Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas star as a very unconventional couple in the new film Deep Water – the first feature in 20 years from the master of the erotic thriller, Adrian Lyne.
The film is adapted from a novel of the same name by Patricia Highsmith, and so it’s no surprise that it packs all sorts of twists and turns into its runtime.
The final act, in particular, includes some major developments – leading up to a thrilling climax that may well divide audiences. If you’ve watched the film and need a bit of help unpacking those final shots, read on to have the Deep Water ending explained.
Deep Water ending explained
Much of Deep Water’s runtime follows a repeating pattern – Melinda (Ana de Armas) finds a new young man with whom to begin an affair, and does so gleefully in front of her husband Vic (Ben Affleck) before each of them soon meets a sticky end. This pattern begins with Martin McRae, who does not appear in the film but whom we are told had recently been reported missing.
In an early scene, Vic tells Melinda’s latest boyfriend that he was responsible for Martin’s disappearance, claiming he murdered him. It’s not clear at this point if Vic is telling the truth or just messing with his love rival, but it certainly spooks the young man, who soon makes his excuses and leaves town.
Not much time passes, however, before Melinda has her eyes on another suitor – this time pianist Charlie De Lisle (played by Euphoria’s Jacob Elordi). While at a private pool party one night, Charlie is found dead in the water, and suspicion falls firmly on Vic, who was the last person to have been in the pool with him. Two people in particular publicly accuse Vic – Melinda and Don Wilson (Tracy Letts), a novelist who recently moved into the area and has not taken much of a shine to Vic.
Anyway, Vic is able to shrug off any police interest relatively easily, and soon Melinda has turned her attention to another love interest – this time a former boyfriend named Tony. One day Vic picks up Tony in his truck and tells him he’s taking him to a building site that might interest him, but it very soon becomes apparent that he has rather less benevolent intentions. He takes him to the spot – where he and Melinda apparently used to spend much time – and beats him to death with a rock, before leaving his body in a nearby gorge.
Soon afterward, Melinda happens to suggest that the family take a trip to the gorge for a day out – neither Melinda nor their daughter Trixie sees the body, but Vic is clearly a little scared of being caught. This fear becomes reality not long after when Melinda finds Tony’s wallet in Vic’s private lab – and it appears that he’d been found out.
Meanwhile, Vic has gone back to the gorge in an attempt to better hide the body but is soon intercepted by Don – who clearly realises that something fishy is going on. Don drives off to tell the police, yelling “Come get me now you piece of s**t” as Vic frantically aims to keep up on his bike – but he is unsuccessful in his mission when Vic falls in front of his car and forces him to veer off-road, with Don falling to his death.
Vic heads home, where he finds Melinda waiting for him. There she teasingly tells him that she “saw Tony” before we find out that rather than going to the police with Tony’s wallet, she has burnt all the ID cards and disposed of the evidence. In other words, the two of them are essentially in it together now – and this dark game of cat and mouse is what is keeping the spark in their marriage alive.
Deep Water is released on Prime Video in the UK on Friday 18th March 2022. Check out more of our Movies coverage, read our guide to the best movies on Netflix or visit our TV Guide to see what’s on tonight.
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