Get ready for a movie that has everyone talking. After the Hunt, directed by Luca Guadagnino, hit theaters on Friday, October 10, 2025. This film is one of the most anticipated and debated releases of the year. It dives deep into tricky situations, leaving viewers wondering who to believe.
The story takes us to Yale University in 2019, a time when the MeToo movement was still making waves. Julia Roberts plays Alma, a philosophy professor hoping to get tenure. Andrew Garfield is Hank, her colleague and close friend. Ayo Edebiri rounds out the main cast as Maggie, a bright young student. Their lives take a sharp turn after a party at Alma’s apartment. Hank walks Maggie home after a night of drinks. But hours later, Maggie shows up at Alma’s door. She’s clearly upset and suggests Hank sexually assaulted her.
Warning: Spoilers for After the Hunt ahead.
Alma doesn’t quite know how to handle Maggie’s claims. She sets up a meeting with Hank at a restaurant to hear his side. Hank admits he made a mistake, but he insists Maggie is lying about what truly happened that night. He claims Maggie, whose parents are big donors to Yale, is actually upset because he found out she plagiarized her thesis. This sets up a big question: is Maggie telling the truth, or is Hank’s story the real one?
The film then focuses on the growing tension between Maggie and Alma. Alma tries to smooth things over quietly. However, Maggie stands firm, demanding her voice be heard. She moves forward with her accusations, which leads to Hank being fired. But Alma’s strange behavior after the incident makes Maggie suspicious. She decides to dig into Alma’s past, hoping to find some answers.
How Does ‘After the Hunt’ End?
Maggie’s digging uncovers a shocking secret from Alma’s past. Alma once took back her own sexual assault accusations against a family friend, admitting she had made the whole thing up. Meanwhile, Alma spirals further. She struggles with a pill addiction, even stealing a prescription pad from her colleague, Kim (Chloë Sevigny), to get more painkillers.
When Alma’s theft is found out, she’s called before the university president and other faculty members, including Kim. She learns that her chance at tenure is now gone. Heartbroken by the news, Alma lashes out at Maggie, leading to a tense confrontation where Maggie slaps her. Alma then heads to her secret apartment and finds Hank sleeping there. They kiss, even though Alma is married. When she repeatedly asks him to stop, he becomes rough with her. This scene strongly suggests that Hank likely did what Maggie accused him of.
Believing her life is ruined, Alma ends up in the hospital. Her husband (Michael Stuhlbarg) visits her there. It’s in this vulnerable moment that Alma makes a full confession. She reveals that when she was 15, she had an affair with an older family friend. They were in love, but when he ended their relationship, she was so hurt that she falsely accused him of assault, which destroyed his life. She publicly took back her accusation, but years later, he tragically took his own life.
To Alma’s surprise, her husband reacts with understanding, pointing out how young she was at the time. Yet, Alma still can’t bring herself to forgive her own actions.
The movie then jumps forward five years. Alma and Maggie meet again in a restaurant after years of silence. Alma is now a university dean and has written an article about her own story. Maggie sees this article as a way for Alma to gain sympathy. Maggie tells Alma she could "never" be like her, nor would she want to be, before getting up and leaving.
Does ‘After the Hunt’ Have a Post-Credits Scene?
There isn’t a typical post-credits scene in After the Hunt, but the very last shot of the film is quite unique. After Maggie walks away, Alma gazes out the window for a long moment. The camera then shifts to her paying the bill with a 20-dollar note. Just as she does, director Guadagnino’s voice shouts "¡corte!" ("cut!") from behind the camera. The credits then begin to roll.
Guadagnino explained this bold choice during a screening at the New York Film Festival. According to a prominent entertainment outlet present in the audience, he said the ending is about "a kind of false reconciliation, and perhaps a necessary reconciliation, between these two women." He added that they had been fighting, pushing their own truths, and trying to be heard, despite the other’s inability to understand their secrets. Ultimately, they try to take control of their own power.
Guadagnino further explained, "After the hunt, when the dust settles with time and the comfort of the snow blanket that silences everything — all the screams and all the furies — they understand what one didn’t want from the other and vice versa, what they got and what they lost." He stressed that "capital" will always be at the center of their lives. He also said that by yelling "cut," the film invites the audience to remember it’s a movie, made to entertain and tell a story from a certain viewpoint. He noted it was also a tribute to George Cukor and his film Rich and Famous.
Andrew Garfield also shared his thoughts on the "cut" moment, calling it a "very, very moving" creative choice. He remarked, "And I really haven’t seen it in cinema, I have seen it in theater, but not in cinema. Radical. Provocative, some would say," referring to Guadagnino’s distinctive directing style.
Does ‘After the Hunt’ Set Up a Sequel?
After the Hunt doesn’t directly suggest a sequel is coming. The five-year jump at the end makes it feel like the story has reached its natural conclusion. All the characters survive, of course. It could be interesting to see where Maggie ends up after her experiences at the university. However, it seems the film is meant to be a standalone story, leaving its complex questions to linger in the minds of its audience.