What actually happens
Alexei's travel tips
Paxton and Josh are college students backpacking across Europe with their Icelandic friend Oli. In Amsterdam they get thrown out of a nightclub after a fight, visit a brothel, and miss their hostel curfew, so they accept an offer to sleep at the apartment of a man named Alexei. He talks them out of going to Barcelona and into visiting a hostel near Bratislava, where he says beautiful women love Americans. On the train to Slovakia a Dutch businessman makes a pass at Josh, Josh reacts badly, and the man leaves. At the hostel, their roommates are two women, Natalya and Svetlana, who take them to a spa and then a disco. Outside the disco a gang of local children accosts Josh, and the Dutch businessman steps in to protect him. Josh apologizes for how he reacted on the train.
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One more night in a very friendly hostel
Paxton and Josh sleep with Natalya and Svetlana, and Oli leaves with Vala, the girl at the front desk. The next morning Oli has not come back. A Japanese woman named Kana shows them a photo of Oli and her missing friend Yuki. The movie then shows that Oli has been decapitated and that Yuki is being tortured, which neither of the friends knows. Josh wants to leave at once, but Paxton talks him into one more night with the women. They go to the disco again, and Natalya and Svetlana drug their drinks. Josh returns to the hostel and collapses on his bed, while Paxton wanders into a pantry, gets locked in and passes out there.
The Art Show
Josh wakes in a dungeon, handcuffed and shackled to a chair and surrounded by torture equipment. The Dutch businessman comes in, drills into Josh, cuts his Achilles tendons and slits his throat, explaining that he paid for the privilege. That is the scene to brace for, and it comes in the middle of the film. Paxton is let out of the pantry by a worker, goes back to the hostel and finds he has supposedly checked out. A police report goes nowhere. He tracks down Natalya and Svetlana, and Natalya takes him to an old factory outside town called the Art Show. There he sees the Dutch businessman stitching Josh's body together. Two men drag Paxton past rooms where other people are being tortured, then restrain and gag him for a German client named Johann.
Candy for the neighborhood children
Johann uses a chainsaw to take off two of Paxton's fingers and accidentally cuts through Paxton's restraints too. He then slips on the fingers and falls onto the chainsaw himself, losing a leg. Paxton shoots him in the head, kills a guard, puts on business clothes, and finds a card for the Elite Hunting Club, which lets wealthy clients pay to torture and kill tourists. He finds Kana, whose face an American client is burning with a blowtorch, kills the man, and escapes with her in a stolen car while guards chase them. Along the way he spots Natalya, Svetlana and Alexei together, kills Svetlana and Alexei by running them over, and the pursuing car finishes off Natalya. He then gives the gang of local children a big pack of candy and gum, and the children kill the men chasing him with concrete blocks.
The ending, explained
Paxton and Kana reach the train station, which is watched by the club's guards and by police on its payroll. Kana sees her disfigured face, throws herself in front of a train, and the commotion lets Paxton board a different train unnoticed. On board he hears the Dutch businessman's voice. When the train stops in Vienna he follows the man into a public restroom, mutilates his fingers and slices his throat, then gets back on the train and sits calmly. In the director's cut, Paxton instead follows the businessman and his young daughter into a station restroom, and ends up on the moving train with the daughter, whom he has kidnapped. Josh and Oli are dead, and Paxton is the only one of the three who makes it out.
The post-credits ruling
There is no post-credits scene. You can leave when the credits start.
✓ Spoiled safelyDog status: fine, no dog dies.
Questions people ask at 1am
Is Hostel scary?
Yes, Hostel is a 7 out of 10 with high dread. It has jump scares, but most of the fear comes from the torture, which the film shows in detail.
How does Hostel end?
Paxton escapes the Elite Hunting Club with Kana, who dies at the train station. He then follows the Dutch businessman onto a train to Vienna and kills him in a public restroom. Josh and Oli do not survive.
Does the dog die in Hostel?
No, no dog dies in Hostel, and no other animal dies either.
Is there a post-credits scene in Hostel?
No. Hostel has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
What is the Elite Hunting Club in Hostel?
It is an organization that lets wealthy clients pay to torture and kill tourists. In Hostel it runs out of an old factory outside town called the Art Show, and it has guards and police on its payroll.
