Warning: Spoilers forDon’t Move.
The latest horror thriller from Netflix,Don’t Move,follows a bereaved woman named Iris (Kelsey Asbille) who recently lost her son, Mateo (Denis Kostadinov), during a hiking accident. At the beginning of the film, she returns to the cliff he fell from and contemplates jumping herself. With her son’s red boat in hand, she’s joined by a stranger named Richard (Finn Wittrock) who appears friendly, at least at first. Their conversation convinces her to keep living and the pair walk back to their vehicles. Given only their cars are in the parking lot, it becomes abundantly clear that Richard is hiding something. Having parked entirely too close to Iris’ vehicle, she’s unable to open her driver’s door all the way, which gives him the opportunity to tase her andtake her captive.
When she regains consciousness, her hands and feet are zip-tied in the back seat of Richard’s vehicle. She understandably begins to panic, but quickly devises a plan of escape. Foolishly, Richard never checked her pockets, so the knife she had taken with her that morning is still there. After cutting her hands free, she attacks Richard, but he manages to evade her before crashing the car head-on into the nearest tree. They tussle a bit before she escapes the vehicle and flees into the woods. Only then does Richard announce he injected her with a paralytic drug that’s likely to take its full effect in 20 minutes. As she runs away, her body begins to fail and the real terror of the film kicks in.
Don’t Move
What Happens to Iris After the Paralytic Drug Takes Effect?
As Iris frantically tries to escape Richard, her body begins to shut down as the paralytic drug starts to take effect. Equipped with a countdown on her smartwatch, the timer serves as an ominous warning that she’s unable to escape. With Richard on her tail, she climbs into the nearby river just as he warns her that she’ll be unable to swim. She floats on her back down the river before washing ashore near a cabin. With only seconds to spare,she crawls away from the riverbed just as her body completely stops moving.
Now relatively safe and away from Richard, a lawn mower lurks in the background only to stop mere feet from her head before a man, Bill (Moray Treadwell), turns it off and tends to her. With only the ability to blink, Iris answers his questions before he carries her into his cabin with the aid of a wheelbarrow. However, it doesn’t take long before there’s a knock at the door from her assailant. Iris quickly gives Bill a warning with her eyes, which prompts him to hide her behind his living room couch.
As Richard lies his way into Bill’s cabin, the man wonders whether Richard’s story about his mentally unstable wife might be true. However, when Bill discovers Richard has a working phone, despite his testament to the contrary, Bill clearly reneges on such a thought. By then, it’s too late and the pair grapple with one another beforeRichard stabs Bill and kills himimmediately after Bill dials 911. Richard then sets fire to the cabin to cover his tracks and almost drives away without Iris before she’s able to signal to him via the cabin’s blinds as she regains minor movement in her fingers.Set might have survived burning alive, but she’s now back in thegrips of a psychotic killer.
Richard’s Secret Requires a Change of Plans
Following her “rescue” from the burning house, Iris learnsRichard has a secret he’s been hiding. Upon receiving a phone call, which he answers on speaker, Iris learns thathe has a wife and daughter, who are seemingly unaware of his extracurricular activities. Unfortunately for Richard, they tell himthey’ll be joining him at the cabin the following dayin order to celebrate his daughter’s good grades. As such, Richard’s plans require him to pivot, which ultimately leads to his inevitable downfall.
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With Iris now in the passenger seat of Bill’s truck, as Richard attempts to return to the scene of their initial wreck, Iris is helpless once more. She begins to show signs of mobility again, but the moments are short-lived and futile. While stopped at the gas station, she’s unable to call for help, despite her best efforts. However, a woman notices that something is clearly off and promptly calls the police as the pair drive away. Unfortunately, the call for help leads to another death after a police officer fails to discover the truth quickly enough.
As Iris musters the words “help me” to the officer, Richard already has a towing chain in hand and swings it toward the officer’s head and kills him. He promptly puts the officer in his squad car and lights it all ablaze before swiping his gun. Having already pivoted following the surprise from his wife and daughter, he now must kick his altered plans into high gear. Now even angrier, he takes Iris to the final place he plans to keep her alive, a small canoe in the middle of the lake.
Mateo’s Boat Saves the Day
Thankfully, Iris begins to regain her ability to move. Unfortunately, the progress doesn’t last, which becomes clear when she attempts to fight back and inject Richard with his own paralytic drug. While she’s able to jab the shot into his leg, she’s unable to actually inject the drug. He subsequently drags her onto the lake in a small canoe where he clearly plans to let her drown.
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However, before Richard enacts his final plan, Iris asks to see Mateo’s red boat one last time, which is still in her pocket from their initial encounter.When he leans down to grab it, she’s able to swipe his knife and stab him under his chin. They tussle before she’s able to get the gun before him and shoot him multiple times before he falls into the wall. Unfortunately, bullets compromise the integrity of the canoe, which begins to sink into the water.
While Iris can clearly move a bit, she hasn’t fully regained her strength and ultimately sinks into the water with the boat.Just as she appears to be done for, she breaches the surface of the water and makes her way to shore. In the background, Richard can be seen clinging to life before Iris approaches him. As he gasps for air, Iris poetically tells him “thank you,” just as he told his dying girlfriend Chloe in her final moments, the same moment that ultimately transformed him intothe psychotic killerhe’s become.Stream on Netflix.
