The following article contains spoilers for The Killer.
David Fincher's The Killer is one of the most gripping and surprising thrillers of recent years... but it doesn't start that way,
Over the opening 10 minutes of The Killer, the legendary director of Se7en, Fight Club, The Social Network, and Gone Girl simply depicts the monotonous routine of Michael Fassbender’s unnamed assassin as he stakes out a Parisian hotel room where his next target is staying at an unknown time.
All we see is the killer practicing yoga, eating Egg McMuffins, listening to The Smiths, and giving narration about his process. When his potential victim (Endre Hules) does finally arrive, despite his meticulous preparation, the killer accidentally shoots the dominatrix (Monique Ganderton) who is in the room with him instead. He then narrowly escapes Paris on his Vespa, before flying back to the United States under one of his copious fake names.
When he finally arrives in the Dominican Republic, though, he discovers that his home has been ransacked and there’s blood smeared across the walls. His girlfriend Magdala (Sophie Charlotte) has been brutally attacked. The killer immediately deciphers that he has been double-crossed and sets out for revenge, which ultimately leads him to the client who ordered the Paris hit in the first place, Claybourne (Arliss Howard).
Rather remarkably, though, the killer ultimately decides not to kill Claybourne. Here’s why.
Why doesn't The Killer kill Claybourne?
Having seen just how ruthless and cold-blooded the killer is over the preceding hour and a half of the hugely entertaining assassin thriller, you can’t help but assume that he’s going to mercilessly kill the billionaire hedge funder manager Claybourne in his penthouse suite.
After sneaking into his lavish Chicago apartment using a keycard clone machine he purchased on Amazon, he points a gun at Claybourne’s head and asks him if he was responsible for the retaliatory attack on Magdala. Claybourne explains that after the killer failed to assassinate the target, he became afraid, especially as this was the first time that he’d ever used a hitman.
The killer’s handler Hodges (Charles Parnell) was the one who suggested to Claybourne that they should tie up loose ends and erase all traces of the mission. But he had no idea that would actually involve hurting the person closest to the killer. Claybourne insists that he has no problems with the killer.
Just when you expect the killer to dispatch with Claybourne similar to how he has killed Hodges, Dolores (Kerry O’Malley), the Brute (Sala Baker), the Expert (Tilda Swinton), and Leo (Gabriel Polanco) throughout the film, he decides that he trusts Claybourne’s explanation and allows him to live.
But only after the killer warns that he will return and murder Claybourne if he suspects another hit has been put on him or his girlfriend. The killer then tells a still terrified Claybourne that he won’t see his death coming in the slightest if he does have to come back to kill him.
The Killer concludes with Fassbender’s assassin back in the Dominican Republic, sitting alongside Magdala, having seemingly retired. While he soaks up the sun, sips on a drink, and enjoys the simple pleasures of life, he tells the audience over his departing voiceover that he is now “one of the many,” instead of “one of the few.”
Ultimately, we're left somewhat in the dark over the exact reason why the killer doesn’t kill Claybourne. He might genuinely believe that this incredibly rich man poses no more threat to him and Magdala and that, having been scared witless by his only purchase of an assassin, Claybourne will never go into the professional killing business again.
The killer also might believe that, having already killed the five people responsible, he’s disposed of the individuals that actively meant to cause him and Magdala pain, and Claybourne was just a pawn in Hodges' plan to dispose of the killer and get the $8 million in his bank account.
Or, maybe, the fact that he messed up the original assassination and the act of committing the subsequent murders convinced the killer that the time was nigh for him to finally retire. Ultimately, The Killer leaves the reason for his leniency over Claybourne up to the viewer’s interpretation and is all the better for it.
The Killer is now available to watch exclusively on Netflix. If you've wrapped up The Killer and need something else to stream, check out our picks for the best Netflix shows or the new movies coming our way soon.
