Enola Holmes ending explained: What did that final line actually mean?

Last week Netflix released Enola Holmes, its very own Sherlock movie. It’s shot straight into the number one place in the most watched list and in an interview, Millie Bobby Brown, who plays Enola Holmes, has explained exactly what the film’s inspiring ending line was meant to mean.

The film is all about Enola Holmes, who has lived in the shadow of her two older brothers – one being the detective Sherlock Holmes. When her mother disappears, Enola takes it upon herself to go on a mission to find her, whilst also avoiding her brother’s wishes of having her enrolled into a finishing school now her mother isn’t around. Enola discovers a lot about herself, and the world whilst she is away -most importantly that her name, which spells “alone” backwards, doesn’t actually mean she is best spending her life being lonely.

Here’s the ending of Enola Holmes explained, and exactly what the message behind the final line in the film is.

Millie Bobby Brown has explained the wider cultural message behind the ending line of Enola Holmes

At the end of the film and after her long trip of self-discovery as well as trying to discover her mother, Millie Bobby Brown’s character, Enola Holmes, says to the audience “the future is up to us” as she cycles off into the streets of London. But what does this even mean? Does it have a wider message to apply to modern day life? And what does it mean for Enola moving forward?

Speaking to Deadline, Millie Bobby Brown said: “To kind of touch on that idea, ‘the future is up to us’, I do feel ours is an amazing generation. And I know that many of my friends – and especially the kids on Stranger Things­ – we’re all very strong people and we haven’t necessarily had the most amazing role models in the generation above us, but we have had to find our own role models.

“I feel like our generation is specifically formed of very open-minded people, and we’re classed as new thinkers. We’re trying to be accepting of new things. For me, I love meeting new people, learning more about the world, and I’ve never been someone that’s incredibly into the idea of children sitting there and being quiet.

“All of my friends, we’re vocal about the things we feel passionate about, and that’s ultimately what’s going to change the world, I think. That’s what our generation is about, and that’s what our film is about.”

Millie then spoke about environmental activist Greta Thunberg as an example of young people not sitting back and listening to what’s happening in the world, but actively going out and trying to lead the change in it. She believes the film illustrates the new generation of people who don’t want to sit back and read the news, they want to be part of it and make a change – just as Enola did with her life.

She added: “[Enola is] not going to sit there and listen to people trying to find her mother. She’s going to do it herself. ‘Our future is up to us’ is something we’re all living by right now. It’s a message I’ll live by for the rest of my life, because if we don’t do anything about our world now, we’re going to have bigger complications in the future.”

“The things that you want to see change in, go and do it. This is what this film stands by. And it has a really, really big message.”

The film’s director Harry Bradbeer added that he thinks Enola’s final line “fills one with great hope” and that it is “one of the key messages” in the movie.

He told Deadline: “It wasn’t there in the original script, but we found it in the process, and when we found it, I realised we’d found the hope of the movie. I don’t need convincing of the fact that there are extraordinary young people out there who are giving me great hope in the future.

“So, when I wrote, ‘the future is up to us’, I wanted to leave it open-ended. We’re not saying everything’s going to be fine. We’re not saying Enola’s going to be fine. In fact, she bicycles into a London that’s going to damage her, and beat her up, and things are still going to be difficult for her. But what we’re saying is, it’s your responsibility. Don’t rely on others. Think for yourself and do the right thing.”

Enola Holmes is available on Netflix now. For all the latest Netflix news, drops and memes like The Holy Church of Netflix on Facebook. 

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