See How They Run is a whodunnit movie set in the 1950s against the backdrop of the production of Agatha Christie's play The Mousetrap in London's West End, where a Hollywood producer is keen to turn it into a movie.
There are initial complications when it comes to adapting the play for the screen, namely, Christie didn't want a movie until the theatrical run was over. But that becomes the least of their concerns when the director, Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody), is murdered in the theatre’s costume room.
The movie uses some of the classic tropes whodunnit fans know and love, poking fun at them along the way, and there's a great star-studded cast including Saoirse Ronan, Sam Rockwell, and Reece Shearsmith.
Like any great whodunnit, everyone wants to know the culprit and why they've done it, so you can read on to find out the answers to all that.
*WARNING — major spoilers for See How They Run below*
See How They Run ending explained: who was the killer?
Throughout the course of the movie, Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) are on the case to find out what happened to Leo Köpernick, with the pair going through a list of potential suspects.
It's no easy task and for a moment, Stalker convinces herself that Stoppard was responsible and is trying to cover things up, but this theory is ruled out once and for all when the killer does reveal themselves in a rather dramatic fashion.
Several of the other suspects receive an invitation to Agatha Christie's home, which they fall for, giving the killer the opportunity to ambush everyone and out themselves as the person responsible for Köpernick's murder.
This is your final chance to avoid spoilers because we're about to reveal the person responsible, and it's quite a shocking twist! Scroll down and we'll tell you everything...
After gathering the suspects at Agatha Christie's home, the killer is revealed to be Dennis the Usher (Charlie Cooper) who arrives on the scene and forces them all into the drawing room, and he's armed with a gun. Bet you didn't see that one coming! You did? Well done!
With a number of let's say, interesting, characters in See How They Run it's possible people forgot about the usher, but he certainly has his reasons for wanting Leo Köpernick dead, the main one being that he wanted production on the movie halted for good.
Why did Dennis kill Leo?
It turns out Dennis has some very personal reasons for why he wanted The Mousetrap stopped, and it's actually a pretty solid motive. It turns out he was the real boy whose case the story was inspired by, and he felt they were exploiting his life and traumatic story for profit.
So Dennis had killed Leo in an attempt to have things stopped for good, and then went on to kill screenwriter Mervyn Cocker-Norris (David Oyelowo) when his initial plans to stop the production had been thwarted.
Now that everyone was gathered in Agatha Christie's house, his final plan was to kill the author himself as revenge for what she had written about his life, but he had once again been foiled as the person he had rolled up in a carpet and brought to the scene isn't who he thought she was.
Dennis had kidnapped Edana Romney (Sian Clifford), with the real Christie in the kitchen next door and she had heard everything that was going on, giving her a chance to get her own revenge.
What happens to Dennis?
Any whodunnit involves the murderer facing some sort of consequence, and unfortunately for Dennis the Usher he meets a rather grisly end that puts an end to his killing spree.
Stoppard arrives on the scene and is greeted with chaos, where Dennis is trying to kill off Agatha Christie, but he's distracted when he goes to shoot the Inspector. This gives Christie a window, and she uses it.
In the gruesome finale, the author beats Dennis with a shovel, ensuring there'll be no more murders, with the case coming to a dramatic end. Because of this, production went ahead as planned and Stoppard and Stalker both received commendations for their efforts.
See How They Run ends with another homage to whodunnits, with Inspector Stoppard turning to the camera and, instructing the audience not to give away the secret as they are now accomplices to murder, breaking the fourth wall by using The Mousetrap tradition.
