‘Reptile’ Ending Explained: Benecio del Toro’s Whodunit Netflix Movie Is Confusing AF

Reptile on Netflix is a new crime thriller whodunit that really makes you pay attention in order to figure out who, in fact, done it.

Directed by Grant Singer, with a screenplay co-written by Grant, Benjamin Brewer, and Benicio del Toro, Reptile began streaming on Netflix today, after premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival earlier this month. It stars del Toro as a police detective tasked with solving the murder of a young, beautiful real estate agent. But he quickly—well, not quickly, considering the movie is 2 hours and 14 minutes long—realizes this murder is part of a much larger conspiracy plot.

Also starring Justin Timberlake, Alicia Silverstone, Eric Bogosian, Ato Essandoh, Domenick Lombardozzi, and Michael Pitt, Reptile is a movie full of great performances and a sadly overloaded, confusing plot. There are plenty of red herring scenes that seem important, but then are not, and plenty of seemingly unimportant scenes that in fact, are crucial to understanding what the hell is going on.

If you didn’t catch everything, no need to fret, because Decider is here to help. Read on for the Reptile plot summary and the Reptile ending, explained.

Reptile movie plot summary:

Will Grady (Justin Timberlake) and his girlfriend Summer (Matilda Lutz) are realtors, who are clearly up to something shady. Also, their relationship is on the fritz. One day, Will finds Summer’s dead body in one of the empty houses they were trying to sell. She’s been stabbed to death.

Enter Detective Tom Nichols (Benicio del Toro), who is assigned to investigate the case with his partner, Detective Dan Clearly (Ato Essandoh). Tom is a good cop and well-liked in the department. Tom is married to a woman named Judy (Alicia Silverstone). Judy’s uncle Allen (Eric Bogosian), is the police captain and Tom’s boss. Tom, Allen, and another police buddy named Wally (Domenick Lombardozzi) are all close friends.

The list of suspects for Summer’s murder includes: Will, the boyfriend; Summer’s ex-husband Sam Gifford (Karl Glusman); and Eli Phillips (Michael Pitt), a man who was screwed over by Will’s family realty company. At first, most of the evidence points to Sam Gifford, the ex-husband. Tom and Dan pay a visit to interrogate Sam, but then Sam pulls a gun on the cops and tries to run. In the shoot-out that follows, Tom kills Sam.

It turns out that Sam had a lot of drugs on him, which is why he tried to run. Tom watches one of the cops wrap up the drugs in blue snowman duct tape. The other cops and the media seem to accept the story that Sam was Summer’s killer, even though he never confessed. Tom thinks something doesn’t add up. To the bemusement of his boss Allen, Tom insists on taking a teeth mold of Sam’s corpse, to see if the bite marks match the bite marks on the victim.

Now let’s skip over a bunch of red herrings and confusing, non-relevant information. Sometime later, Tom sees a news report about a drug bust and notices that the drugs featured in the newsreel have that same snowman duct tape. The implication here is that the police planted the drugs to bust some poor kid. Who is that poor kid? His name is Rudy Rackozy (Owen Teague). Eli Phillips—that guy who was wronged by the Grady family—realizes that the Rudy kid busted for drugs also worked for the Gradys at one point. (He realizes this by looking at a poster, so it’s easy to miss.) Could it be that the Grady family is taking out anyone who might squeal?

That’s definitely what Eli thinks. Eli breaks into Tom’s house to tell him that he thinks the Gradys are crooks. Eli says that Summer was being ripped off by a company called White Fish, and he says the Gradys are laundering drug money through their phony real estate business. That’s why Summer never made any commissions on her sales. Eli leaves behind a thumb drive full of proof. Tom goes through the files on the thumb drive, which do seem to prove that the Grady’s were laundering drug money (aka, pretending they made their money from real estate via a sham operation, when they were actually making money from drugs) through a few different phony companies.

Tom all that confirms that the same drugs found on Sam Gifford were used to frame Rudy Rackozy. Hmm, this smells a lot like dirty cops. Will pays a visit to Eli, to demand back the thumb drive that Eli stole. We now have confirmation that Will is definitely a bad guy. But wait, someone else shows up to help threaten Eli! We don’t yet see who it is.

Reptile movie ending explained:

Cut back to Tom, who is now suspicious of everyone around him. While attending a party at his boss Allen’s house, Tom finds the exact car that was at the scene of the crime when Summer was killed, which police have been looking for. It’s even missing the hub cap. That’s pretty darn suspicious. Allen urges Tom to let it go, and promises he will explain everything, if Tom comes by the next morning.

Instead, Tom takes the thumb drive with evidence to the chief of police, played by Mike Pniewski. Tom is a good cop, and he’s determined to do the right thing. Tom and the chief pay Allen a visit the next morning, “to talk.” While the chief is using the bathroom, Allen tells Tom to run. “You gave them the drive! They know everything!” Allen says. Huh? Them?

BANG! Then the police chief shoots and kills Allen. Whoa! This conspiracy goes all the way to the chief of police! It was likely the chief who showed up to threaten Eli in that earlier scene.

After a struggle—in which Tom injures his hand—Tom kills the police chief. His final opponent? Wally, his old buddy from the police station. Tom shoots Wally but doesn’t kill him. Wally tells Tom to finish the job, but instead, Tom calls 911. Still playing by the book!

In the final sequence of the film, we see Will getting arrested by the FBI, and we see Judy helping Tom heal his injured hand. This is a call-back to the beginning of the film, where Tom said he cut his hand in a kitchen injury. At the time, it seemed suspicious—like maybe he fought with his wife—but now it seems that, along with a dozen other beats in this movie, was a red herring. The only person Tom is able to trust in the end is Judy, and she is the one who helps him to heal. Phew! Did you get all that?

Who is the killer in Reptile on Netflix?

Will Grady, aka Justin Timberlake. (Not to brag, but I totally called that when the trailer dropped. It’s always the boyfriend.) But the way this is revealed is via a fairly confusing flashback. Tom is chasing down yet another lead, trying to figure out who Rudy Rackozy called 17 times on the day Summer died. Although it’s not said out loud, we are meant to realize that it was Will that Rudy called. Then, in a brief flashback, we see Will standing over Summer’s body as she dies. It’s way too subtle, especially given that later there is a dream sequence involving Will that turns out not to be real. This is super confusing!

But, I do believe that we’re meant to infer from the flashback scene that Will killed Summer. Summer, we learn, was about to go to the FBI and blew the lid on the whole drug laundering operation. So, Will killed her, and the police tried to pin it on the ex-husband, by planting evidence at the murder scene. But they weren’t counting on Tom being such a good cop.

Again: It’s always the boyfriend.