It’s safe to say that I Came By – the new Netflix film from Under the Shadow director Babak Anvari – packs a fair few twists and turns into its runtime.
George MacKay, Hugh Bonneville and Kelly Macdonald all star in the thriller, which tells a story rooted in class conflict about a pair of graffiti artists who break into the flats of the super-rich to send them a message.
Throughout the film, Anvari frequently subverts audience expectations, wrongfooting viewers with a number of shocking moments – which, coupled with several time jumps, can make it a little tricky to keep tabs on exactly what is going on.
So if you’ve seen the film and need a little help unpacking the ending, we have everything you need to know below.
I Came By ending explained
A the start of the film, we’re introduced to graffiti writers Toby (George MacKay) and Jay (Percelle Ascott) who have developed a unique practice of breaking into the houses of the super-rich and painting a sign that bears their slogan: “I Came By”.
The pair have identified recently retired high court judge Sir Hector Blake (Hugh Bonneville) as their latest target, but Jay begins to have second thoughts about going through with their plan, especially given his girlfriend is expecting a baby and Blake is held in extremely high regard – revered as a saint who spends a good deal of time helping immigrants.
Meanwhile, we also meet Toby’s mum Lizzie (Kelly Macdonald), a counsellor who is shown to have an extremely volatile relationship with her son, who spends most of his time watching YouTube videos in his room.
The first big twist comes when Toby decides to break into Hector’s house regardless of Jay’s reservations – and he soon makes a shocking discovery. In the judge’s basement, there are compromising photos of a young man who appears to have been injured, as well as a locked door that appears to have something disturbing behind it.
Later he tries to fill Jay in on his discovery, but his friend isn’t interested in hearing it, so he instead calls the police who soon arrive search Hector’s basement, although they initially don’t seem to find anything incriminating.
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After a huge row with his mum, Toby decides to go back to Hector’s house and break in again – and here’s where things take a big turn. In the locked room, Toby finds a young man being held captive and promises to help him, but unfortunately, Hector has become aware that there is a trespasser on his property and arrives on the scene, murdering Toby with a blow to the head via a cricket bat – which he later destroys in a ceramic furnace.
Naturally, Lizzie becomes worried when Toby doesn’t return home for several days, and together with Jay she tries to get to the bottom of where her son has gone. During their search, Jay begins to realise that Hector must have had something to do with it, and so he heads to the judge’s house and takes a letter from his mailbox which he then pretends to Lizzie he had found in Toby’s room.
This prompts Lizzie to speak to the police about Hector’s potential involvement in the disappearance, and they soon conduct another search of Hector’s property, this time finding the hidden door in the basement. Although the secret room is now empty and Hector claims it is simply a panic room, DS Ella Lloyd (Franc Ashman) is unconvinced and arrests him (although he is later released when he calls up his friend and squash partner Superintendent William Roy.)
Lizzie continues to trail Hector and soon finds him speaking to Omid (Yazdan Qafouri), a young Iranian man who’s been disowned by his parents for being gay and is waiting for his asylum application to be processed. Omid arrives at Hector’s house after he promises to help with his situation, but Hector spikes his drink and starts making unwelcome advances – after telling Omid a story from his childhood. When he was younger, he explains, a young boy called Ravi was invited to live with them by his father, and Hector began to feel he was being replaced – which led Hector to almost kill him.
Unsurprisingly, this revelation causes Omid to panic and he climbs out the window when Hector isn’t looking. Lizzie – who has been waiting outside in her car the entire time – then rescues him and drives away, but not before Hector is able to see and recognise her.
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Later, Lizzie goes back to DS Lloyd and informs her about Omid – who won’t speak to the police himself for fear of his permanent residence application being quashed. DS Lloyd then tells her that Omid has gone missing, and after speaking with Jay – who refuses to risk breaking into Hector’s house himself – Lizzie decides to take matters into her own hands.
She lets herself in to Hector’s house using the keys he had left in a lockbox by his gate, but before she can search very far, Hector arrives and overpowers her. He ties her up in his basement and reveals that Omid is also being held captive in the hidden room. Hector then brutally kills both Omid and Lizzie and burns their remains.
A week after Lizzie’s dissapearance, Jay begins to grow worried and visits Hector’s house, only to discover that it is now up for sale. Growing ever more suspicious, he follows Hector to a celebration at his old school and then to his new country house where he breaks in and engages in a fight with the villain. Eventually, Jay is successful in overpowering Hector and punches him repeatedly, demanding to know where Toby and Lizzie are, although he naturally doesn’t get the answer he wants.
But Jay gets the last laugh – the film ends with the police arriving on the scene after he has driven away, with DS Lloyd discovering Hector beaten and bound, underneath a piece of graffiti art bearing that familiar message: “I Came By”.
I Came By is streaming on Netflix from Wednesday 31st August 2022. Sign up for Netflix from £6.99 a month. Netflix is also available on Sky Glass and Virgin Media Stream.
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