Uglies Ending Explained: What Happened to Tally — And Will There Be a Sequel?

Warning: Uglies spoilers ahead!

Netflix's Uglies emphasizes the importance of being true to yourself and avoiding a surgery that would change who you are — until its shocking ending sees the main character turn into the enemy herself.

Adapted from Scott Westerfeld's 2005 novel of the same name, Uglies tells a dystopian tale in which people are designated as "Ugly" until their 16th birthday, at which point they have surgery that improves all their imperfect features to make them "Pretty," allowing them to live in the main city.

The story focuses on Tally (Joey King) as she dreams of joining her best friend, Peris (Chase Stokes), in the city. However, she soon discovers everything is not as it seems, and Dr. Cable (Laverne Cox), the ruler of the city's oppressive regime, is actually stifling creativity and individual differences, taking away the part of the brain that has thoughts and true feelings.

Tally runs away to The Smoke to spy on her friend Shay and the rebels that live there but quickly finds that their cause is one worth fighting for — and attempts to fix her betrayal with the greatest sacrifice of her own.

Between the twists and turns, here's Uglies ending, explained — and whether there will be a sequel.

How does Uglies end?

Throughout the movie, Tally is unlearning all that she has come to accept as truth throughout her life — that she is not worthy, that the cosmetic surgery when she turns 16 will make her valuable and that The Smoke is an evil place of rebels. While she enters The Smoke under false pretenses to rat them out to Dr. Cable, she soon tosses the necklace the leader gives her to contact the city — unknowingly calling them to the rebels' encampment.

The people of The Smoke quickly realize that Tally betrayed them, even though she did not mean to by the end. In an attempt to save the Specials living in The Smoke, who were captured and forced to get the surgery, Tally partners with David — the leader of the rebels — to infiltrate the city.

While they succeed and David's mother, Maddy, gets the substance that she needs to create the antidote to the surgery, she tells the group that it is too dangerous to experiment on as she hasn't tried her remedy yet. She also refuses to administer the cure to a Pretty who doesn't desire it, stating that would make her as bad as Cable.

In a dramatic sacrifice fueled by guilt and bravery, Tally volunteers herself to turn Pretty and take the cure, giving herself up to the city's officials. The movie then sees a prettified Tally and fades to black — but not before showing that she kept the scar on her hand that tied her to Peris, who shared the same one but got rid of it after his surgery.

The moment is meant to prove that while Tally may be Pretty, she has retained her freedom of thought and is in control of her mind, setting up a future in which she can voluntarily agree to Maddy giving her the cure.

What happens with Tally and David at the end of Uglies?

Tally and David have a budding romance throughout the movie, which proves confusing to Tally as she deals with her feelings for her best friend, Peris. However, the Peris she knew is now gone as he has lost what makes him who he is after his surgery.

Further, Peris has been made into a Special — a trained, robotic soldier that is even more dissociated with his mind than a normal Pretty. Knowing that, Tally allows herself to slowly fall for David, who lets her into his home and introduces her to his parents and their big secret.

While David feels betrayed by the discovery that Tally was working with Cable at first, he seems to forgive her when she sacrifices herself to get the surgery. In his last scene, he kisses Tally in a final embrace before she leaves for her procedure.

Does Peris die in Uglies?

At the end of Uglies, Peris is the only thing that stands in the way of Tally and her friends escaping the city. Tally attempts to talk to him and convince him to let them go, but as she's doing so, Peris puts his hand on her cheek, triggering David, who is watching from afar, as Peris snapped the neck of his father only the previous day.

David attacks Peris and the two battle, with Peris ultimately falling over the wall of the city, presumably to his death.

However, it is not clear whether Peris died as no body was shown, and he isn't declared to be officially dead. Also, the character makes a return in the three sequels to the books, Pretties, Specials and Extras.

Director McG has also teased Deadline that Peris isn't really dead — and may return if there are sequels in the future.

“I’m just romantic in that way that I want love to win in the end, and that’s why, in that final scene on the rooftop, Paris can’t even bring himself to speak to Tally until he’s hanging off the edge of the building and he calls her by her nickname, again, with a broken look on his face," he said.

He continued, "Then he falls to — I’m not going to say it was his death. I would never say that. Of course, he fell into the fog. I want [viewers to wonder] is he or isn’t he alive in there? Is he or isn’t he good or bad? Has Cable won or has his affection for his friend won out in the end, and I love stories that explore those emotions.”

How does the ending of Uglies differ from the book?

Before she is taken to her surgery, Tally states, "I'm Tally Youngblood. Make me pretty." The line is iconic to fans of the book as the last words of the novel.

“To me, it was everything,” McG told The Wrap. “I mean, that’s the line that propels you into what we’re certainly [hoping] are the second and third films.”

However, the movie continues a bit further to show Tally getting the surgery — and revealing that she kept her scar and, thus, her mind.

Another key difference between the book and the movie is how Peris differs from his arc in the book. In the movie, he is made into a Special, meaning he has superhuman qualities designed to hunt misbehaving Uglies. However, in the book, he is just a normal Pretty who comes back to try to help Tally in future stories.

In the movie, Peris kills David's father, Az, straying from the book and making it difficult for fans to see a future in which he reunites with Tally.

“Peris kind of fizzles out as a character [in the books]. He chickens out multiple times. He’s like Tally, if Tally didn’t have that drive or if Tally didn’t have Shay pushing her. And so he’s a road not taken for her, which is interesting in a quiet, literary way,” author Scott Westerfeld told Deadline.

He continued, “But movies have a different aesthetic and they like bigger story arcs. So to make him Special and to make him betray her in a different way, in a much more active way seemed like a bigger move to us.”

Will there be a sequel to Uglies?

The story of Uglies continues in the books Pretties, Specials and Extras. However, it is unclear if a sequel will be made to the movie. If there is one, however, McG told Deadline he would be happy to continue adapting the series to screen.

“The audience needs to speak up and say we should finish the book series," he said. "Obviously, it’s a series of books. The story goes on, but we need to have everybody clamor for it, because it’s tough to get movies made, and it needs to be worth it, and they’re expensive."

He added, “We’re all very optimistic that the stories will continue, and of course, that’s why we signed up for this in the first place. It’s a series of books, and we want to tell the full story.”