Magazine Dreams ending explained: How the quest for fame and glamor proves to be poison

What happens when the dream of fame becomes a nightmare you can’t wake up from? Magazine Dreams dives headfirst into that dark abyss. What begins as a slow-burning character study of a lonely, muscle-bound dreamer named Killian Maddox mutates into a haunting descent into obsession, delusion, and pain. Played with terrifying intensity by Jonathan Majors, Killian is a man stitched together by steroids, self-loathing, and a desperate hunger for recognition. He wants to be seen, worshiped even, but the world keeps turning its back.

As Killian's grip on reality slips, he finds himself in a surreal nightmare where fantasies, violent urges, and painful vulnerability intermingle. The singular experiences- failed dates, a public freak-out, etc.- feel like they are all downhill tumbles toward exploding in light of Killian's obvious mental deterioration. By the time we arrive in the last moments of the film, we don't quite know what's left of reality anymore. But that’s the point.

Magazine Dreams is less about bodybuilding and more about the body being a prison, a battleground, and a cry for help. The ending doesn’t offer easy answers, just a mirror held up to our culture’s obsession with perfection and the crushing silence around mental health. Here's what happens to Killian in the ending of Magazine Dreams and how it critiques our obsession with bodily perfection.

What is Magazine Dreams about?

Still from Magazine Dreams (Image via YouTube @/ Briarcliff Entertainment)

Magazine Dreams is a haunting exploration of ambition, isolation, and the human toll of chasing perfection. Directed and written by Elijah Bynum, the film follows Killian Maddox, played by Jonathan Majors, an aspiring bodybuilder whose obsession with fame and physical greatness drives him to self-destruct. The film is reminiscent of a fever dream fueled by protein powder, sweat, and heartbreak. But beneath the exaggerated frame and rehearsed postures is a tortured soul who is ready to break to earn recognition, to be seen as someone worth acknowledging.

Killian's life is a regimented cycle of intense workouts, strict diets, and court-mandated therapy sessions. He lives with his ailing grandfather and works part-time at a grocery store, all while obsessively idolizing a professional bodybuilder, Brad Vanderhorn. Despite his dedication, Killian struggles with social interactions, anger management, and a deep-seated need for recognition. His body becomes both his sanctuary and his prison, as he pushes himself beyond physical and psychological limits.

You slowly realize that Killian isn’t just chasing muscle mass, he’s chasing worth. He navigates a life marked by racism, poverty, and rejection, clinging to the image of a hyper-masculine ideal that feels like the only ticket out of invisibility. He flips through old bodybuilding magazines like scripture, and works a dead-end job at a grocery store where no one bothers to learn his name. Every failed connection, whether with a coworker he’s crushing on or with his idol Brad Vanderhorn, further distorts his reality.

The movie explores toxic masculinity, mental health, and how pressure from society pushes people to extremes. Majors offers a tremendous performance as he captures Killian's vulnerability and volatility. Magazine Dreams urges the audience to face some uncomfortable realities about the price of ambition and the often neglected existential wish for connection and authenticity in a perfection-oriented society.

As he spirals deeper into rage, loneliness, and delusion, the film blurs the lines between dream and nightmare, ambition and madness. Magazine Dreams isn’t about bodybuilding, it’s about what breaks when the world refuses to look your way.

What happens to Killian in the end?

By the time Magazine Dreams comes to its haunting conclusion, Killian Maddox is not just a man chasing after fame; he is a man breaking down. What starts as a story of ambition becomes a disturbing image of a person who is being torn apart by his expectations, societal neglect, and an incomprehensible desire for visibility. The film shows in various ways that Killian is always getting taken down a notch, either emotionally, mentally, or sometimes physically. He also has dreams of being a world-class bodybuilder, but is thwarted by public breakdowns, failed romances, and a lot of anger.

Finally, Killian has alienated himself from everyone, not just people at large, but also his therapist and his idol, Brad Vanderhorn, who is revealed not to be a hero, but a bitter, washed-up man. Following a particularly brutal breakdown, Killian fantasizes about committing mass violence at a bodybuilding competition: the horrifying climax of his rage and isolation.

But then he does not act on these ideas. Instead, he dismantles the gun he’d planned to use, throws away his steroids, and retreats into solitude. The final scene shows him alone in his garage, striking poses for no one but himself- a ghost of the legend he once dreamed of becoming. In the background, a monologue of him talking about how he would get famous one day plays, as the sounds of cheers and claps surround him, a figment of his imagination. The ending is deliberately ambiguous. Is he healing, giving up, or simply stuck in a never-ending loop of obsession? The film refuses to spell it out. What we’re left with is a portrait of a man stripped bare, no longer trying to impress, no longer performing. Just existing.

Killian's ending doesn't leave him in a happier or more peaceful state, it shows how all the turmoil has destroyed him, with nowhere to get out from now. By sparing Brad, Killian rejects one monstrous version of himself, yet his garage routine shows the obsession still burning. The ending asks whether discarding a gun and a vial is enough to silence the deeper wounds that drove him there, or if the cycle will flex again tomorrow.

Is Magazine Dreams based on a real story?

Almost. Bynum has revealed in an interview with Indie Wire that Killian's character was inspired by a man he saw at a gym. Talking to the publication, the director said,

“He seemed to be in quite a bit of pain, like physical pain, spiritual pain, emotional pain, but there was something that kept him going there every day. He was clearly very ambitious about what he was doing and clearly was very driven about what he was doing. What was most interesting was how the rest of us in the gym were responding to him, because he was an intimidating figure. No one wanted to be caught looking at him, so we all just sort of looked the other way and pretended he wasn’t there. I thought there was something very interesting about a character or individual human who moves through the world that’s both feared and ignored at the same time.”

Magazine Dreams is available to watch on Prime Video.