100 Nights of Hero ending explained: Cherry’s husband orchestrates a shocking game

If the title 100 Nights of Hero is giving you déjà vu, believe it. That comes from the compilation of stories from which Aladdin, Sinbad the Sailor, Ali Baba, and more were born. You know it as One Thousand and One Nights, popularly known as Arabian Nights.

The film is an adaptation of the book of the same name, inspired by the classic collection of stories known as One Thousand and One Nights. We will discuss that in brief too, but first, we will explain the film’s ending and why the final decision was made there.

While it’s Maika Monroe’s Cherry at the heart of the story, it is Emma Corrin’s Hero who steals the show and saves the day for her mistress. Monroe is silently forced to take a decision to sleep with her husband’s friend, which is something she agrees to do at the end of 100 Nights of Hero. Thankfully, nothing happens, as it is a game played by her husband.

Other than Corrin and Monroe, Nicholas Galitzine, Amir El-Masry, Charli XCX, Richard E. Grant, and more appear in the film. Julia Jackman has directed it and written the screenplay.

Why do things lead to such an extreme point in 100 Nights of Hero?

A still from 100 Nights of Hero. (Image via IFC Films)

Cherry is a simple woman in a luxurious household, and her family expects an heir from her. Not doing so would become an obstacle, as her husband can marry someone else and discard her from his life. She just wants someone who can love her, but all she got is a husband, Jerome (Amir El-Masry), who thought of her as a toy.

He has a friend, Manfred (Nicholas Galitzine), in front of whom he puts a challenge: to sleep with his wife because he believes she is too loyal to do that. That’s overconfidence speaking.

Now, as Manfred is on his mission impossible, things become a bit harder for him. Hero enters the game, capturing his attention with her stories, which helps prevent Cherry from falling for Manfred. However, this doesn’t really work, as by the end of 100 Nights of Hero, Cherry agrees to sleep with Manfred.

But, as we mentioned, it was a game played by her husband, more like a bet he made with his friend, which Manfred won.

About Manfred, Galitzine recently told ScreenRant:

"Yeah, it was interesting because we'd actually talked a bunch about whether there should be some sort of coda where we see Manfred after the fact. Because it really is my sense that he definitely was too afraid to stand up for what was right and save these people. But how does that manifest with him after the fact? Where would we imagine Manfred would be? [...] I think we always had a sense that, just from an audience's perspective, you are seeing the change in this person. It's subtle, but we do see some sort of emotional revolution."

Though there weren’t exactly 100 stories in 100 Nights of Hero, the theme is similar to the original story One Thousand and One Nights. In it, the main protagonist, Scheherazade, uses her storytelling skills to delay the slaughter that her husband, Shahryar, began.