Outback (2019) Ending Explained – Wiper Fluid, Pee, and The True Story Lie
Movie Details: Director: Mike Green | Runtime: 1h 26m | Release Date: 2019 | Star Rating: 2/5 Stars
Welcome to Knockout Horror. Today I am going to be explaining the ending to the Australian survival movie Outback from 2019. I actually reviewed this movie back in March and, while it didn’t get a ton of interest initially, it has suddenly gained a bit of traction – likely because it has recently hit Tubi. It seems survival fans are flocking to it, only to be met with some of the most farcical survival logic ever put to film.
Let’s be real: Outback is one of the sillier survival movies I’ve watched. From drinking concentrated urine to chugging wiper fluid, the film pushes the realms of believability into the stratosphere. If you haven’t watched it yet, you might want to check out my spoiler-free review first. Otherwise, let’s dive into this desert disaster.
⚠️ Warning: Major spoilers follow below.
The Ending in Brief
The TL;DR: Outback is not a true story; the characters Wade and Lisa are entirely fictional. Most similar cases occurred after the film’s release. In the finale, Wade dies of systemic organ failure after drinking toxic windshield wiper fluid and his own concentrated urine. Lisa survives by drinking Wade’s “saved” urine and staying by the car until a local farmer spots Wade’s SOS sign. She is rescued, having finally accepted Wade’s engagement ring from the passenger seat of the car.
Why did Wade die? Wade’s cause of death was acute methanol poisoning combined with severe dehydration and kidney failure. By drinking wiper fluid to “stimulate” urination, he ingested a lethal dose of anti-freeze chemicals.
What happened to Lisa? Lisa was stung by a scorpion (which, in reality, aren’t lethal in Australia) and spent most of the movie in a coma. She woke up, found Wade’s body, drank the urine he left for her, and returned to the car where she was eventually found.
Good to Know: The “Black-Headed Python” Lisa finds in the car at the end is non-venomous and harmless to humans, making her slow-motion panic another example of the film’s exaggerated survival drama.
Table of Contents
Outback (2019) Ending Explained
As always, no plot recap though I do want to lean into one ridiculous plot point before explaining the ending. To do that, we first need to dispel the biggest lie the film tells: that it is based on a specific true story.
The producers offer up text at the end claiming “Lisa currently lives in Minnesota,” but this is pure marketing – a “mockumentary” style framing used to make a below-average thriller feel more significant. There was no Wade, no Lisa, and no 2015 incident matching these exact details. It is an amalgamation of general “dumb tourist” tragedies that occur in the Australian desert every year.
The Proposal and the “Villainisation” of Lisa
The film begins with Wade (Taylor Wiese) and Lisa (Lauren Lofberg) on a flight to Australia. In a move that immediately establishes Wade as a narcissist, he proposes to Lisa in the middle of a crowded airplane. Lisa, not ready for marriage, refuses.
The writers, Mike Green and Brien Kelly, spend the rest of the film subtly punishing Lisa for this decision. The narrative frames her as the “bad guy” for wanting to build her life before becoming a wife, even as Wade leads them both to their doom through a series of increasingly idiotic decisions. This includes driving 3,000 KM into the outback with nothing but kangaroo jerky, 5 litres of extra fuel, and a single bottle of water.
Survival Mistake #1: Leaving the Vehicle
The #1 rule of surviving the Australian outback is: Never leave your car. A vehicle provides shade, a visible marker for aerial search teams, and resources like a battery or mirrors for signaling.
By walking away from the car to “find a hill”, Wade and Lisa effectively committed suicide. In the desert, everything looks the same, and once you lose sight of the vehicle, your chances of survival drop by 90%.
Wade’s insistence on “scouting” while suffering from an infected jellyfish sting (which he ironically wanted Lisa to pee on – another myth) is the catalyst for the entire tragedy. What’s this movies obsession with peeing and drinking pee?
Why Does Lisa End Up In a Coma?
Lisa ends up in a coma because she is stung by a scorpion. After a night or two of sleeping on the floor, the shit really hits the fan. Lisa is stung in her sleep by a scorpion, resulting in her entering a comatose state and not waking up the next morning.
If you would allow me to “Well Ackchyually” for a moment. Despite Australia’s willingness to find new and inventive ways to dispose of human life. Scorpions are not one of their specialties. A scorpion fatality has never actually occurred in Australia and no lethal species exist there. Australia is populated by more of the big pincers, bee sting, style scorpions. Was Lisa allergic?
Well that would have killed her outright, not put her into a coma. It’s just one of many plot devices added in to avoid jumping to the actual most likely, and most boring cause of their deaths – dehydration.
The “True Story” Deception: Fact vs. Marketing
The producers of Outback lean heavily on the “True Story” angle, even offering flavor text at the end: “Wade died of kidney failure. Lisa enrolled in nursing school and currently lives in Minnesota”.
The Reality: There is no Lisa, there is no Wade, and there certainly wasn’t a 2015 case involving a snake hijacking a car. This is purely a marketing tactic, designed to foster the same kind of “is it real?” buzz that fueled The Blair Witch Project or The Conjuring. If you search for the real people behind these events, you will find absolutely nothing but the movie itself.
The Inspiration: Writers Mike Green and Brien Kelly created a fictional story based on non-fictional events. They took the general concept of “tourists getting lost in Australia” – something that happens with tragic frequency – and turned it into an amalgamation of different cases.
The Verdict: Think of Wade and Lisa as placeholders for the “dumb tourist” trope. While real people do end up in these situations (like the woman in 2023 who survived on lollipops and wine for five days), the specific events of this movie are 100% fabricated. The only thing “true” about Outback is how dangerous the Australian desert actually is if you aren’t prepared.
