Detective Pikachu Ending Explained (2024)

Detective Pikachu is the first live-action film in the Pokémon franchise, and here is the ending of the immensely popular 2019 film, explained. Fans have been clamoring for a live-action Pokemon movie for decades, with many hoping that the iconic RPG franchise would make it to the big screens one day. Luckily, this finally happened in 2019, although it a weird fashion. Rather than adapting one of the mainline Pokemon games, the live-action movie instead adapted the Detective Pikachu spinoff game. So, here is everything that happens in the ending of Detective Pikachu as well as what it all means.

Detective Pikachu is considered to be one of the films that broke the video game movie curse, with it garnering a surprisingly positive reception upon its release. The film follows the son of a prominent detective as he travels to Ryme City, where he meets a Pikachu who works as a detective and has the surprising ability to talk. Detective Pikachu happens to be investigating the same case, with Tim and the Pokémon working together to find out what happened to Tim's father, Harry. The duo uncovers all kinds of corruption, as well as the cover-up of an ultra-powerful Pokémon.

What Happens In Detective Pikachu's Ending

Here Are The Biggest Reveals

Detective Pikachu is full of twists and turns, with the various reveals throughout the film leading to the movie's explosion of an ending. At the end of the film, Tim and Pikachu discover that Howard Clifford, the founder of Ryme City, was behind every mystery in the film, including the creation of the R gas and the disappearance of Harry. As it turns out, Howard discovered that Mewtwo is able to combine trainers with their Pokémon if the creatures are under the influence of the R gas, with Howard using Mewtwo in an attempt to transform the entirety of Ryme City.

Luckily, Tim and Pikachu are able to stop Howard before it is too late, turning around the effects of his scheme to combine trainers with their Pokemon. The reveal of Howard's plan eventually leads Tim and Pikachu to discover that they were all wrong about Mewtwo being behind the disappearance of Tim's father. Instead, Mewtwo used his powers to heal an injured Harry, but he was only able to do so by combining Harry with his Pikachu. While this worked, it required both characters to have their memories erased, leading to the creation of Detective Pikachu.

Why Did Howard Want To Fuse Humans With Their Pokemon?

His Plan Changed The Game

Howard's plan to fuse Pokémon Trainers with their Pokémon was quite a weird one, with one of the biggest mysteries in Detective Pikachu having to do with why Howard wanted to pull this off. Although it isn't explicitly explained, it seems as if Howard is obsessed with the concept of evolution, something that is a staple of the Pokémon franchise. Howard's plan to combine all of humanity with their Pokémon seemed to be a bid to take humanity to the next stage of evolution, combining the advanced minds of humans with the abilities of their Pokémon.

Interestingly, this plan slightly differs from the Detective Pikachu video game, in which the villain has a more evil reason to pull off the same stunt. In the game, Howard's son Roger is the true villain, with him also wanting to use the R gas for his own evil deeds. However, Roger hopes to use it to enslave Ryme City, giving him enough power for him to later take over the world. While this is more in line with the classic Pokémon villain stories, the Howard twist does make Detective Pikachu's big reveal a bit more unique.

Tim's Father Actually Had His Consciousness Combined With His Pikachu

But He Couldn't Remember It

While there are a lot of big reveals in Detective Pikachu, the reveal of what happened to Tim's father is by far the biggest. As it turns out, Harry didn't die, and he wasn't kidnapped by Mewtwo. Instead, he had been by his son's side the whole time, with him having been transformed into Detective Pikachu. As it turns out, Mewtwo used his powers of combining humans with their Pokémon to save Harry, with him combining Harry with his Pikachu. For an unknown reason, they couldn't keep their memory of this process, leading to Detective Pikachu forgetting much of his life.

Detective Pikachu ends on a happy note for the characters, as Metwo comes back to fix the combination. Mewtwo splits Detective Pikachu back into Harry in his human form and a regular Pikachu, giving Tim his true father back.

Tim Rediscovers His Love For Pokemon While Investigating His Father's Disappearance

Tim Reconnects With His Childhood Passion

Although Tim spends much of Detective Pikachu attempting to investigate his father's disappearance, he also goes through a much bigger change during this process. As a kid, Tim had a love for Pokémon, with him wanting to eventually grow up and be a Pokémon Trainer. However, his father's disappearance and his mother's death led to Tim throwing these dreams away, with him suppressing his love for Pokemon in an attempt to forget about his hard past.

During his time in Ryme City, however, Tim rediscovered his love for Pokémon, with this coming through his interactions with the various species that live in the city. His partnership with Detective Pikachu also had a big hand in this, although Detective Pikachu was actually Tim's father the whole time. Now that Harry is back, Tim has embraced his love for Pokémon once again, working together with his father and their Pikachu in an attempt to solve more mysteries. Thus, Tim has tapped into his childhood passion once again.

The Real Meaning Of Detective Pikachu's Ending

It's All About Evolution

Like much of the Pokemon franchise, Detective Pikachu explores the concept of evolution, although not in the way that one might think. The movie frames Howard's attempts to force evolution onto humanity as a bad thing, with the film instead promoting the evolution of one's character. Throughout the movie, Tim evolves from a jaded orphan to someone who has embraced who he truly is, while his relationship with Detective Pikachu (and by proxy, his father) evolves during the main story of Detective Pikachu.

Detective Pikachu

PG

Fantasy

Family

Animation

A loose adaptation of the video game of the same name, Detective Pikachu follows former Pokémon trainer Tim Goodman (Justice Smith) and Detective Pikachu (Ryan Reynolds) as they set out to investigate the mysterious disappearance of Tim's father, Harry. Tim's investigation takes him and Detective Pikachu into the heart of a conspiracy that threatens to shake their native Ryme City - and the entire Pokémon world - to its very foundation.

Director

Rob Letterman

Release Date

May 10, 2019

Studio(s)

Warner Bros. Pictures

Distributor(s)

Warner Bros. Pictures

Writers

Rob Letterman , Nicole Perlman

Cast

Ryan Reynolds , Suki Waterhouse , Bill Nighy , Chris Geere , Omar Chaparro , Ken Watanabe , Kadiff Kirwan , Justice Smith , Kathryn Newton , Rita Ora , Bernardo Santos

Runtime

104 minutes

Franchise(s)

Pokemon

Budget

150million