What actually happens
A stepfather who locks up the groceries
The film opens with a fairy tale. Princess Moanna leaves the underworld, the sunlight wipes her memory, and she dies as a mortal, so her father the king builds labyrinths around the world in case her spirit wanders home. In 1944 Spain, Ofelia is ten when her pregnant mother Carmen brings her to meet a new stepfather, Captain Vidal, whose orders are to find and crush the Maquis rebels. A stick insect that Ofelia takes for a fairy leads her into a stone labyrinth, and that night it leads her back to a faun. He thinks she is Moanna returned, and gives her a book with three tasks that will make her immortal. Meanwhile Vidal locks the area's food in a granary to weaken the rebels, and his housekeeper Mercedes, who is secretly helping her brother Pedro and the Maquis, hands him a key she says is the only copy.
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Two grapes against clear instructions
For the first task, Ofelia retrieves a key from inside a giant toad. Carmen's pregnancy is going badly, so the faun gives Ofelia a mandrake root to keep under her mother's bed and feed with blood, which helps. For the second task she takes a piece of magic chalk and three fairy guides to fetch a dagger from the home of the Pale Man, a monster that eats children. The faun told her not to eat anything there. She eats two grapes. This is the scene people dread, in the middle of the story: the Pale Man wakes, devours two of the fairies and chases her, and she escapes. The faun is furious, refuses to give her the third task and abandons her.
The mandrake root goes in the fire
Ofelia sees how cruel Vidal is. He questions two farmers who were only hunting rabbits and kills them. The Maquis raid his granary with a second key from Mercedes, and Vidal notices the lock was never forced. He tortures a captured rebel who stutters, then asks Doctor Ferreiro to treat him. Ferreiro ends the man's life at the man's own request, and Vidal realizes Ferreiro is helping the Maquis and kills him. Vidal then catches Ofelia with the mandrake root and calls the fairy tales a delusion. Carmen sides with him and tosses the root into the flames. Painful contractions start at once and she dies giving birth to Vidal's son.
A third task that needs a baby
The prisoner's earlier slip and the unlocked granary point Vidal at Mercedes. She attempts a getaway with Ofelia, and both are caught. Ofelia is locked in her room, and Mercedes is taken to be questioned. Mercedes frees herself, slashes Vidal's face and gets back to the Maquis. The faun comes back, has changed his mind, and tells Ofelia to bring her newborn brother to the labyrinth for the third task. She takes the baby and runs there while the Maquis attack a Civil Guard outpost, and Vidal chases after her. At the center of the labyrinth, the faun says the portal to the underworld needs a little of the baby's blood, because it must be the blood of an innocent. Ofelia refuses to hurt her brother.
The ending, explained
Vidal finds Ofelia talking to a faun he cannot see. The faun leaves, Vidal takes the baby from her and shoots her. He walks out to the entrance of the labyrinth, where the Maquis surround him, including Mercedes and Pedro. He hands over the baby and wants his son to be told what time his father died, but Mercedes says the boy will never even know his name, and Pedro shoots Vidal dead. Mercedes goes into the labyrinth and holds Ofelia as she dies. Some of the girl's blood drips down the spiral staircase onto an altar, and she appears in a golden throne room, unhurt and well dressed. The king tells her she passed the last test by shedding her own blood instead of someone else's. The faun calls her Your Highness, and her mother the queen asks her to sit beside her father and rule while the crowd applauds. Back in the labyrinth, Ofelia smiles and dies. An epilogue says Moanna ruled kindly and fairly for centuries.
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 Pan's Labyrinth scary?
Yes, it is a 6 out of 10 with medium dread. The fear comes mostly from a cruel army captain and a few monster scenes, and the ending is sad.
How does Pan's Labyrinth end?
Captain Vidal shoots Ofelia, and then the Maquis shoot him. While she dies, Ofelia appears in a throne room in the underworld, where the king says she passed the last test and her mother invites her to rule.
Does the dog die in Pan's Labyrinth?
No dog dies in Pan's Labyrinth. The Pale Man eats two of the fairy guides, but no dog is mentioned in the story.
Is there a post-credits scene in Pan's Labyrinth?
No. Pan's Labyrinth has no post-credits scene, so you can leave when the credits start.
Who is the Pale Man in Pan's Labyrinth?
The Pale Man is a child-eating monster whose lair holds the dagger from Ofelia's second task. He wakes when she eats two grapes there, devours two of her fairy guides and chases her before she escapes.
