Bridget Jones 4 Director Explains That Emotional Ending: "I Don't Know If Closure Exists"
Director Michael Morris also gives us insight into crafting Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy's credit sequence.
This story contains spoilers for Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy
For almost a quarter of a century, plucky Brit Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) has been clumsily, charmingly navigating this thing we call life. Career, family, weight, drinking, best friends, and men ... so many men.
The character was created by author Helen Fielding, who wrote the best-selling Bridget Jones books, but since Zellweger was cast to play Bridget in the first film adaptation in 2001, the actress has since become the global face that everyone associates with the character.
And across four films — Bridget Jones's Diary (2001), Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004), Bridget Jones's Baby (2016), and now Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy (2025) — Bridget has been trying to find her occupational calling, bolster her own self-esteem, and snag the right partner. Of course, it turned out to be barrister Mark Darcy (Colin Firth), but it took until the end of Bridget Jones's Baby for the pair to finally marry and raise their baby together.
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At the start of Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy, it's revealed that the pair's bliss lasted until Mark Darcy was tragically killed in a car accident that left Bridget a widow and single mother to Billy (Casper Knopf) and Mabel (Mila Jankovic). Four years after the loss, all three are still grieving and trying to figure out how to move on, which the film addresses in compassionate, funny, and moving ways.
In particular, director Michael Morris wove the recurring theme of an owl that has taken perch in the Jones/Darcy backyard each evening. For little Mabel, it's of particular comfort, so NBC Insider asked Morris how that idea evolved and what the owl's last appearance in the film means to him.
Director Michael Morris on the symbolism of moving forward
At the end of the film, time has pushed forward to a year later; the family is celebrating New Year's Eve with friends at the Jones/Darcy abode. Bridget is now in a committed relationship with Mr. Walliker (Chiwetel Ejiofor) and they've invited everyone who means anything to their little family unit to celebrate the future together.
But in another final scene, Bridget is tucking in Mabel and Billy and together they look outside to see the white barn owl that alights in their backyard every night. It seems to take more importance on this evening, like a group goodbye to Darcy's memory.
Morris said that was exactly what the owl was meant to reference as it flies away: The end of the Darcy family grieving.
"There’s this sense of keeping something close for a long, long time and not being ready for it to leave," the director said of the owl's symbolism. "And then finally accepting that letting it fly away doesn’t mean that it’s gone forever. It just means that you’re ready to sort of move on with the present."
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Asked if that is a closure moment in his eyes, he offered, "I don’t know that I understand closure. I don’t know that anyone understands closure. I don’t know if closure exists, to be honest. I think it’s a person to person thing. But this is less about closing something, which I guess is my question about that word. It’s more about keeping your heart open in both directions… even the very, very, very end of the film is a look forward, which sort of says, 'Here I am, this is great,' then a look up, which is if to say, 'I see you.'
"And that’s where I think Bridget gets to in her journey through letting go," he continued. "It doesn’t mean forgetting something. It doesn’t mean never thinking about them again. It means keeping them in your heart and moving forward."
A life in pictures: All about the Bridget Jones photo gallery credits
In the credit reel, as Robbie Williams belts out "Have You Met Miss Jones?" we're treated to a string of favorite moments from all four Bridget Jones films.
Morris said he was involved in the selection of those "best of" moments and they started with around 200 pictures they then had to whittle down.
"For me, there are certain scenes that I wanted to be [in it]. But more than that, it was just that the pictures evoke something," he said of their culling process.
"Really more often than not, it was that wonderful smile that Renée has where she [has] that kind of unguarded grin," he said of the pictures and scenes they did choose. "That’s where the credits actually go out, [on] a freeze-frame of her grinning. If this is the end of the franchise, if we’re 24 years from the first one, let’s remember that. She gave so much life and joy to this character. And that’s what I love the most."
Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy is available exclusively on Peacock as of February 13, 2025.
