Charlie McDowell's Thriller, 'Windfall,' Goes out With a Bang — Here's the Ending Explained (SPOILERS)
Published March 23 2022, 10:00 a.m. ET
Spoiler alert: This article contains MAJOR spoilers for Windfall.
Charlie McDowell's Netflix thriller stars Jason Segel as the Nobody, a clumsy criminal left with no choice but to make it up as he goes along once the owners of the holiday villa he broke into return from a getaway.
Lily Collins, Charlie's wife in real life, plays the Wife, a woman struggling to come into her own because of her spineless husband (Jesse Plemons). Like Funny Games, Michael Haneke's movie charting the demise of a filthy rich couple, Windfall chalks up new questions about equality.
'Windfall' tells the unusual tale of a husband and wife who find an incompetent thief inside their home.
Somewhat similarly to Fresh and X, Windfall aims to subvert the stylistic conventions of a thriller. However, unlike other movies focusing on hostage situations, Windfall depicts an isolated and isolating predicament with a generous amount of humor. How does the story conclude? Here's the ending explained.
In Windfall, a moderately successful kidnapping quickly devolves into a tale about a dysfunctional marriage. Lily plays the Wife, while Jesse portrays the intolerable husband (known in the movie as the CEO) with a knack for generating profit regardless of the human cost.
'Windfall' ends with a scene portraying one character's unexpected self-emancipation.
At a crucial point in Windfall, the CEO decides to walk out because he no longer finds the Nobody scary.
However, the Wife turns out to be the one to ruthlessly murder her tormentors, the Nobody and her husband. She uses an imposing sculpture to obliterate the Nobody before finishing up her husband with his gun. Further, she gets to pocket the $500,000 in cash they originally intended to give the Nobody, likely using the money to start a brand new life.
The creative team behind Windfall cite the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, including the steady stream of news stories about millionaires multiplying their millions, as one of their many influences.
"For me, what I thought was interesting about this particular story coming out of this moment in time was feeling imprisoned to your own home, to your own space," Charlie told Entertainment Weekly. "We've always pictured our home and our place as the safe haven to the outside world. And what I was interested in telling was a story where, what if that space gets invaded and doesn't feel safe anymore?"
"I think that he is a guy who is feeling how a lot of us feel in a lot of different areas of our lives — like nothing makes sense, and like nothing is fair. During the pandemic, as we're being told the whole world was struggling, we were also watching billionaires get richer and richer," Jason Segel said of his character. "So there was just some sense of that generally: nothing was fair, this sucks, and it doesn't make sense, and I don't know what to grab onto. So I think that's what motivates my character."
Windfall is available on Netflix now.