Daisy Edgar-Jones explains ‘On Swift Horses’ ending

Despite ending with its three central characters alone, On Swift Horses also points toward true happiness.

After realizing that she’s queer, Muriel (Daisy Edgar-Jones) ends up leaving her husband Lee (Will Poulter). When Lee sees her leaving their neighbor Sandra’s (Sasha Calle) house in the middle of the day, he realizes what’s happening.

Muriel uses the money she earned from gambling on horse races to return to her mother’s house in the Midwest, which Lee believes she sold long ago. The ending finds her looking out the window, back in that house with a hopeful look on her face.

In turn, Julius (Jacob Elordi), who left Las Vegas and the man he loved, Henry (Diego Calva), realizes that he wants him back. He takes the horse he gifted to Lee and Muriel and rides off into the sunrise to find the love of his life.

Director Daniel Minihan says audiences shouldn’t read more into those final images beyond a push toward inner peace and the things that make these characters happy. “We like to believe that eventually Muriel reconnected with Sandra,” he says. “That was a strong bond. But Muriel kept that secret the whole time of holding onto her mother’s home, which really means something significant to her.”

“She seems contented there,” he continues. “Her mom was a big influence on her. The first time she really opens up to someone is to Sandra, when she describes all of the things that her mother did and what an iconoclastic character she was.”

Minihan has heard theories that Julius’s final scene is more of a metaphor, but he intended it to be taken literally. “It is interesting that some people interpret him riding into the sunrise through the desert in a different way,” he reflects. “Our intention was that he’s going to find Henry and meet him again in Las Vegas and probably blow up his life again.”

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Edgar-Jones says that Muriel’s ending point is meant to reflect the journey of self-discovery and independence she undertakes throughout the film, which begins when she starts winning money at the racetrack.

“That journey with the gambling is really interesting,” she says. “She’s starting to push back or rebel in her own quiet way with that. She’s also doing the same in her love life. What [the gambling] gives her in terms of independence and the freedom to make choices based on what she wants, not out of necessity, is an amazing arc that it takes her on.”

However, Edgar-Jones says that it’s Sandra, not the money, that truly allows her to find her independence. “When she meets Sandra, it’s so exciting,” she adds. “To see Sandra so comfortable and at home in herself, and for Sandra to give her the space to explore and fill into that side of herself is so beautiful.”

She adds, “It’s something that’s always been within, but something she’s maybe not quite known how to word or put a label on. It’s really through the people she meets that she starts to then be able to explore it.”