The ending of Netflix's Reptile explained
Netflix's latest thriller movie Reptile dropped on the streaming platform last Friday, bringing viewers a mysterious and chilling 'whodunnit' set in a small town.
Reptile follows Detective Tom Nichols (Benicio Del Toro) who is assigned the case of solving the murder of local estate agent Summer who has been found brutally murdered in one of her properties. As Tom's investigation takes many different twists and turns, you soon come to realise not everything is as it appears in this seemingly quiet town.
Alongside his partner Cleary (Ato Essandoh) and with the occasional clue from his wife Judy (Alicia Silverstone), Tom uncovers the truth of what really led to Summer's death. However, if like us you were a little confused by the film's ending and still had some questions you needed answering then this is the full ending of Netflix's Reptile explained.
Who killed Summer in Netflix's Reptile?
Netflix's Reptile begins by setting the scene for Summer's murder. Summer (Matilda Lutz) is an estate agent seen setting up one of her properties, Whitcomb, for viewing alongside her boyfriend Will (Justin Timberlake). Things seem tense between them and Summer is soon seen hanging out with her friend Renee (Sky Ferreira) telling her about a reoccurring dream she's having. Later, she doesn't attend Will's speech on selling houses and Will returns home disgruntled and sleeps on the couch.
The next day she head to Whitcomb where she discovers a snake's skin, she texts Will to come to the house and as she does we see a car pull up outside Whitcomb. Will sees Summer's text and heads over to the house in the evening, where he discovers she has been murdered.
Tom Nichols is then set on the case to uncover her murderer and there's a lot of suspects on his list. First up is Will, who Tom is pretty suspicious of but his interviews don't bring up anything of significance. Next up is Summer's husband Sam (Karl Gusman) who she was yet to officially divorce. And finally, there's Eli (Michael Pitt), a local guy who has a vendetta against Will and his family, after they took his father's farm from him many years ago, and Eli's father soon died by suicide as result.
Along with his partner Cleary, Tom discovers from a witness there was a man hanging around near the house with a limp. The police get CCTV footage of a Buick (the car we saw turn up) also near the house and they discover Summer had paint on the inside of her hand. DNA is found at the crime scene along with semen on Summer's body.
The DNA and semen comes back as Sam's, and along with Sam's weak alibi of going fishing the day Summer was murdered, the matching paint on his hand and similar tyre tracks at the scene of the crime, the police think they have enough evidence to arrest Sam.
Tom and Cleary head to Sam's house to arrest him, where he admits he and Summer were still sleeping together despite being separated. However, Tom and Clearly still want to bring him for questioning, but Sam manages to get hold of Cleary's gun and a tense shootout begins. The shooting ends with Tom killing Sam. The police also find large quantities of heroin discovered at Sam's property.
So case solved right? Yeah not quite. Something is niggling away at Tom about the case with Sam and he believes Sam was shooting at the police because of the drugs not because he killed Summer. However, the police close Summer's case.
Just as everything should be getting back to normal Eli breaks into Tom's home, terrifying Judy and causing her to shoot the pool (lol). As Eli is arrested for trespassing he leaves Tom a USB memory stick which he says will take Will and his mother down.
Using the memory stick, records of Summer's mysterious sales in which she earned no commission and the drug-related civil asset forfeitures, Tom begins to unpack the real case and discovers something truly shocking.
It turns out Will and his mother Camille (Frances Fisher) were running a major drug scam, that the police were all in on (apart from Tom and Cleary). Summer would sell properties that had drugs hidden away in them, the houses would then be forfeited and bought by a company called White Fish Assets.
White Fish Assets is owned by Will and Tom's colleague Wally (Domenick Lombardozzi). Wally's new security company he claims is making him loads of money (remember the Rolex?) is actually a front for the drugs operation. Will then sells the houses again and collects the profits.
Summer eventually worked all this out and this is why she was killed, as she was going to reveal the truth of the scam, with Tom's colleague revealing Summer made a call to the FBI in the last three months saying she wanted to report narcotics activity.
In the film it's not directly stated who exactly is the one to kill Summer, only the motives for killing her. However, we'd probably place our bets on Will.
How does Reptile on Netflix end?
After piecing all of this together Tom heads to captain Robert Allen's (Eric Bogosian) birthday party along with Judy. While everyone else is enjoying the party, Tom is pre-occupied with realising Wally is part of the operation. He tries to talk to Allen about it but they're interrupted by Wally.
Tom heads to the garage where he discovers the Chrysler from the crime scene, which Judy had correctly identified earlier in the film as the actual car at the scene, not the Buick the police had initially suggested it was. Upon seeing the car, Tom has the horrible realisation Allen is also part of the operation.
Allen enters the garage and says he was "keeping it for someone" in reference to the car. Tom and Judy are followed on their way home by a police car, who accompanies them home, getting Tom's suspicions up even more. He tells Judy to pack a bag and says they're not staying at home that evening. Allen calls and says he'll explain everything tomorrow at his house.
Tom meets up with the police chief Marty Graeber (Mike Pniewski), to tell him what's been going on and crucially gives him Eli's USB drive. Umm, Tom, we so don't have a good feeling about this. Marty appears to be stunned and agrees to go with Tom to Allen's house the next day.
Everything gets very awkward when they head into Allen's, with Marty asking Allen where the bathroom is. As Marty heads to the bathroom, Allen whispers to Tom: "You gave them the flash drive," which confirmed our suspicions Marty is in on it too.
Allen starts walking up the stairs and says to an unknown person "he knows, it's over", and he's shot instantly. Tom runs to the bathroom where Marty is heading out and the two face off before Tom shoots Marty. Wally then turns up and Tom and him have a shoot off, in which Tom also shoots Wally, but doesn't kill him. Wally begs him to "finish it" but he calls 911 instead.
Thankfully, Will doesn't get away with his crimes and is seen playing golf, when the FBI turn up to take him away. The film ends in a surprisingly wholesome moment with Tom enjoying his new kitchen sink tap.
Reptile is available on Netflix now
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