‘The Last Sunrise’ Confirms Whether Ry Survives Her Illness, and What Her Ending Really Means

‘The Last Sunrise’ arrived on Prime Video this week, and viewers have been searching for answers about its heroine almost as fast as they finished the film. The romantic drama stars Maia Reficco as Ry, Fernando Lindez as Julián, and Eva Longoria as Ry’s mother Isolde, under the direction of Carlson Young, and premiered on Prime Video on Wednesday, August 26.

The title alone primes audiences for tragedy, and much of the film’s runtime leans into that expectation before pulling back in its final act. ‘The Last Sunrise’ ultimately plays with the starkness implied by its name, and Ry does not receive a certain happy ending or confirmation that she has been cured, but rather a future she is finally willing to accept.

Ry’s Health Crisis in Mallorca

Ry manages a severe medical condition tied to epilepsy, and while medication can prevent her seizures, she stops taking it early into her vacation because it makes her feel numb and unwilling to experience life that way. Doctors had originally offered her two paths, powerful daily medication or brain surgery that could jeopardize her memory, and Ry chose the pills before her trip.

Ry and her mother Isolde travel to Mallorca, where Isolde is overseeing a business project, and Ry spends six weeks on the island getting closer to Julián García. As their romance deepens, Ry begins taking the kinds of risks that would alarm her protective mother, including hiding the fact that she has quietly gone off her medication.

A land dispute complicates matters further, as Julián learns that his father’s boat was set on fire by a man named Carlos, who has been pressuring Julián’s father Mateo to sell family land to a company called Redwyn. Mateo eventually gives in and agrees to the sale, a decision that strains his relationship with his son and raises the emotional stakes heading into the film’s final stretch.

The combination of Ry’s secrecy about her health and the mounting family tension around the land sale sets up the crisis that defines the movie’s back half. Both threads converge as Ry’s condition worsens and Julián’s family faces losing the property tied to their heritage.

Whether Ry Survives Her Surgery

Ry’s decision to stop taking her medication leads to a medical crisis in Mallorca, and her mother is ultimately the one forced to make the choice Ry had resisted, after Julián convinces her to approve the surgery. That surgery is the same procedure Ry feared from the beginning of the film, since it carries the risk of affecting her memory.

The final minutes of the film reveal what happens after the operation, though they leave viewers to interpret exactly how much of her summer Ry retains. The final sunrise referenced in the title ultimately does not turn out to be Ry’s last morning alive, since she survives her health crisis and Julián remains part of her life afterward.

What the film does not resolve is whether Ry fully remembers her romance with Julián once she wakes up. Speaking with Swooon, director Carlson Young addressed the ambiguity directly, saying it’s up for the debate.

Maia Reficco also revealed that several different reactions were filmed for that moment, and that she personally did not learn which version had been chosen until she watched the finished, edited movie. That uncertainty appears to be an intentional choice on the part of the filmmakers rather than a loose end left by accident.

How the Movie’s Ending Compares to the Book

‘The Last Sunrise’ is based on a 2025 novel by ‘After’ author Anna Todd, and the film’s ending diverges from the book’s in a meaningful way. In Todd’s original story, Ry recognizes Julián immediately after waking from surgery, and the two are shown happy and still together in an epilogue set a year later.

That epilogue goes further still, with Ry and Julián traveling between Mallorca and Texas for her ongoing hospital appointments, Isolde living in her restored childhood home with Mateo, and the disputed land protected after the deal with the company falls through. None of those specific details are confirmed as happening on screen in the film’s version of events.

The reason for the gap between the two versions traces back to how the project came together, since the adaptation was developed before the novel was even published, with Todd first selling the story as a feature and writing the book afterward. That timeline explains why the movie and its source material were never meant to be treated as interchangeable.

Critical reception for the film itself has been mixed, with some outlets describing the central romance as sappy and low on conflict despite praise for the cast. Even so, for viewers primarily concerned with whether Oriah lives, the film gives a definitive answer, even as her long-term future with Julián stays open to interpretation.

What Comes Next for Ry and Julián

Several sources told Deadline in June that Prime Video was eyeing a sequel to ‘The Last Sunrise,’ though it had not been officially greenlit at that point. That report suggests the studio sees room to continue Ry and Julián’s story beyond the ambiguity of the first film’s closing scene.

Screenwriter Anna Klassen confirmed on Instagram that the sequel script was already being written as of June 2026, calling it her baby’s first franchise and expressing excitement about spending more time with the characters, the island of Mallorca, and the film’s team. That timing means work on a follow-up began before general audiences had even seen how the first movie ends.

Reficco herself has hinted at wanting more time with the characters, telling Swooon she hopes there’s another one and that she wants to explore where Ry and Julián’s relationship goes next. If a sequel does move forward, it could give the franchise a chance to resolve the memory question the first film deliberately left hanging.

For now, audiences are left with a version of Ry’s story that trades a clean resolution for something messier and more open ended, closer to real recovery than a tidy fairytale. Given how differently the book and film treat that final moment between Ry and Julián, it’s worth asking which ending you found more honest to what these two characters have been through all summer.