The Beach ending explained (spoilers)

[Stanval]

The tourists Richard (DiCaprio) gave the extra map to, eventually find the island. Richard begins to go insane, consistently thinking about Daffy (Carlyle) and how much he had in common with him. Richard is asked to get the map from the tourists, but they discover the marijuana field and get shot by the farmers. Richard asks Etienne and Francoise to leave the island with him, but the farmers travel to Sal's little town and hold everyone their. The Head Farmer orders them to leave, but Sal (Swinton) won't. The Head Farmer hands Sal a gun and says she has to shoot Richard if she wants to stay, because he made the extra map and got the tourists killed. She pulls the trigger and Richard's head but finds out the chamber isn't loaded. The Farmer smiles as the idea was to scare them off, rather than kill them. Sal and Richard start crying, while everyone else leaves. They leave Sal there as she believed in what they created so much that she couldn't adapt to any changes. Richard leaves Thailand. The last shot is of Richard looking at an e-mail of a picture of all his old friends on the beach that they took earlier.