Nuremberg (2025) ending explained: Can Douglas Kelley hold on to his morality?

Nuremberg 2025 tells a true-life story set after WWII, following army doctor Doug Kelley, played by Rami Malek, who dives into the minds of jailed Nazi figures. The film, helmed by James Vanderbilt, centers on his intense sessions with Hermann Göring, a top-ranking officer, portrayed by Russell Crowe, who was once Hitler’s right-hand man. Göring's finally being held accountable for the horrors he caused in that war.

Disclaimer: This article contains major spoilers for Nuremberg (2025).

The main question driving Nuremberg 2025 is whether Douglas Kelley can study men like Göring and still hold on to his own sense of right and wrong. Once the movie wraps up, one thing stands out: he doesn’t make it. Chasing down where cruelty begins throws him off track, showing how feeling too much, without limits, can tear a person apart from within.

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Nuremberg (2025): The aftermath of war

A still from the movie (Image via YouTube/ Sony Pictures Classics)

The tale begins in 1945, right after Hitler dies. Göring, along with roughly twenty top Nazi figures, gets captured and then hauled off to Nuremberg, a town deep in Germany, where a global tribunal forms under Judge Robert H. Jackson (played by Michael Shannon), ready to charge them with brutal wartime acts.

Kelley's main job was to keep track of inmates' psychological states. But he's after something bigger on his own time, figuring out how regular guys can rationalize mass murder, then using those insights to write a book that could stop future atrocities.

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Nuremberg (2025): The battle of minds

Kelley expects Göring to be a broken man but instead finds a clever manipulator who uses charm and intelligence to twist reality. Göring insists he only served his country and shifts blame to others in the Nazi hierarchy.

Their talks turn into a mind game. While Göring attempts to dominate each meeting, Kelley finds himself drawn in by the man’s reasoning; his usual detachment starts slipping away. Meanwhile, Justice Jackson pushes hard for details that could aid the case, leaving Kelley caught between doing what’s right medically and doing what feels morally necessary.

As the film progresses, Kelley’s fascination with Göring grows unsettling. The psychiatrist begins to see that the evil he is studying is not some inhuman force but something frighteningly familiar, born from pride, power, and self-deception.

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The verdict: Justice denied

The trial hits its peak once Göring is convicted and handed the death penalty. But just ahead of execution, he swallows a secret cyanide pill, stealing any chance for answers from both the judges and Kelley.

For Kelley, it is a devastating blow. His attempt to understand Göring ends not in revelation but in despair. He realizes that Göring’s monstrous actions were not the result of madness but of ordinary human choices taken to cruel extremes.

When the movie wraps up, Kelley's totally different. He used to be sure of himself and think through everything carefully; now he's lost that spark, weighed down by the things he witnessed and the nagging idea that anyone, even regular people, can do cruel things.

The ending answers its central question: no, Kelley cannot emerge from his study untouched. His work leaves him broken, not because he agrees with Göring, but because he sees how easily people justify the unforgivable.

Nuremberg closes on a somber note, reminding viewers that the lessons of the trials remain vital. Eighty years after the real tribunal, the film argues that the same arrogance, hate, and indifference that fueled the Nazis can still be found today.

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