Vesper ending explained: What happens with the seeds?

Since arriving on the streamer last week, the film has gone down a treat with subscribers, finding a place in the Top 10 and attracting many positive reactions online.

But some fans have noted that the final act of the film has left them feeling a little confused, and so with that in mind, you can read on to have the ending of Vesper explained.

Vesper ending explained

To get a proper handle on the ending, it's best to start by giving a reminder of the world that we find ourselves in during the film. Vesper is set in 'The New Dark Ages', a period characterised by failed genetic technology that had been introduced to stave off ecological disaster but had instead wiped out edible plants, animals, and much of the human population.

Survivors in this world must get by on a very limited supply of food, although there are some oligarchs who live in enclosed cities called 'citadels' and now control the means of production, using synthetic seeds that are coded to produce only one harvest.

13-year-old Vesper, an accomplished bio-hacker, has made it her duty to reverse the disasters facing humanity by conducting various experiments. She lives with her paralysed father Darius (Richard Brake), and also often visits her uncle Jonas (Eddie Marsan) – who works at an orphanage where he is supplying the blood of children to the Citadel and uses artificial humans called Jugs as a slave workforce.

One day, Vesper happens upon a crash-landed Citadel ship, where she rescues a young woman named Camellia (Rosy McEwen) and proceeds to heal her wounds. They then strike up a deal: if Vesper can help her find her missing fellow passenger Elias (Edmund Dehn), then Camellia will take her and Darius to the Citadel.

This plan is foiled when it emerges that Jonas has killed Elias, and when Vesper reveals this to Camellia she is distraught. The truth of their relationship then emerges: Camellia is actually an advanced Jug who had been designed by Elias, and they had been forced to escape the Citadel since making a sentient Jug is a crime.

This revelation gives Vesper an idea: using some seeds she had earlier stolen from Jonas and samples from Camellia, she conducts an experiment that she believes will "unlock" the seeds and allow them to become fertile, meaning the human population will no longer have to live on scraps from the Citadel.

Jonas, however, is not happy when he finds out what is going on and confronts Vesper and Camellia, who are able to initially overpower him. Later he calls the Citadel and informs them about Camellia, but when they arrive, they promptly kill him and move onwards to Vesper's house.

In the ensuing battle, both Darius and Camellia sacrifice themselves to allow Vesper to escape, and in her final act, Camellia informs Vesper that she does now have the means to change the world with the unlocked seeds.

Vesper is naturally devastated that her loved ones have died and initially decides to bury the seeds. However, she has a change of heart when she comes across some of the children from her uncle's orphanage, at which point she realises it is still her duty to save humanity.

And so in the film's final moments, she travels with the children to a tower where she releases the seeds in the wind, allowing them to spread and thus helping to end the starvation.

Vesper is streaming now on Netflix. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.

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