Charlie: “Everyone thinks teenage relationships don’t last.”
Nick: “I never really thought that about us.”
Heartwarming and healing, as well as heartwrenching at times, creator-writer Alice Oseman and director Wash Westmoreland deliver a pitch-perfect, tenderly-crafted finale to this beloved series that feels like a hug from your best friend when you need it most.
Following three seasons of the hit Netflix adaptation of Oseman’s graphic novels, the Heartstopper saga comes to an end with this two-hour film helmed by Westmoreland. He is a veteran gay filmmaker with great credentials for the job. Both queer, like the 2001 festival hit The Fluffer, and acclaimed mainstream works, such as the period drama Colette starring Keira Knightley (watched as a “comfort movie” at one point by characters in Heartstopper Forever) and the affecting early onset Alzheimer’s indie Still Alice, which won an Oscar, BAFTA, and Golden Globe for its lead actress Julianne Moore. It is likely the latter, a sensitive character study that centres the emotions without being sentimental, that landed Westmoreland in the Heartstopper director’s chair. He clearly has a talent for working effectively with actors on painful, deeply emotional material, and the performances in Heartstopper Forever are some of the finest across the entire series.
As the film opens, rugby player Nick Nelson (Kit Connor) is in his final year at Truham Grammar and feeling anxious and overwhelmed about his future. Applying to university means that he will likely be several hours travel away from his boyfriend Charlie Spring (Joe Locke), who has another school year left to go. Staring down the blank page of his personal statement also has him questioning who he is (as Orla Gartland’s “Who Am I?” plays on the soundtrack), aside from being a good boyfriend and descent rugby player. Rather than sharing his troubled state of mind with Charlie, Nick turns to heavy drinking, then closes down and shuts Nick out. It’s a dire situation for the couple that leads to a resurfacing of Charlie’s eating disorder.
There is a mental health crisis in the UK that is particularly alarming among young men, too often societally conditioned not to express their feelings openly. While suicide was cited as the leading cause of death among people aged 20 to 34 by the UK Office for National Statistics in 2024. Thankfully things do not become that dire for Nick, but Heartstopper underscores the importance of not keeping severe stress, anxiety, or other difficult feelings hidden from those closest to us. It is something that Charlie calls attention to in his speech to his all-boys school as he launches his campaign to be elected head boy by his peers, while he also makes anti-bullying a central part of his pitch, referring to his own personal experience. The care of Heartstopper’s creators clearly goes beyond what’s shown on screen, as a mental health and wellbeing provider, Solas Mind, is named in the film’s end credits.
Dealing with such themes, woven into the narrative in all their complexity without feeling like afterschool special “issues”, elevates Heartstopper even beyond the vitally affirming LGBTQIA+ representation that it offers. Both to its younger viewers, close to the age of the characters, and much older viewers, such as myself (a 90s teen), still yearning to watch young queer and trans characters—in a hit show available to millions on a major international platform, no less—who were scarcely seen when we were growing up, and certainly never centered in their own shows.
There is a nice nod to that older generation of Heartstopper fans, and a beautiful example of enduring queer love, in a brief but touching scene featuring Sir Derek Jacobi and his real-life husband, Richard Clifford, who have been together for nearly 50 years. They play a couple, Pete and Len, who are regulars in the coffee shop where Charlie has a part-time job. As Charlie observes the pair, it is a window into the care and consideration the older men have for one another, an example of queer elders that no doubt gives Charlie hope for a future that until now he has found it difficult to envision for himself. In an earlier coffee shop-set scene, keep your eyes peeled for a cute cameo from Heartstopper executive producer Patrick Walters picking up a latte.
Although there is a communication breakdown between Nick and Charlie, just as they are marking their two-year anniversary as boyfriends, the scenes that they share are electric. When it comes to the sex, delicately choreographed by David Thackeray (Sex Education, It’s A Sin), it is of course about pleasure and expressing love, but more than anything it is about deepening the connection between the couple. As the characters have matured so have the performances of Connor and Locke who both offer rich, engaging, and nuanced work that is as much about what is held back than it is about what is spoken. Both play the emotionally charged heartache and mutual adoration exquisitely, while Oseman and Westmoreland give the teenagers’ feelings no less weight than adult characters would be afforded in other material, as they evoke the intensity of experiencing everything for the first time.
While Nick and Charlie’s romance is very much the core of this final chapter, based on Oseman’s sixth book in the series, the friends that form their chosen family all have their moments here too. With an economy demanded by the film’s runtime, Oseman deftly allows us to see how every character has evolved and begun to settle into their burgeoning adult identities. There are some uplifting group scenes, including one set at a gay club on Pride day, with Darcy (Kizzy Edgell), Tara (Corinna Brown), Isaac (Tobie Donovan), and Imogen (Rhea Norwood), and the gang. While Elle (Yasmin Finney) and Tao (William Gao) confront the looming reality of being separated as a result of Elle’s choice to attend art school in Berlin.
