Next Exit ending explained: Here’s what happens to Rose and Teddy in the end

Next Exit, written and directed by Mali Elfman, is about two strangers caught between life and death. They live at a time when it's possible to have a life beyond death, thanks to a scientific invention. That brings these two people together in this drama that tiptoes between being bleak and life-affirming.

Next Exit is essentially a romantic comedy film that unfolds during a road trip across the US. Katie Parker plays Rose, an American woman, while Rahul Kohli plays Teddy, her British companion, during this journey.

Despite hints of love and compassion, they don't exactly hit it off right away. It takes a while for them to be comfortable with each other's presence. So, we sense a constant push-and-pull dynamic between them as they try to solve each other like a mystery.

Next Exit's ending isn't solely about whether they make it or not. It's how the journey changes them as individuals. Still, some viewers may wonder whether they end up together or rejoice in the afterlife. To understand their fate, we must look at their pasts.

What made Rose enter the Life After program?

A still from Next Exit (Image via YouTube/Magnolia Pictures & Magnet Releasing)

In Next Exit, Rose and Teddy meet each other as two people who have unfortunately given up on their lives on Earth. They have their reasons, which they reveal later in the mutual journey.

It doesn't come easily to them. They have their dark pasts, which they would better leave behind instead of confronting them. That's why they enter the Life After program. It's a chance for them to put an end to their misery and enter a new chapter in their afterlives. It feels almost like a reset button.

Until then, neither lived comfortably in their skin. Rose was haunted by her familial history. She lost her father at a young age. Since then, her sister, Heather, kept doing better in her life, while she struggled to find a footing. As an adult, she was debt-ridden and absent from their lives. She even missed her mother's funeral.

For the longest time, she believed that Heather resented her. It put her in a self-destructive behavioral cycle, where she sabotaged almost every good situation in her life. That made her even more miserable since she needed to live with an additional burden of shame and guilt.

What made Teddy enter the Life After program?

Like Rose, Teddy had a strained relationship with his family. He distanced himself from his father, tired of trying to reach his expectations. That's also why he left England and moved to the US. He wanted to get away from that emotional burden. Yet, he also wanted to prove himself in his father's eyes.

It took him on a destructive path, where he couldn't confront the sheer weight of his familial baggage. That's why the Life After program seemed like the thing that helps him find a way out. Yet, it all changes, for him, and for Rose, when they decide to confront their fears instead of running away from them.

Where do Rose and Teddy end up at the end of Next Exit?

Throughout the trip, Rose and Teddy meet a few people, who compel them to ask the difficult questions about the nature of life and death itself, whether through the lens of science, fate, or religion.

It takes a literal turn when they find themselves in front of those they were running away from. Teddy meets his father, who's now older and kinder, unlike how Teddy remembered him. So, he can't bring himself to tell him what he always wanted to. That's where Rose helps him get over his deep-seated resentment.

Rose meets her sister, only to realize that she isn't upset at Rose, but is concerned about her well-being. It all makes her and Teddy want to find a purpose in their lives. So, once they reach San Francisco for the Life After treatment, he backs out while she finds herself seemingly in a dark vortex.

In the final moments of Next Exit, we see Rose and Teddy happy together on a beach. It represents them finding a reason to live. That's how they can at least work on writing their wrongs instead of living with a burden of not trying hard enough in their afterlives.