'A Different Man' Ending Explained: What happens to Sebastian Stan at the restaurant? (2025)

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A Different Man

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One of Sebastian Stan’s 2024 awards-season movies has a familiar ending, even without it playing out on screen: At the end of The Apprentice, Donald J. Trump has grown into his chintzy but undeniable real-estate power, and eventually parlays that huckster energy into the presidency, as various pieces from the back half of the film (including reference to “Make America Great Again”) fall into place. In retrospect, it makes sense that this was the film that ultimately scored Stan an Oscar nomination; his other prestige picture, A Different Man, takes a far less straightforward path to its eventual ending, though perhaps just as fixated on self-image.

A Different Man plot summary:

A Different Man has the makings of both an ironic comedy and a devastating tragedy: Stan plays Edward, a man living with neurofibromatosis, a condition that obscures his face with large but non-cancerous tumors, and hoping to make a living as an actor. When a miracle procedure cures him of the condition, Edward – now boasting a traditionally handsome face, which is to say he looks like Sebastian Stan – reinvents himself as a man named Guy, and experiences the nominal successes that often come more easily to the conventionally attractive. But he finds himself repeatedly vexed by the presence of Oswald (Adam Pearson, who also has neurofibromatosis in real life and appeared in Under the Skin), who lacks Edward/Guy’s hang-ups and seemingly lives his life without self-consciousness or self-loathing.

Though Pearson is terrifically charismatic and funny in the role – he needs to be just insufferably cheerful enough to make us understand Edward’s frustration but genuinely charming enough to make us understand Edward’s pettiness – he lacks, by design, much interiority. It’s entirely possible that Oswald has struggled to reach a place of acceptance for his body of difference, but Edward – imprisoned, in a sense, by pretending to be Guy, rather than admitting he once had the same physical condition – can’t allow himself to relate to him, and so they never have share any sort of deeper feelings; Oswald has no idea they have the condition in common.

Again, this could be tragic: the man who gets what he wants, only to realize with growing horror that it’s his authentic self he loathes, not the superficial conditions of his body. Or it could be funny, in the Charlie Kaufman/Spike Jonze hall-of-mirrors realm. A Different Man opts more for the latter, with “Guy” cast in a play about Edward, written by Edward/Guy’s former neighbor and crush Ingrid (Renate Reinsve), who doesn’t realize that her inspiration is standing right in front of her (and is amusingly circumspect in admitting that her original work is based fully and directly on one guy she didn’t really make the effort to understand). Guy and Ingrid begin a relationship, but both their romantic and artistic collaboration are undone by Guy’s insecurities, and, he would claim, by the presence of Oswald, who takes a cheerful interest in the play, and who winds up replacing Edward in his own role (as well as in Ingrid’s bed).

That’s around the time that A Different Man takes a harder turn toward Kaufman-like territory, also akin to the recent A24 picture Dream Scenario, which similarly rides a line between offering comeuppance for a character’s hubris and offering cruel punishment for their human frailty. Edward/Guy begins to imitate Oswald, even wearing the mask he had used for the play, only further alienating people at his real-estate job. He then accosts and attacks Oswald during a performance of the play, screaming at him to “take his off,” referring to a nonexistent mask, and Edward’s inability to believe that Oswald can be happy and well-adjusted. Then a piece of the set falls on Edward, seriously injuring him.

If this were a Simpsons episode (specifically, the one where Moe gets handsome), this would somehow restore some semblance of the “original” Edward. Instead of a reset, Edward/Guy descends further into a personal hell, confined to a body cast (handsome face preserved) and left in the care of Ingrid and Oswald. Some time later, while Edward is receiving physical therapy at Oswald and Ingrid’s apartment, his therapist makes a disparaging remark about Oswald. Edward silently flies into a rage and brutally attacks the man with a knife. One cut later, he’s in a jail cell. Two cuts later, Edward is a much older man; it’s obviously many years later, and he’s out of prison, but it’s difficult to tell how long it’s been. He runs into Oswald outside the theater where Ingrid’s latest play is up, and the movie makes another quick cut to him having a pleasant dinner with the still-devoted couple.

'A Different Man' Ending Explained: What happens to Sebastian Stan at the restaurant? (3)

A Different Man ending explained:

It’s a jarringly non-confrontational scene; just moments after we’ve seen Edward nearly murder his physical therapist, he’s having a quiet catch-up with the very people we’ve seen him angrily fixate on. As they chat, Ingrid and Oswald casually inform their friend that they’re a few months away from moving to a commune (which sounds suspiciously like a cult) in Canada, which will involve some bizarre combination of eco-forward leaving, nudism, LSD, and free love. They ask Edward what he’s been up to, which vaguely indicates his prison release may be years in the past at this point.

We never hear Edward’s answer, because a waitress approaches and asks if they’re ready to order. “What are you thinking, Edward?” Oswald asks – referring to him by his real name, rather than “Guy,” which is how he knows him (and refers to him as such earlier in the scene). As Oswald places his order, Edward is distracted by the sight of another patron in the restaurant, seemingly an aged version of the girlfriend of his former neighbor he looked enviously upon; the neighbor committed suicide offscreen earlier in the film. When the camera cuts back to Edward from this quick shot of her, it stays on as Oswald finishes his order. The waitress then asks Edward if he needs a minute, which Edward haltingly affirms. Offscreen, Oswald laughs and says, “oh, my old friend, you haven’t changed a bit.” Edward looks up, his eyes meeting the camera, laughing and smiling back – for what seems to us the first time in ages, because he hasn’t smiled much in the final 30-40 minutes of the film. The movie cuts to black.

Ambiguities abound in this scene: How long has Edward been out of prison? Was Edward’s reinvention as Guy revealed during his legal trouble, or has Oswald just made a slip of the tongue (as he does earlier in the film), conflating Guy with the “character” Edward, from the play? Does Edward actually recognize the woman in the restaurant, and does she somehow recognize him?

Concrete answers to these questions aren’t especially important, and can easily be roughed out. (At least a few years; Oswald has probably just made a symbolic name mistake; Edward and the woman probably vaguely recognize each other but not specifically.) The bigger question is whether Edward has truly reached some sort of self-acceptance in his older years, after a harrowing series of experiences, mostly self-inflicted. Stan’s smile in this scene seems too genuine, especially compared with the looks of glowering or consternation that he holds for much of the rest of the film, to discount the possibility that Edward has finally found some peace. What the movie thinks about that (dark, too-late irony, or modest symbol of hope?) is a little murkier; shipping Oswald and Ingrid off to a more-or-less cult over the apparent objections of their children maintains a kind of detached, satirical approach to the characters that makes A Different Man harder to read.

That’s the distance I felt when I first saw the movie, even though I quite liked it: a sense that writer-director Aaron Schimberg might see his characters more as vehicles for pitiless social satire than fully empathetic people. (Oswald is the only major character in the movie who doesn’t come across as somewhat dim.) But looking at the ending again, there’s a certain power in ending it on Stan’s smile, especially seeing it emerge from an aged version of his still-handsome face. Is it possible that Edward has gained insight into his own immutable self, flaws and all, and can even feel genuinely amused by life’s bizarre ironies and misfortunes? Yes, it is possible, and appropriately, the movie doesn’t say for sure. It’s more important that you know yourself.

Jesse Hassenger (@rockmarooned) is a writer living in Brooklyn. He’s a regular contributor to The A.V. Club, Polygon, and The Week, among others. He podcasts at www.sportsalcohol.com, too.

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'A Different Man' Ending Explained: What happens to Sebastian Stan at the restaurant? (2025)

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