The Mouse Trap (2024) Movie Ending Explained - Is Rebecca the Killer in the Mickey Mouse Mask?

A Canadian horror movie, “The Mouse Trap” (2024), directed by Jamie Bailey and written by Simon Phillips, reimagines Mickey Mouse from Walt Disney’s Speedboat Willie, the 1928 animated short film. Interestingly, this film’s version of Mickey Mouse went into the public domain on the 1st of January, 2024, on the day the film was announced. Bailey has reimagined Mickey Mouse as a vicious killer who enjoys playing twisted games with teenagers, killing them in the most brutal ways possible, very similar to how Winnie the Pooh was reimagined by the studios just when the character went into the public domain.

“The Mouse Trap” (2024), therefore, also features a Star Wars-like disclaimer that is personal and elaborate in the film’s zero association with Walt Disney studios. The film makes little sense, but it can be engaging when you are in the mood for a no-brainer, especially since the characters explain the killer’s killings and the modus operandi over and over again.

The Mouse Trap (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:

When the film opens, we see two NYPD detectives, Cole and Marsh, interrogating a girl locked up in a prison. This girl is Rebecca (played by Mackenzie Mills), one of the only survivors of a rampage killing in a games parlor, Fun Haven, that took place on Friday, March 13th. Rebecca is not obtuse about who she believes the killer may be. She quite plainly suggests that the Mickey Mouse killer responsible for the murder of all her friends is Tim Collins, the owner of the parlor. However, the detectives are clearly not assured by her theories, telling her that she is the biggest suspect in this case for mysteriously having survived the killer’s wrath and wish to learn the whole story in detail about the night that has just transpired.

Soon, we are taken inside Fun Haven, where Alex (Sophie McIntosh) and Jayna (Madeline Kelman) are running their last shift before retiring for the night. However, their manager, Tim, insists that he can pay them for overtime in lieu of the latest booking that came in – a bunch of eight rich kids coming over for some fun. While both Alex and Jayna agree, Jayna soon leaves the duty hours to meet a boy for a date. Alex knows that Jayna isn’t coming back to clean up and close the place down, but she agrees to fill her shoes for the evening anyway. Left alone in the parlor before the new bunch of kids come in, Alex goes around relaxing while playing some of the games.

Meanwhile, Tim retires to his private projector room to watch a Mickey Mouse short. It is the first Walt Disney animation about Mickey Mouse, Steamboat Willie. While watching the movie on his projector, Tim begins to hear voices. He accidentally tips his glass of (alcoholic?) beverage on a fused wire, hinting at the possibility of a short circuit inside the room. Meanwhile, the room’s lights turn red, and Tim’s attention is drawn toward a Mickey Mouse mask in a box. It almost appears as if the mask is speaking to Tim, asking if he wants to see things from Mickey’s perspective. It’s implied that Tim dons the mask, allowing Mickey Mouse to take control of his body and actions thereafter.

Back in the parlor, Alex receives an anonymous phone call, but the killer remains silent all along, and she later spots a Mickey Mouse mask-wearing killer in one of the backdoor entrances of the parlor. Fleeing from the place, Alex is surprised to find her friends gathered in the games parlor. They informed her that they were the ones to make the booking because they wished to celebrate Alex’s birthday, which is over two weeks from March 13th. Her friends reason with her, citing that she is the best among the lot and deserves to be celebrated in a grand way.

Soon after, as the group starts to bask in the mood of the night, pouring themselves alcohol and engaging in conversations, the Mickey Mouse mask-wearing killer unleashes his wrath on them, one by one. The first persons to get killed are a couple of Alex’s friends who step inside the Jungle Gym to get intimate with their partner. Eventually, Alex’s other friends also fall prey to the killer’s instincts, mostly via violent slashes to their bodies. Once Alex realizes that there’s a killer on the loose inside the parlor, she tries to report them to the police, but the group finds that their cell phones have disappeared, and they are also locked inside the games parlor.

The CCTV was also discovered to be non-functioning, and the telephone line inside the parlor was rigged. The killer has successfully trapped the lot inside the parlor. However, it is important to remember that this entire narrative is from the perspective of Rebecca, who was not present in most of the situations she narrated. She is hiding in the laser room and is later attacked by the killer, who only injures her foot, keeping her from walking away. Even Jayna, who was only coming inside the parlor, is attacked and killed by the Mickey Mouse mask-wearing guy. Killing her in front of Alex is a clear message that the killer is now coming for her.

