‘Noise’ Ending Explained: What Happens in the 2023 Movie on Netflix?

Noise on Netflix is a movie that finally understands just how excruciating the sound of another human being chewing food truly is. Who wouldn’t be driven insane by someone eating with their mouth open, right?

Directed by Steffen Geypens, who also co-wrote the script with Robin Kerremans and Hasse Steenssens, the 2023 movie Noise on Netflix is a new Belgian thriller that came out last weekend. (It is not to be confused with another 2023 Netflix movie called Noise, which is a Mexican thriller that was released on the streaming service in January.)

The Belgian Noise is slow-build, about a new father who is becoming increasingly sensitive to noise and slowly losing his grip on reality in the process. Like most thrillers on Netflix, it can be confusing at times. Don’t worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for a full breakdown of the Noise 2023 movie plot summary and the Noise 2023 movie ending explained.

Noise 2023 plot summary:

Matthias (played by Ward Kerremans) is a social media influencer who, along with his girlfriend Liv (Sallie Harmsen) and newborn baby Julius, moves into his father’s old house. The house is remote, but it’s within walking distance of the nursing home where Matthias’s father Pol (Johan Leysen) now lives. Pol has dementia, and he has good days and bad days.

On a good day (or bad day, depending on how you look at it) Pol wanders into Matthias’s backyard, to stare at the pond. Pol tells Matthias and Liv that he dug the pond himself because Matthias’s now-dead mother always wanted a pond. While Matthias walks his father back to the nursing home, they pass by the factory where Pol was once a bigwig. Pol mutters somewhat incomprehensibly about an accident at the factory. “I warned them so many times, but the clean-up fell to me,” he says. “And so much more happened there… maybe now it’s time to find out about it.”

Matthias begins to research the history of the factory, at first merely as more content for his Instagram followers. He enlists Liv’s brother Timme to explore the factory with him, and they discover the horrifying carcass of a decaying animal. Matthias also finds articles online about an accident at the biochemical factory which led to concerns about public health. Through conversations with his father, Matthias becomes convinced that far more people died in the factory than was reported, and that the bodies were never found. Liv points out that Pol has dementia, and therefore might not be the most reliable source of information re: conspiracy theories.

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But Matthias’s mental health is clearly deteriorating. He is increasingly sensitive to noise and is tortured by the sounds of his baby crying. He sees hallucinations of his basement floor breathing, among other things. He returns to the factory, and believes he sees a dead body—and when Timme startles him, he accidentally knocks him out.

Liv learns through conversations with her new neighbors that Matthias and Pol and a very tough relationship after Matthias’s mom died. Liv visits Pol in the nursing center and finds him looking at photos and records of his dead wife, Michelle. These documents reveal that Michelle struggled with her mental health, and had hereditary anxiety, depression, and psychosis. Pol remembers the day Michelle died: She intentionally drowned herself in the backyard pond, with a baby Matthias in her arms. Pol was able to save the baby, but not his wife. He tells Liv he regrets not trying to save Michelle first.

Noise 2023 ending explained:

Back at the house, Matthias is convinced that the undiscovered bodies are underneath his basement. (He comes to this conclusion using maps from the factory in a dubious manner.) Liv finds Matthias in a deep hole he’s dug, filled with water. Matthias dives down into the water, and Liv follows him. Pol shows up at the house and manages to pull both Liv, and Matthias, out of the water. Both men remember that horrible day when Michelle drowned in the pond. Thankfully, this time, everyone lives. And that includes Timme—we see him waking up in the abandoned factory in a brief scene.

In the final scene of the movie, Liv wakes up to the sound of the baby crying. She looks over to Matthias’s side of the bed. He isn’t there, but we do see pill bottles that suggest he is now medicated for his inherited mental health issues that led to his breakdown. Liv finds Matthias staring down at the pond where he nearly drowned as a baby. Liv approaches Matthias’s side, with the baby in her arms, and Matthias smiles. With that, the movie ends.

So what does it mean? Well, it seems there was never any conspiracy at the factory—that was just Matthias going down the rabbit hole during a psychotic episode. Clearly, Matthias was traumatized by his near-death experience as a baby, in which he also lost his mother. But by recreating that experience as an adult and surviving it, the implication is that Matthias is finally able to move beyond his childhood trauma. Who needs therapy?