“Presence” Ending, Explained: Who Is the Ghost Haunting Chloe’s Family — and What Does It Want?

Steven Soderbergh’s latest film, Presence, is a ghost story like no other, anchored by its shocking ending that finally puts all the pieces together.

In Presence, which premiered Jan. 24, a family moves into a new house for a fresh start after their daughter Chloe (Callina Liang) loses her best friend Nadia to a drug overdose. But the teenager quickly realizes that their new home is inhabited by a presence. Even more interestingly, the entire film is shot from the spirit’s perspective, putting a new twist on the paranormal genre.

In the beginning, only Chloe can sense it, which a medium later says may be because of her recent traumatic experience of losing her best friend. The rest of her family, including her mom Rebecca (Lucy Liu), dad Chris (Chris Sullivan) and brother Tyler (Eddy Maday), don’t notice anything and think Chloe is simply in pain after Nadia's death.

Leading up to the film's last moments, the family calls in a spiritual medium who gives them some advice that later becomes important during the movie’s twist ending.

So, how does Presence end and who is the spirit? Here’s everything to know about the horror film's shocking final minutes.

What leads up to the ending of Presence?

While Chloe is mourning the death of her friend, her mom is also wrapped up in legal trouble, which the film implies might be some form of fraud or embezzlement. Because of this stress, Chloe's parents are often distracted by their own lives and not paying attention to her worries.

Everything changes one night when the family is in the living room, and Tyler brags about a horrific prank he and his friends played on a girl at school, sharing nude images of her, which forced her to change schools. After Chloe calls him out, Tyler starts to berate her.

Enraged, the spirit goes upstairs to his room and begins to cause poltergeist activity like breaking shelves, throwing objects and tearing down posters. This is the first time the entire family sees the ghostly activity and finally believes Chloe's claim that a spirit is present in their house.

Tyler also becomes friends with the troubled and angsty Ryan (West Mulholland), who initially tries to convince Chloe that he’s a good guy but then attempts to drug her by spiking her drink with Rohypnol, commonly known as the “date rape drug.” Luckily, the presence sees what’s happening and knocks the drink off the table.

What does the medium say in Presence?

Towards the end of the movie, the family calls in a medium named Lisa (Natalie Woolams-Torres) to learn about the presence in the house. The second she walks in the door, the spiritual practitioner looks directly at the spirit and gasps, then quickly avoids eye contact as she walks through the house.

In the living room, Lisa sees an old mirror hanging above the fireplace. She senses something within it and tells the family that old mirrors hold a lot of power, “like old people.” The medium says old mirrors have seen so much and hold a lot of wisdom so when she touches it, she becomes overwhelmed with emotion and nearly faints.

After this close call, Lisa has some idea of what the presence is feeling. She says the spirit is stuck and confused: it doesn’t know why it’s in the house but knows it has a purpose.

The medium also says that time moves differently in the afterlife. Past, present and future all flow together and can even converge — so the presence isn’t just confused about why it’s there, but it’s also unaware of when in time it exists.

The next day, Lisa returns and speaks to Chris in the driveway, telling him that she had a dream which told her that the spirit’s purpose has something to do with a closed window.

What happens at the end of Presence?

In the climax of Presence, Rebecca and Chris leave to seek legal counsel for her undisclosed criminal activity. Knowing that their parents are gone, Tyler invites Ryan over, which quickly proves to be a big mistake. Ryan drugs Tyler and then prepares Chloe another Rohypnol-laced drink.

As she begins to pass out, Ryan climbs on top of her and pulls out a small roll of cellophane, covering her mouth and nose. As Chloe starts to suffocate, he pulls it off, letting her gasp for air, before covering her nose and mouth again.

Ryan also reveals to Chloe that Nadia didn’t die from an overdose, he killed her in the same way he’s about to kill her. The presence attempts to stop Ryan and when it realizes this isn't possible, the spirit flies downstairs to Tyler and tries to wake him up by flickering the lights, blowing in his ear and pushing on him.

As Tyler begins to regain consciousness, he realizes that Ryan is gone and senses something is wrong. Still groggy, he races upstairs to Chloe’s room and sees Ryan on top of his sister. Tyler runs into the room and shoves Ryan so hard that the two fall into the nearby window, smashing through it, and falling to their deaths.

Who is the spirit in Presence?

All the pieces come together in the very last minutes of the movie as the family is mourning the loss of Tyler. Viewers see Chloe grabbing the last item from her closet in her now-empty room, showing that they are moving out of the house. She walks downstairs and sees her mom before heading outside.

Rebecca takes another minute to stay in the house clearly sensing something. For the first time in the film, she is finally able to recognize the spirit’s presence. Rebecca follows it into the living room and up to the old mirror hanging above the fireplace.

When she looks at its surface, she sees her son Tyler. Rebecca falls to the ground in tears, screaming, “He came back to save her!” — realizing that the entire time, the presence was her own son.

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