Asteria, Diana flies to the satellite headquarters and again battles Barbara, who has transformed into a cheetah-like creature after wishing to become an apex predator. After defeating Barbara, Diana confronts Max and uses her Lasso of Truth to communicate with the world through him, convincing everyone to renounce their wishes. She also shows Max visions: first of his own unhappy childhood, then of his young son, Alistair, who is frantically searching for his father amid the chaos. Max renounces his wish and reunites with Alistair.

The Ending

Sometime later, Diana meets the man whose body Steve possessed. Meanwhile, Asteria is revealed to be secretly living among humans.

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).

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