“Beetlejuice” director Tim Burton receives star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame
Popular director and pioneer of gothic culture Tim Burton unveiled his well-deserved star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.
Spoiler alert! We’ll discuss major plot points and the ending of Beetlejuice (in theaters now), so beware if you haven’t seen the film yet.
You know Baby Yoda. Now meet Baby Beetlejuice.
A demented, childlike version of Michael Keaton’s insane menace is unleashed in the new sequel, Beetlejuice Beetlejuice, director Tim Burton’s reimagining of the macabre world he created in the 1988 cult horror comedy. Beetlejuice is back, of course – original recipe plus his tiny hellspawn – and so is Lydia Deetz (Winona Ryder), the young goth girl who haunted Beetlejuice back in the day.
Decades later, he’s still trying to marry her, and she even signs the contract for that wedding in exchange for his help: her daughter Astrid (Jenna Ortega) is taken to the afterlife and tricked into giving up her soul to the murderous ghost boy Jeremy (Arthur Conti). Her fate intersects with Beetlejuice’s own problems, as he is pursued from the afterlife by his vengeful ex-wife Delores (Monica Bellucci) and top cop Wolf Jackson (Willem Dafoe).
Let’s dive deeper into the film’s wild climax, fascinating cameos and, yes, Baby Beetlejuice.
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What happens at the end of “Beetlejuice Beetlejuice”?
Along with Beetlejuice, Lydia travels through the afterlife to find her daughter, and Astrid gets out of trouble thanks to the “ghost with the most” as well as her beloved dead father (Santiago Cabrera), a piranha-covered official in the afterlife. But a rescued Astrid means Lydia has to tie the knot with Beetlejuice in the real world, so she ends up in the church where she’s supposed to marry her annoying manager Rory (Justin Theroux). Rory turns out to be a money-hungry jerk, Delores shows up, and everyone dances to “MacArthur Park” in a crazy scene.
When the land of the living and the dead collide, a sandworm comes to the rescue and eats Rory and Delores. Astrid finds a loophole in the law to void her mother’s marriage contract with Beetlejuice, causing Beetlejuice to burst like a balloon and presumably return to the afterlife.
Will there be any funny cameos or recurring appearances in the Beetlejuice sequel?
Danny DeVito has worked with Burton frequently over the years, appearing in films such as Dumbo, Big Fish and Batman Returns, where he played the Penguin. He has a small role at the beginning of the Beetlejuice sequel as an undead janitor in the afterlife whose soul is sucked out by Delores.
The most intriguing supporting character, however, is a familiar, headless face. Jeffrey Jones played Lydia’s bird-watching father Charles Deetz in the original Beetlejuice film, but Burton gets creative in the sequel, bringing the character back without involving the actor who played him (and who is now a convicted sex offender). Charles dies in a combined plane crash and shark-eating incident, and his death is the plot point that brings Lydia, Astrid, and Lydia’s stepmother Delia (Catherine O’Hara) back together after some emotional distance between them.
While Delia mourns in her very artistic way, Charles – headless and with a gurgling voice that sounds a bit like Jones – ends up in the afterlife. They cross paths but are unaware of each other after Delia dies from an accidental snake bite, but the odd couple end up with a happy ending when they board a soul train to heaven together.
Is there a post-credits scene in Beetlejuice?
No! But the final scene sets the stage for the development of a third film. After Astrid is rescued, there is a time-jump montage showing her and Lydia traveling, the daughter finding love and getting married abroad. In a hospital, Astrid is giving birth when baby Beetlejuice comes out, an excitable rascal previously introduced as one of Beetlejuice’s strange pranks when he plays the fake therapist for Lydia and Rory.
Cut to Lydia waking up in bed in what seems like a nightmare. Then Beetlejuice sits down next to her and says, “I just had the weirdest dream.” Lydia panics and jumps up. The Nightmare, suggesting that Beetlejuice isn’t done messing with her yet and that Astrid might be his unwitting bride next.
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