How many of Alex’s friends survive in the end?

A still from The Mouse Trap (2024). — A still from “The Mouse Trap” (2024).

We get to know from the detectives’ conversation with Rebecca that she was the sole survivor of the night. However, in the final moments of the killer’s rampage, we see that Alex is killed, but Marcus, Marie, and Ryan are still alive. However, it is likely that they were also killed by the time the fire engine truck arrived.

Is Mickey Mouse a villain in this film?

Technically, the killer in this film dons a Mickey Mouse mask and goes about the killing spree, so that does not make Mickey Mouse a villain. However, the antagonist nature of Mickey is in line with Walt Disney’s first Mickey Mouse animation, where Mickey is not portrayed as a do-goody fun mouse but one with sinister intentions and actions. Besides, this creepy killer clearly has a lot of fun before killing each of his victims.

Is Rebecca the killer in the Mickey Mouse mask?

Throughout the film, Tim, the manager of the games parlor, is implied to be the Mickey Mouse killer because he punishes his employees, Alex and Jayna, for breaking the parlor’s rules and disobeying his direct orders. No matter how hard the detectives try to explain Rebecca’s involvement in the crimes, it is difficult to establish any since she is said to be the sole surviving victim from the night, and the police must depend on her narration of the incidents to piece together everything that happened on the fateful night.

However, there are several gaps in her narration, i.e., when did Rebecca learn about the incidents that took place in the parlor from Alex? How did she know that the killer was present inside the Jungle Gym when two of their friends turned up there? Etc. Besides, in the post-credit scene, we clearly see the Mickey Mouse mask-donning killer visit Rebecca in prison, inviting her to play along. This establishes that Rebecca isn’t the killer, but everything else about her is so fishy that we are left pondering.

The Mouse Trap (2024) Movie Ending Explained:

After a night of terror, Alex, Marcus, and Marie spot the killer right outside the arcade’s main door. They plan to make it to the roof and reactivate the fire alarms to summon help since that’s the only kind of help they’d be able to manage without using their cell phones or telephone lines. Till now, they were expecting the killer to be Ryan.

However, soon, a beaten-up Ryan is found by them inside the arcade, who informs them of the attack in the bar by someone wearing a Mickey Mouse mask and carrying a hockey stick. Alex comes up with a plan to trap the killer inside the Jungle Gym using the strobe light, something that they are sure the killer is very sensitive to. The strobe light keeps the killer from supernaturally teleporting and will actually allow the group to make him physically vulnerable to their blows.

Once they have drawn the killer inside this playroom, they attempt to use this weakness against him, setting up a well-designed trap. Initially, the plan seems successful, but the strobe light suddenly stops working, allowing Mickey to escape. He returns with a sword and brutally decapitates Alex. The horrific sight leaves Ryan, Marcus, and Marie devastated, especially since both Ryan and Marcus harbor romantic feelings for Alex. Marcus, in his moment of grief and terror, also laments over the fact that he never got the chance to ask her out, a regret that might haunt him forever.

As for Rebecca, she survived by hiding in either the main office or the laser tag area—her exact location is unclear because she is an unreliable narrator of her own story. There are several inconsistencies involved, leading the detectives to doubt her account. Rebecca seems to be hiding something, but the film doesn’t reveal what. Even the detectives are unnerved by how calm she remains in the face of watching all her friends die in one night. Besides, she has no solid alibi, and anyone who could confirm her coordinates from the night is dead. Her survival raised many questions: Why didn’t the killer attack her? Why was she the only survivor? The detectives leave her prison cell with more suspicions than ever, but Rebecca is calm and quiet and has no answers to offer.

In a brief post-credits scene, Mickey the Killer visits Rebecca in prison. The cell door opens by itself, and a voice invites Rebecca to come play. This suggests that Tim, or Mickey, isn’t finished yet, and Rebecca will play a role in his future killing spree. However, it remains unclear why Mickey chose Rebecca or what makes her special. Perhaps she isn’t afraid of him, and that’s why Mickey sees her as an equal.

Conveniently, all the CCTV footage from the night is erased, leaving no evidence of what really happened or of Rebecca’s possible involvement. These questions might be addressed in the next installment of the film, if there are any. “The Mouse Trap” (2024) has a very interesting premise, but Bailey fails to communicate the entire potential of the film. However, I would be very interested to see if the Mickey Mouse mask-wearing killer strikes again!