If you couldn’t find a spare three-and-a-half hours to go see The Brutalist in theaters, good news: The Brutalist is now streaming on HBO Max.
Directed by Brady Corbet (Melancholia, Vox Lux), with a script co-written by Corbet and Mona Fastvold, The Brutalist is a harrowing epic that follows the life of a Hungarian-born Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor, named László Tóth. Though the movie lost out on the 2025 Oscar for Best Picture (which went to Anora), The Brutalist won star Adrien Brody his second Oscar, for Best Actor, and also won the Oscars for Best Cinematography and Best Original Score.
There’s no doubt that quite a few more people will be watching this three-and-a-half-hour movie now that they have the ability to pause at their leisure. And more viewers means more people confused by The Brutalist ending. If you were lost, don’t worry, because Decider is here to help. Read on for a breakdown of The Brutalist plot summary and The Brutalist ending explained, including if The Brutalist is based on a true story.
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Is ‘The Brutalist’ movie based on a true story?
The Brutalist movie is not based on a true story, in the sense that none of the characters are based on real people. Adrien Brody’s character, László Tóth, is not based on one specific real-life architect. Guy Pearce’s character, Harrison Lee Van Buren, is not based on any specific, real-life wealthy industrialist. The story you see play out on screen between the two characters is made up.
That said, The Brutalist is a historical fiction drama inspired by the post-war architectural style known as Brutalist architecture, and the way it was inspired and shaped by the Holocaust. In an interview with Adrien Brody for NPR, the star said that one key reference for the movie was real-life Hungarian-German Jewish modernist architect, Marcel Breuer, who immigrated to the United States in 1937. So, unlike Brody’s character, Breuer was able to escape before the Holocaust.
The Brutalist plot summary:
László Tóth, a Hungarian-born Jewish architect and Holocaust survivor, arrives in Philadelphia in 1947, in the aftermath of the war. He is taken in by his cousin Attila (Alessandro Nivola), who has distanced himself from his Jewish heritage and has a Catholic wife, Audrey (Emma Laird). László works with Attila at his local furniture store.
The cousins are hired by a wealthy client, Harry Lee Van Buren (Jow Alwyn) to design and build a new home library as a surprise for his father, industrialist Harrison Lee Van Buren (Guy Pearce). László designs a modern, brutalist library in his signature style of concrete, incorporating natural light. Harrison unexpectedly returns to the mansion and is enraged by the surprise renovation, throwing the workers out of the house. Harry refuses to pay the men for their work. Attila blows up at László for chasing away his best client. He also accuses László at making a pass at his wife. László, who had previously been confronted by Audrey to get out of their house, realizes Audrey lied because she doesn’t want him in her home.
Years later, László is a heroin addict and a hard larborer, living in communal housing with his friend Gordon (Isaach de Bankolé). Harrison Lee Van Buren tracks László down to inform him that his library has become his prized possession, and made him a celebrated figure in the architectural community. Harrison uncovered László’s work in Europe before the war, and realizes now that he is a respected architect. He apologizes for how László was treated, pays him what he is owed, and invites him to a party at his mansion.
At the party, László connects with Harrison’s high-powered lawyer, who is sympathetic to László’s family situation: his wife Erzsébet (Felicity Jones) and orphaned niece Zsófia (Raffey Cassidy), who he was forcibly separated from, are still in Europe and trying to get to the U.S. The lawyer offers to expedite their immigration.
Also at the party, Harrison announces he will hire László to design and build a sprawling community center, including a library and gym, on his property. The project is turned into a chapel, after Harry Van Buren receives funding from the Protestant Church. The community is suspicious of a Jewish man designing a chapel, but László impresses them with a cleverly designed tower that creates the symbol of the cross with shadows when the sun reaches high noon. Construction on the church begins.
Erzsébet and Zsófia arrive in the city and reunite with László. László is shocked to see Erzsébet is wheelchair bound. She explains this is due to osteoporosis, a result of the famine during the Holocaust. Meanwhile, Zsófia’s Holocaust trauma has rendered her mute. Construction on the church continues, though tensions begin to mount. Both Harrison and Harry make disparaging remarks that make it clear they see László as a lesser-class of human. Harry comes on to Zsófia, and—it’s implied—possibly even rapes her, though this is not made explicit. László clashes with other architects on the project over cost-cutting measures, and insists on paying for his original vision, even if it comes out of his own salary.
A train carrying supplies for the project gets derailed. Fearing the cost and legal liability, Harrison calls off the entire project and fires all the workers. Several years later, László and Erzsébet have moved to New York City. Zsófia is once again speaking and now expecting a baby with her new husband, Binyamin. They announce they are moving to Israel because they want to fully embrace their Jewishness and feel a duty to build the Jewish state. Zsófia asks her aunt and uncle to come, but they decline.
László also has an announcement: The Van Burens are reviving the project, and the church will be finished. László journeys with Harrison to Rome to source Italian marble. While there, László and Harrison attend a party. A drunk Harrison witnesses László reject the advances of a woman. He follows László down a dark alley, and finds him drugged out on heroin. Harrison lectures László for being a leech on society and tells him that behavior like this is the reason anti-Semitism is justified. He tells László he is nothing but a tramp, and then rapes him. The next morning, Harrison assumes László doesn’t remember, and László says nothing.
László becomes more and more irritable and obsessive over the church. He yells at the workers, and fires his friend Gordon when he tries to push back. He also yells at his wife when she confronts him about his behavior. Later that night, Erzsébet experiences extreme pain due to her osteoporosis. When he realizes they are out of her medication, László gives Erzsébet some heroin for the pain. She asks for more, and they spend out a drugged-out night together. The next morning, Erzsébet overdoses, and László rushes her to the hospital. She survives, but tells László she met God and has made a decision to move to Israel to be with Zsófia. László agrees to follow Erzsébet.
What happens to Harrison in The Brutalist?
Before they leave, Erzsébet pays a visit to Harrison’s mansion. She confronts Harrison in front of his family and business colleagues about raping her husband. Harry drags her out of the house, and goes looking for his father. But Harrison has disappeared. It’s not made clear what happens to him, but as a search party looks for Harrison in the near-completed church, we finally get to see the sun hit the towers in the way that makes the shadow of the cross. My interpretation? Harrison killed himself. But maybe I’m reading too much into it! Either way, the symbol of the cross represents how much László gave up to Harrison in pursuit of his art, including, in the end, his own body.
The Brutalist ending explained:
The epilogue takes place over 20 years later, in 1980, at the first ever Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is doing a retrospective on László’s work. László is now an old man in a wheelchair, and a now-grown Zsófia reads a speech explaining that the Van Buren institute and other designs were structured like the concentration camps that both she and László endured during the Holocaust. She ends her speech with a quote from her uncle that he said to her when she was a young, struggling mother: “No matter what the others try and sell you, it is the destination, not the journey.”
The very last shot of the film is a flash of a young Zsófia in a concentration camp. This is a shot from the very first scene that opened the movie, when young, traumatized Zsófia was being interrogated by authorities whether she would be able to leave the concentration camp with her aunt. It’s a reminder of the extreme suffering of her journey. Just like László’s story, Zsófia journey as an immigrant to America is an indictment of the so-called American Dream. Some might even go so far to say that this last shot implies the entire movie has been through Zsófia’s eyes. The movie leaves it up to the audience to interpret.
