Crime thrillers usually rely on the reckless display of gruesome violence, and “Everybody Loves Me When I’m Dead” (2025) is no exception. Co-written and directed by Nithiwat Tharatorn, this Netflix film begins on a relatable note for working professionals who are on the verge of losing their jobs to AI or have already lost to this newer evil.
However, it quickly shifts gears to follow two regular bank employees carrying out a heist out of sheer desperation. Then, it loses its moral and ethical backbone as it turns into a full-fledged action thriller with one implausible choice after another. By the end, the film conveys the hopelessness of the present-day world, where upward financial mobility has almost become a myth. Yet, it offers this conclusion only after a succession of gratuitous violent acts, which rarely serve a bigger purpose. Let’s unpack how these people fall into a rabbit hole of their own making.
Spoilers Ahead
Everybody Loves Me When I’m Dead (2025) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
“Everybody Loves Me When I’m Dead” follows two Thai bank employees who decide to take advantage of the dormant accounts of dead people to solve their financial qualms while risking their own lives.
What happens in Everybody Loves Me When I’m Dead?
The film begins with a moment that perfectly suits its title. It shows a dead woman lying on the floor, wondering about the value of her life since people thought of her only after her death. Through her voice-over, the film makes it clear that she didn’t die of any natural cause, and her body has been rotting on that floor for many days. So, the people who did think of her did so to benefit from her. Why else would she be lying there for days? That means her life ended on a bleak note when she was presumably killed by those who wanted her possessions. Still, the film takes its sweet time to reveal who got hold of her assets.
Then onwards, the story revolves around a few employees at a Thai bank. One of the older employees, who had been working there for several years, was recently laid off and is being replaced by AI. He received that news from Toh (Theeradej Wongpuapan), a mid-level manager currently working under Wut (Bam Pitipat Kootrakul). Toh feels bad for firing this man, so he personally apologizes to him. The man doesn’t really accept his apology. Instead, he warns Toh that he can also be on the other side of the table, being laid off sooner than later. His words affect Toh, but it’s not until a personal experience that he decides to act against the system that exploits people like him.
Why does Toh get involved in a scam with Petch?
Toh has been a loyal employee of the bank for a few years. Still, the management decides to fire him. Wut breaks the news that Toh may not have his job for too long, considering the advent of AI. That puts Toh in an existential crisis since he is not responsible simply for himself. He also needs to take care of his wife, Ja (Namfon Kullanat Kulpreeyawat), and their young daughter, Snow, who recently joined a prestigious school. The school costs them a lot, but Ja believes their daughter should get educated there for their multilingual curriculum, which can help her in the future. She had presumably stopped her job since they had the kid. So, Toh bears the financial burden of it all.
It’s not that Toh is against Ja or her wishes, but he is not sure whether he will be able to afford the classes in the long run. He, however, hides his anxieties from Ja, hoping he will find an answer along the way. An answer comes knocking on his door from Petch (Ryu Vachirawich Watthanaphakdeephaisan), a young employee who belongs to a different generation. One fine day, Petch informs him about the dormant bank accounts of dead people. He thinks they should take advantage of the money sitting idle in those accounts when no one claims it. Toh hesitates to take part in the scam until Petch reveals why he should.
Petch understands that employees like him or Toh are not indispensable resources for the organization. They will be thrown out when the management finds ways to cut costs. It doesn’t matter whether they have been loyal or transparent in their conduct. The management will simply think about itself. It makes Toh look at Petch’s scam as a viable way to end his qualms.
Who is Vodka, and how does he get involved with Toh and Petch’s scam?
Vodka (Chulachak Chakrabongse) is a hard-boiled criminal who was working for a wealthy man, responsible for the death of the woman we meet early in the film. The dead woman was once a low-level employee working under this man. He decided to exploit her for personal gain. At the time, he created an account under her name and added a huge amount earned by wrong means. He didn’t expect her to run away with all that money, but she did. After that, she lived a life alone and miserable, away from her daughter, who never accepted her. Eventually, she died without any relationship with her daughter.
In the present, Vodka kills some people for the wealthy man. While driving back home, the man tells him about this woman he was trying to defraud, who ran away with all his money. Out of nowhere, Vodka decides to kill the man and meet the daughter, hoping she will lead him to her dead mother’s wealth. So, he meets the daughter, Khem (Earnearn Fatima Dechawaleekul), and pulls her back into her mother’s past. By then, Toh and Petch had begun working on their scam and had stolen a lot of cash. However, the trouble begins when Sek (TJ Jirayut Phaloprak) asks Petch to give him a lot more money.
Sek is a criminal whom Petch brushed off the wrong way. That’s actually why he wanted to carry forward this heist. He wanted money to pay Sek back. Ultimately, when he needs even more money, Toh decides to help by defrauding a teenager. He forces her to create an account and adds the cash in his possession to help him. However, the teenager takes out all the cash since the account technically belongs to her. Toh goes to threaten her, but fails miserably. His situation, in this case, mirrors the wealthy man’s situation, who was trying to defraud a seemingly naive person, only to receive blowback. Eventually, Vodka arrives at his bank with Khem, but he and Petch refuse to help them.
Everybody Loves Me When I’m Dead (2025) ‘Netflix’ Movie Ending Explained:
Does Toh recover the money he got from the bank?
After speaking with Toh and Petch in the bank, Khem realizes that Vodka means more harm than good. She tries running away from him, but he attacks her. Petch comes to her rescue, and they run away together. However, that doesn’t solve his or Toh’s problems. Toh understands they need to deal with either Vodka or Sek. So, he tells Petch to get the money back from Sek and give it to Vodka. Toh meets Sek to warn him about Vodka, but Sek doesn’t pay heed to him. Finally, Vodka arrives there and sets Sek’s entire crew on fire. Khem refuses the cash, knowing that it is dirty money.
With Petch long gone, it’s only Toh and Vodka who want the cash. Vodka gets hold of the bag and runs away, but right outside, he is shot to death. So, Toh decides to walk away with the cash after handing over some of it to Khem. However, someone else steals the money from him, and he ends up in prison. In the film’s final moments, he dies in prison at the hands of someone he wronged by getting involved in these crimes. The ending offers a bleak fate to characters like him, who may never be able to hope for brighter futures when uncertainty is at its peak, and exploitation has almost become a norm in corporate culture.
Before that, Toh’s manager confronted him about his heist and expected him to hand over the money, assuring him to keep it a secret. However, he secretly drove away with that money, defrauding Toh. Eventually, he gets killed by Sek and his men. So, backstabbing anyone for personal gain in this story leads to karmic retribution.
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