By Lewis Knight

Published: Wednesday, 01 December 2021 at 12:00 am

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This is one Western that is bound to get people talking.

The Piano director Jane Campion helms the drama The Power of the Dog which is set in Montana, USA in 1925.

The film focuses on Phil (Benedict Cumberbatch) and George Burbank (Jesse Plemons) who are wealthy ranch owners but are very different people.

The headstrong and controlling Phil dominates the ranch and is happy to live a simple life with little ambition for the ranch, but George has big plans and desires to marry and broaden his horizons.

Enter the widow and inn owner Rose Gordon (Kirsten Dunst) who catches George’s eye and swiftly becomes his wife.

As Rose and her awkward teenage son Peter (Kodi Smit-McPhee) come to live at the ranch, Phil does all he can to make Rose feel alienated and pushed out.

However, Peter’s involvement in the tale prompts secrets and unexpeected behaviour to arise from Phil.

So, as the shocking climax unfolds, just what exactly goes down and who is responsible?

**Spoiler warning for The Power of the Dog**

The Power of the Dog ending explained

After initially tormenting and bullying the effeminate Peter on the ranch in front of the ranch employees, Phil begins to take the teenage boy under his wing and they spend more time together.

The closeness of Phil and Peter causes Rose to spiral in alcoholism.

As they take part in the business of the ranch, Peter slowly opens up to Phil, revealing that he found his father’s dead body after committing suicide.

Phil, meanwhile, begins to plait a lasso for Peter but when Rose sells the cattle hides Phil was using to buy gloves in a move to get back at him, he can’t continue.

Peter produces a hide from a dead cattle for Phil to use and slowly, Phil begins to open up about his closeness to his own late mentor, Bronco Henry, who he still idolises.

Phil also cuts his hand while on a fencing job with Peter.

During one conversation, Peter notices the shadows on the mountainside that appear as a snarling dog, which impresses Phil as only a few tend to notice it.

While working on the lasso into the night at the barn, Phil recalls an occasion when he and Henry huddled together for warmth in freezing weather, Peter asks if they were naked. Phil doesn’t answer, hinting at his repressed homosexuality.

The next morning, Phil does not show up for his breakfast, prompting George to check on him in bed and he is sick with his wounded hand infected. 

A sick Phil is intent on handing the finished lasso to Peter but is taken away to the hospital.

Phil dies and George buries his brother. At the funeral, a doctor confirms that Phil probably died from anthrax poisoning.

While anthrax is handled on the ranch, George notes how careful Phil was with his work.

At home, Peter reads the bible verse Psalm 22:20: “Deliver my soul from the sword; my darling from the power of the dog.”

We then see Peter – with gloves on – place the completed lasso under his bed.

KIRSTY GRIFFIN/NETFLIX © 2021

Watching his now sober mother Rose in a happy embrace with his step-father George, Peter smiles.

The implication here is that Peter poisoned and killed Phil to help his mother.

Earlier in the film, Phil had been caught by servant Lola (Thomas McKenzie) dissecting a dead rabbit and studying diseases.

His peculiar morbid interests and medical studies imply he would have been well-equipped to subtly murder Phil. His cold-hearted approach to dissection also implies he has the makings of a killer.

So what was director Jane Campion trying to say with The Power of the Dog?

She told Indiewire in regards to the bible passage and title of the film: “As the title stands, it’s a kind of warning,.

“The power of the dog is all those urges, all those deep, uncontrollable urges that can come and destroy us, you know?”

The Power of the Dog is available now on Netflix and in UK cinemas.

Looking for something else to watch? Then do be sure to visit our TV Guide.

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