The Good Nurse ending explained: Does Charles Cullen get caught and go to prison?

Netflix’s latest release about another serial killer comes out today with The Good Nurse. The film, which has received favorable reviews, stars Academy Award winners Jessica Chastain and Eddie Redmayne as real-life people Amy Loughren and Charles Cullen, respectively. If you’re looking for a chilling thriller in time for the spooky season, we’d recommend checking this one out. The story is frightening given it’s based on true events, and the acting is great.

The new movie follows the story of a nurse and single mom living in New Jersey, Amy (Chastain). She works the night shifts at Parkfield Memorial Hospital hospital and unfortunately, suffers silently from cardiomyopathy. Despite urges from her doctor to take a medical leave from work, she doesn’t have insurance, which leaves her no choice but to keep going. When a new nurse starts working alongside her at night, she’s warmed by the support and kind words from the man, Charles (Redmayne). Little does she know he has a criminal background and no plans on stopping.

Spoilers ahead for The Good Nurse on Netflix.

Amy is shocked to see patients who are on the upswing start to pass away suddenly at the hospital, and as it turns out, Charles is the one to blame. It’s discovered that he’s been purposefully injecting IV bags with insulin, something that proves to be deadly.

This revelation devastates Amy, as not only have many people died because of Charles but also because she let him into her life and into her children’s lives. The two nurses become very close after Charles begins working at Parkfield, which makes the situation all the more hurtful. Amy ultimately works with detectives to take him down.

Does Charles Cullen get caught in The Good Nurse?

Just as he did in real life, Charles does get caught in The Good Nurse. At the end of the film, Amy is able to get a confession out of the serial killer after the detectives fail to do so. She comes into the interrogation room where he’s being held and coerces him into talking. He begins listing the names of patients he’s killed, at Parkfield and at previous hospitals. When Amy asks him why he did it, his answer is simple: “They didn’t stop me.”

Before the credits start to roll, we see text on the screen explaining what happened to the real-life Charles next. In the end, he confessed to the murder of 29 people, although it’s said to be believed the number is closer to 400. He’s currently serving multiple life sentences in the New Jersey State Prison in Trenton.

We also get a short scene of Amy and one of her daughters as they cuddle up in bed to nap together. Text on the screen appears again, informing us that Amy was able to get her heart surgery and now lives with her family in Florida, still a practicing nurse.

To read more about the real-life story of Charles Cullen, check out our post here.

The Good Nurse is now streaming on Netflix.