The relationship between Charlie and his amusingly deadpan sister Tori (Jenny Walser) continues to be a delight, as she reminds her younger sibling not to make assumptions about people’s sexuality from what he observes on the outside. While Nick, who has had a fraught history with his older brother David (Jack Barton), is encouraged by him to see the wolrd as more complicated than being filled with “heroes or villains” in an impactful scene as the two come to an understanding. Eddie Marsan delivers subtle and engaging work as Charlie’s affable counsellor, Geoff, who offers calm guidance and reassurance via video calls.
As with the first season (when Nick’s mother Sarah was played by Olivia Colman), one of the most affecting scenes in the film sees Nick opening up to to his mum (portrayed here by Anna Maxwell Martin) about how he has been feeling and reflecting on the role that his father’s neglect and psychological abuse has played in how he deals with the world. It is a deeply meaningful exchange for the characters with exceptional work between Connor and Martin, who is such an expressive listener.
Some of the film’s lighter moments come courtesy of Truham teachers Mr. Farouk (Nima Taleghani) and Mr. Ajayi (Fisayo Akinade), who finally got together as a couple on a school trip to Paris. They encourage Charlie in his endeavor to create a Pride Club, a “safe space” for LGBTQIA+ kids at school, which he becomes intent upon after he witnesses a vulnerable young student, Alfie (an adorable Caleb Evers) being bullied. A kid who he can clearly see his younger self in. It leads to a heartening, hopeful scene of queer community.
Although the headmaster (Alan Turkington) doesn’t appear to be homophobic, he isn’t exactly an enthusiastic ally, and is reluctant to officially sanction the group. Making Charlie’s determination to go ahead regardless all the more moving. As someone who used to hide in the school library to get some solace from the constant barrage of homophobic slurs directed my way in my teenage years, I can only imagine what a resource like this would have meant to me and my sense of confidence and wellbeing in my adolescence. For many young people, just seeing this play out on screen will no doubt be a comforting beacon.
Heartstopper has never depicted a queer utopia, the world of the show has always acknowledged the existence of anti-LGBTQIA+ sentiment. The focus has never been on that homophobia or transphobia though, but rather finding queer and trans joy in life despite the challenges. Oseman reflects the recent regression in the acceptance of LGBTQIA+ people, especially trans folks, that has come with a surge in popularity for extreme right-wing politics in the UK.
In the third season, Elle was the subject of a radio interview profiling her as a young artist during which she was suddenly pressured by the interviewer to be a trans spokesperson, defending trans people to a dehumanising media intent on seeing “both sides” of a “debate”. This film offers another timely and powerful speech by Elle, beautifully delivered by Finney, about the importance of being visible and vocal at Pride, standing together as one community, as trans rights are under attack. It is a speech that makes the Truham Pride sequence all the more stirring, featuring real life-activists such as Jake Graf.
As you would expect from a Heartstopper movie, there are plenty of perfectly placed needle drops, overseen by music supervisor Matt Biffa. But the music choices only enhance and amplify the tone of a scene, they are never overpowering or relied upon to give the film its dynamism. That comes courtesy of Todd Downing’s dexterous editing, giving momentum while also affording certain scenes an hurried pace and room to breathe when called for. Cinematographer James Rhodes (who shot both the short and feature versions of Sam H. Freeman and Ng Choon Ping’s stylish Femme) keeps us close to our protagonists, with immediate and intimate work, and the film radiates an appealing warmth, often leaning into an autumnal palette.
While modern tech like iPhones seem to only hinder communication in the film—both Nick and Charlie start writing multiple text messages to one another that they delete before sending—there is an emphasis on the importance of being present with our loved ones, the human connection of looking into each other’s eyes. There is a yearning for the tactile, for something tangible. Physical photographs–taken on an analogue camera—posted on walls, in frames, and in scrap books are treasured here. They serve to evoke the heart-aching nostalgia for the recent past as these characters are acutely aware that their lives will never be the same again. We feel that urgent desire to capture and preserve the fleeting moment.
In this abrasive world, what makes Heartstopper so endearing is the gentleness with which it handles its cherished characters. That care is palpable in this bittersweet but satisfying conclusion. Filled with illustrations from the Heartstopper graphic novels, the end credits sequence is one of the most beautiful I’ve ever seen. Be sure to hit that watch credits button on your remote as you take in everything that just unfolded over the past two hours. Nick and Charlie forever. Heartstopper forever.
By James Kleinmann
Heartstopper Forever launches globally on Netflix July 17th, 2026. Heartstopper: Ending on a Hi, a behind-the-scenes special celebrating the conclusion of one of Netflix’s most beloved series, launches on Netflix July 24th, 2026.
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