Wade’s Fatal Choice: Wiper Fluid and Methanol
The most controversial part of Outback occurs when Wade manages to find the car again. Instead of staying there, he decides he needs to “produce” fluid to save a comatose Lisa. To stimulate his kidneys, he drinks the car’s windshield wiper fluid. This is, without exaggeration, the worst survival advice ever put to film.
Windshield wiper fluid is not just soapy water; it contains 30-50% Methanol to keep it liquid in cold weather and to give you that streak free shine. It also adds to the weirdly lovely smell of wiper fluid. Methanol is highly toxic to humans. Ingesting it doesn’t hydrate you; it causes metabolic acidosis, blindness, and systemic organ failure.
Wade’s noble sacrifice was actually a fast-track to the morgue. By drinking the blue liquid, he ensured that any urine he produced would be a toxic cocktail of metabolic waste and anti-freeze. What a dunce!
The Myth of Drinking Urine
Despite what “survivalists” like Bear Grylls might suggest, drinking urine is a terrible idea in a dehydration scenario. Urine is a waste product meant to remove salts and minerals from your body.
When you are dehydrated, your kidneys concentrate these salts. Drinking them is essentially the same as drinking seawater. It puts more strain on your already failing kidneys to process the toxins you just put back in.
In Outback, Lisa survives by drinking Wade’s urine. In reality, the high concentration of sodium and the remnants of methanol from the wiper fluid would likely have made her vomit, accelerating her dehydration even further.
The Ending: Rescue and “Redemption”
Lisa eventually wakes from her “scorpion-induced” coma (even though Australian scorpions aren’t lethal) and follows the trail Wade left with a stick. She finds him just as he is dying from the methanol he ingested. Wade gives her the bottle of urine he “saved” for her, tells her he loves her, and passes away.
Lisa drinks the urine – a moment that feels more like a fetishistic plot point than a survival tactic – and manages to stumble back to the car. There, she encounters a Black-Headed Python. While the film scores this with intense music to suggest another life-threatening threat, this species is non-venomous and generally harmless.
Lisa stays by the car, and the next morning, a farmer arrives to rescue her. He spotted Wade’s SOS sign made of rocks earlier in the movie.
Survival 101: What Wade and Lisa Should Have Done
If you find yourself lost in an arid environment like the Australian outback, your brain is your best tool – provided you don’t dehydrate it first. Here is how you actually survive:
1. Stay With Your Vehicle: This is the golden rule. A car is a massive beacon for search parties and offers protection from the sun and wind. Wade’s decision to walk “towards a hill” was his first fatal error. Even if the car is out of gas, it is your life support system.
2. Create a Ground-to-Air Signal: Search teams will look for you from the air. Wade got this right eventually, but he should have done it next to the car. Use rocks, branches, or even dig trenches in the sand to spell SOS. Make the letters at least 10 feet tall for maximum visibility.
3. Conserve Energy and Water: Survival is about doing as little as possible. Travel only at night if absolutely necessary. During the day, seek shade and stay still. Every drop of sweat is a drop of life leaving your body. Never ration your water to the point of collapse – drink it when you are thirsty, but don’t exert yourself.
4. Do NOT Drink Toxic Fluids: Wiper fluid, radiator coolant, and concentrated urine will all kill you faster than dehydration. They introduce toxins that force your kidneys to work overtime, using up the precious water remaining in your cells to try and flush the poison out.
5. Use Your Resources: A car battery can be used to start a signal fire. A side-mirror can be used to flash a signal at passing planes. Wade and Lisa had a toolbox of survival gear; they just chose to ignore it in favor of a long walk and a blue drink.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Outback (2019) a true story?
No. While the movie uses “Based on True Events” as a marketing gimmick and includes post-script text about the characters’ futures, the story of Wade and Lisa is entirely fictional. It is an amalgamation of general survival tragedies rather than a specific real-life case.
Did Wade die in Outback?
Yes. Wade died of systemic organ failure caused by drinking windshield wiper fluid and severe dehydration. His attempt to “hydrate” himself with toxic methanol and anti-freeze proved fatal.
What kind of snake was in the car at the end of Outback?
The snake was a Black-Headed Python. Despite the suspenseful music, these pythons are non-venomous and pose no real threat to humans. Lisa’s fear was largely based on her lack of knowledge about Australian wildlife.
Can you drink windshield wiper fluid in a crisis?
No. Windshield wiper fluid contains methanol, which is highly poisonous. Drinking it leads to blindness, liver failure, and death. The “true” cases the film hints at are often highly embellished or involved wiper fluid that was actually just plain water. My fiancee calls it forbidden juice because it looks delicious but will definitely end your life pretty swiftly.
Final Thoughts – Stay Near The Car!
Outback is a frustrating watch for anyone with a passing interest in survival. It tries to paint Wade as a hero and Lisa as a “reformed” woman who should have said yes to marriage, when in reality, Wade was an arrogant tourist whose poor choices killed him. If there’s any lesson to take from this movie, it’s this: stay by your car, bring more than one bottle of water, and never, ever drink the blue liquid under the hood or your partner’s piss despite his insistence. Thanks for reading!
Looking for more? If you enjoyed this breakdown, check out our review of Outback or browse our Horror Movie Lists.
A Note on Ending Explanations
While we aim to provide comprehensive explanations based on the events on screen, film analysis is inherently subjective. The theories and conclusions presented in this "Ending Explained" feature are personal interpretations of the material and may differ from the director's original intent or your own understanding. That's the beauty of horror, right? Sometimes the scariest version is the one you build in your own head.
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