Destroyer: Ending Explained

Destroyer sees Nicole Kidman deliver what is arguably her best performance in years. The film itself has a lot to unpack from it and throughout this article I’ll be breaking down everything that you need to know about the moviitsd it’s incredible ending.

There will be heavy spoilers here, so if you don’t want to know anything about Destroyer, then I highly suggest that you turn off now.

For everyone else, I’m Deffinition and Welcome to the channel where I ruin it so you don’t have to.

Destroyer: Plot Synopsis

Destroyer takes place over severak time periods with the movie’s opening circling round to conclude the majority of it’s story. In that initial scene follow we Detective Erin Bell, played by Kidman, who arrives at a crime scene. At this crime scene lies a gunshot victim with three tattooed dots on the back of his neck. There lies a bunch of purple-dye stained dollar bills around the victim and Bell informs the officers at the scene that she knows who did it. She returns to her car completely exhausted to sit down and rest.

At the police station. she discovers that someone has sent her a dye stained bill as a message and this leads her down a fateful path.

Flashback Frenzy

In flashback, we see a much younger looking Erin meeting undercover agent Chris played by Sebastian Stan. The two have been tasked with investigating a gang that commits bank robberies and are pretending to be a couple.

In the present, we see that some of the gang have been incarcerated whilst others are on the run. Erin is attempting to track down the gangs Sociopathic leader named Silas and in a further flashback, we see him forcing members to do crazy things like play Russian Roulette for his entertainment.

The film bounces back and forth between time periods and focuses on Erin trying to track down the Gang members and leaders whilst rekindling the relationship that she has with her daughter named Shelby who is out of control. Eventually, her trail leads her to a member named Arturo who, in exchanges information with her after Eric catches him. This leads her to Silas’ attorney who mocks her and blames her for Chris’ death during a botched robbery attempt. The attorney calls for security who brutally beat her midsection before she is able to get the upper hand and get the jump on the attorney. Eventually, she gets the information out of him by pistol whipping him until he’s a bloody mess and he informs her of a drop that Silas’ girlfriend will be doing.

Getting The Drop On Silas

Erin arrives to see this and similar to herself, time has not been kind to Silas’ girlfriend who is now a drug addict. After following her she learns that they are just about to commit another bank robbery and radios for help, before busting out a shotgun and stopping the robbery. When Silas’ girlfriend makes a run for it, Erin chases her and once again gets hit in the middsection several times in the same place that the security officer damaged before. She overpowers her and takes her phone, leaving her for the police to find and also giving her a way to contact Silas.

Shelby has ended up in hospital after a bar fight with Jay so Erin tells her Ex-boyfriend, Ethan, to take the girl and move to another town and start a new life. She promises him lots of money and in a flashback, we discover that Shelby is actually Chris’ child that the two concieved when they were undercover. They plan to go ahead with the robbery and to keep some of the money themselves, and will lie about what happened.

This comes to fruition when Erin arrives at a storage unit that she hid after that initial robbery. Upon openining it though she discovers that it has been covered in purple die. She takes out the little amount that is usable and goes to Jay, offering it to him on the proviso that he never contacts Shelby again which he accepts.

After this we finally see the bank robbery fully play out. Everything seemed like it was going to plan until a dye pack explodes in the money when they are leaving. Silas returns to the bank to murder the staff that he told not to put dye in and so Chris intervenes, identifying himself as an undercover agent. Silas kills him and the bank teller and when Erin sees that Chris doesn’t leave she is devastated. She drives away and has to crash the car in order to escape after suspicion arises as to whether she is a cop too.

In the present, Erin has dinner with Shelby and Erin apologises for everything, blaming herself that her father died. The two share a moment before Silas’ girlfriends phone goes off with a text from Silas.

Dye For The Money

When she meets him at the drop point, Silas is amused and asks if she got the dyed dollar that he sent. Erin shoots and kills Silas and spreads the dye stained bills around him which of course reveals that he was the corpse at the beginning of the film. Now we have the context that Erin did it which makes her reveal that she knows who it was much more poignant. She leaves a note that will allow the police to trace what has happened before lifting up her shirt to reveal intense bruising all over and is clearly suffering from internal bleeding. Erin returns to her car in the same scene from the opener and looks completely exhausted.

We then get a flash back to when Erin and Chris decided to take the money for themselves. It becomes clear that Chris didn’t really want to do it but Erin begged him until he agreed to. Which of course concludes that she did indeed causes Chris’ death and has been on this vendetta for justice due to guilt.

In the present Erin dies from her wounds her last memory being that of her and her daughters happiest moment together.

Your Thoughts

So, what were your thoughts on Destroyer? Did you enjoy it and is there anything I missed? Comment below and let me know and if you enjoyed this video then please like it and check out my breakdown of 2019s first horror movie: Escape Room, which will be linked at the end.

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