Warning: Contains spoilers for See How They Run!
See How They Run is as much a mystery as it is a comedy, and its puzzling ending seems to leave a few questions unresolved. See How They Run blends loving homage with tongue-in-cheek parody as it explores its murder mystery and extremely self-aware in all that it does. While some plot strands that are included to provide mockery of an old trope can distract from the central mystery, they all serve a purpose in the larger scheme.
SCREENRANT VIDEO OF THE DAY
Inspector Stoppard (Sam Rockwell) and Constable Stalker (Saoirse Ronan) are called to the Ambassador Theatre to investigate a murder. Upon their arrival, they find that the victim is Leo Köpernick (Adrien Brody) an American director intent on turning Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap into a movie. A web of creative differences, legal issues, and blackmail soon unfolds in a plot laced with red herrings.
While Dennis, the Ambassador’s usher, is revealed as the killer in a classic scene in a library, his exposition explains a lot of his actions. However, there are elements that don’t quite seem to fit in with the story that he tells, and the meta-adaptation of The Mousetrap lends to some confusing moments. Here is the See How They Run ending explained in detail.
Who Was Inspector Stoppard’s Wife?
Throughout See How They Run, Sam Rockwell's Inspector Stoppard admonishes Constable Stalker not to “jump to conclusions.” However, she seems to put several logical pieces of the puzzle together when she combines a woman and child seen outside Köpernick’s room and Stoppard’s personal tale of lost love, a child that wasn’t his, and understanding the urge to act murderously in passion. However, when the woman from outside Köpernick’s room is found and has the same name as Stoppard’s wife (Joyce), it’s revealed that they are not the same person and the conclusion that Stoppard might be the killer is blown out of the water.
The identity of Inspector Stoppard’s wife, Joyce, is never revisited in See How They Run. This is ultimately because it’s not actually relevant to the plot. The confusion over Joyce’s identity is only used to set up the red herring plot around Stoppard, and once that is wrapped up, there is no need to reexamine the issue. The movie is primarily about the mystery, not Stoppard, so while his ex-wife might be seen in a See How They Run sequel, there was no need to show her in the movie. This whole side plot also serves as a fun nod and Easter egg for those familiar with the plot of Agatha Christie’s original The Mousetrap.
Why Did Dennis The Usher Kill?
It is revealed in the final act of See How They Run that the murders of Leo and Mervyn were carried out by Dennis Corrigan, the usher for Ambassador Theatre. He explains his motivations behind the killings, but does so quickly. Dennis was one of two brothers who were put into the foster care system, the other of whom died while in that system. In See How They Run, it is stated that Agatha Christie used this case as inspiration for The Mousetrap, and seeing his own tragedy played out for others’ enjoyment was more than Dennis could bear. By killing Leo, he hoped to stop a movie adaptation from happening, and by setting his corpse on the stage planned to have the play shut down. When this didn’t happen he killed Mervyn after hearing that he planned to further pervert his family’s story for financial gain, and when the play still continued he finally went after Agatha Christie herself.
Does See How They Run Ruin The Mousetrap’s Ending?
The play at the center of See How They Run, Agatha Christie’s The Mousetrap was first performed in the West End in 1952 and continued uninterrupted through to the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, having over 27,500 performances in that time. Despite that, thanks to Christie’s wishes and a line at the end of the play imploring the audience not to share the ending twist, the ending of The Mousetrap is not widely known. The Christie Estate has in fact been particularly critical of the fact that Wikipedia includes the full plot of the play, and the line in See How They Run about a movie adaptation not being able to be made until 6 months after the end of its first run is totally true. However, while See How They Run borrows a lot from The Mousetrap, the solution in the movie and in the play are different, and viewers can see both without having the other one spoiled (although there are some nods to the original solution in See How They Run).
Why Do Stoppard & Stalker Speak To The Camera At The End?
At the very end of See How They Run, Inspector Stoppard turns around in his theater seat and speaks directly to the viewer. When she realizes that he is doing so, Constable Stalker does the same while telling him off for interrupting the play. While this might seem strange, the fourth-wall breaking scene is another clever homage to The Mousetrap. As is briefly seen in the movie, at the end of The Mousetrap, Trotter (a role originated by Richard Attenborough) tells the audience that they are now accomplices to murder and should not tell anyone what happened. Stoppard is doing the same thing to See How They Run’s audiences as part of keep the mystery alive.
Did Agatha Christie Kill Fellowes?
During the climax of See How They Run, Agatha Christie appears carrying a tray of tea, one cup of which she has laced with rat poison. After farcically mixing up the cups, the butler Fellowes drinks this cup of tea and falls over. Not only does this appear to be his death, at the end of the sequence he is seen sprawled, unmoving, and fairly clearly dead on the couch. It seems that See How They Run casts Agatha Christie as a murderer who has killed her own butler, perhaps as a take on the old idea that “the butler always did it.” It is also possible that the killing of Fellowes is another meta-reference taking a jab at Julian Fellowes, who is known for Downton Abbey, but also wrote the screenplay for an adaptation of Christie’s novel Crooked House.
Did Köpernick Predict The Future?
In one flashback scene of See How They Run, Leo Köpernick is shown having story-boarded an action scene that is then played out almost exactly in the ending part of the movie. While this might seem to suggest that Adrien Brody’s character has the ability to predict the future, that is not the case. This is simply one more fun meta joke from See How They Run about the insistence that movie audiences require dead bodies, explosions, shock and awe for their attention to be held.