The Killer ending explained

Director David Fincher has teamed back up with some of his longtime collaborators to make The Killer, starring Michael Fassbender. Here’s the ending explained in full.

Fincher has already given moviegoers around the globe classics such as Fight Club, Seven, and Gone Girl. Now he’s turned his attention to the life – and problems – of a professional hitman.

The film’s synopsis reads “Solitary, cold, methodical, and unencumbered by scruples or regrets, a killer waits in the shadows, watching for his next target. Yet, the longer he waits, the more he thinks he’s losing his mind, if not his cool.”

With the movie having already received a theatrical run and is now available to stream on Netflix, here’s the full ending of The Killer explained. Warning – spoilers ahead!

The Killer ending explained: As expected, there’s a hit

Michael Fassbender assumes the role of the titular killer – though true to form, viewers never learn of his actual name. He’s staking out a swanky hotel in Paris, where he’s been assigned a hit for a fairly affluent target. Describing his process in the form of voiceover, the killer waits for a number of days for his target to arrive, setting up shop in an abandoned building across the road. Just when he is about to give up, the target arrives, entering his hotel room with two security guards and a dominatrix. As the killer gets ready to take the shot, the dominatrix steps in the line of fire at the last minute, killing her instead.

From this point on, the hunter is now the hunted, fleeing the site of the crime and Paris just before the police manage to get there. He changes through a series of identities on the way back to his safe house in the Dominican Republic, where he finds that his girlfriend Magdala (Sophie Charlotte) has been attacked and left for dead. Tracking her down in the hospital, he’s told that she’s going to make it through her operation, with the killer now intent on finding those responsible.

The Killer is now the killed (possibly)

Finding out through intel that she was attacked by two assassins, the killer first finds the taxi driver who took them to his hideout, killing him. Hodges (Charles Parnell), an attorney, has been on the phone with the killer since he started out the Paris, and arranges things on the business end – leading the killer to believe that he’s responsible. The unnamed hitman heads to Louisana and breaks into his office, terrorizing Hodges and his loyal assistant. Destroying the electrical records, the killer takes Hodge’s life using a nail gun and gets assistant Dolores (Kerry O’Malley) to take him home to where the physical records are. He gets the names he needs, killing Dolores in the “kind” manner she requested.

Now, the killer knows that he’s looking for two people – known as ‘the brute’ (Sala Baker) and ‘the expert’ (Tilda Swinton). He drives to St. Petersburg, Florida, to look for said brute, breaking into his home after assuaging his dog, Diva. An epic fight scene breaks down, which includes a shower, a cheese grater, and Antiques Roadshow playing in the background. Finishing off the job, the brute’s house explodes, with the killer making his way to the next location.

Tilda Swinton gets binned off

In Beacon, New York, the killer finds the expert, accosting her as she takes a solo dinner in a restaurant. He sits with her while she calmly recounts events over both her career and the assassination. On their way out, the hitman kills her just before she’s able to pull a knife on him. The last person left on the list is the person who ordered the original hit, who turns out to be Claybourne (Arliss Howard), who is a billionaire fund manager.

Sneaking into his apartment complex, the killer breaks into Claybourne’s house and silently confronts him. Claybourne explains that he was a first-time client and was startled by the idea of his ordered hit going wrong. He says that Hodges told him he would tie up the loose ends, and Claybourne didn’t know what that entailed. The killer promises to kill Claybourne if he ever suspects that another hit is ordered against him. Heading back to his safe house, the killer begins to relax with a now-healed Magdala.

The Killer comes to Netflix on November 10. Catch up with more of our Netflix content below:

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