If you like compelling narratives but have already seen a lot of them, I wouldn’t recommend ‘Fatale (2020).’ Director Deon Taylor did his best to make the movie look like it has a great story and would keep the audience on the edge of their seats. However, “Fatale” is one of those dramas that you’d forget right away after watching it. However, it’s still interesting to see why it has been rising up the charts on Netflix. Additionally, we’re here to talk about what happens in the movie, not to judge how it works. So let’s get started.
*Spoilers Ahead*
Fatale (2020) Plot Summary and Movie Synopsis:
The movie is about Derrick Tyler, who used to play basketball and is now a famous businessman in the NBA. He and his business partner, Rafe Grims, have built this huge, billion-dollar company. But Derrick and his wife Tracie are getting closer and closer to splitting up. Derrick is doing everything he can to keep his marriage together, but Tracie seems to be getting farther away from him.
Meanwhile, Derrick and Rafe have to go to Las Vegas for a meeting. Derrick wanted to talk things out with Tracie rather than attend the meeting, but she made him leave. Because of this bad choice, he runs into the very interesting Valerie Quinlan. Rafe tells Derrick to stop caring about Tracie and have a good time in Vegas. He gets in touch with Valerie at that time. Derrick had no idea that what seemed like a lighthearted one-night stand would quickly turn into a dangerous game of blackmail, manipulation, and obsession that could destroy his life and the lives of those around him.
What happens after Derrick comes back from Vegas?
In one word? A chain of disasters. After coming back, Derrick wants to clear the air between himself and Tracie. He is able to do so with his charm and cooking. Later that night, an intruder breaks into their house, and Derrick tries to prevent him from doing any damage. Derrick is injured, and the intruder runs off from the property. The police come over, and here we are introduced to the first twist.
We see Valerie, a police detective, taking over the case. Derrick is more threatened than surprised to see her in that situation. He starts thinking that Detective Val may disclose the night of their intimacy to Tracie. So he goes to talk to her the very next day. However, Val seems to be very mature in this scenario, and she says that she will not do anything that will have a permanent effect on Derrick’s life. They both agreed to cooperate. However, Derrick is still threatened by Val’s visit to Tracie while he is not around.
What is troubling Detective Val?
There was a time when Detective Val, too, had a family. She was married to a known politician named Carter Heywood. They have a daughter. Val had a reputation for being a bad drinker, and one night when she returned home drunk, her service weapon was lying beside her. Her daughter came into the room. She took out the weapon from the cover and shot. However, Val was able to control the situation before it became fatal.
Since then, Carter has gotten custody of the child with the help of his connection inside the system. Detective Val even received a restraining order against seeing her child. She is still trying to get her daughter back, but Carter is showing her no way to do so. She even filed a petition when Carter was going through a rough patch in his career, but he made sure he would surely recover from the phase, and the petition would never stand in his way. Val is very frustrated regarding all of these when she meets Derrick. How is it related? We will find out later.
What does Derrick learn about Tracie?
Right after Val takes over the case, a few days later, she meets with Derrick outside his office and asks him to come along. She brings him to a beach and gives him a view of his business partner and his wife having an affair. Seeing Rafe and Tracie in such an intimate moment, Derrick is very much heartbroken. He asks Val to leave him alone. However, she tells him that there is more to it and that he can call her whenever he is ready.
Later that night, Derrick visits Val and learns that Rafe and Tracie are the ones who planned to send the intruder into the house that night. She also explains the reason: the millions of dollars that will be divided among them if and when Derrick dies. Soon everything starts making sense to Derrick, and he becomes angrier than before. Right at that moment, Val puts forth an offer that makes things more interesting than ever.
What does Val propose, and what happens after?
When Derrick is totally frustrated and angry, Val tells him that if they have tried to kill him once, they will definitely try it again in the future. So, to prevent this from happening, Derrick must kill them first. Derrick is definitely not ready to go along with such a gruesome suggestion. He is a mere businessman, and killing is way out of his curriculum vitae. Intoxicated, Derrick hopelessly falls for Val’s seductive nature, and before he can put forth any resistance, they start making out.
However, Derrick leaves right after some time, which leads Val to think that he is going to catch Tracie and Rafe in the process of making love to each other. The next morning, Derrick is brought into custody on the charge of killing Rafe and Tracie. Derrick denies committing the double homicide, but Val shows him his wedding ring that was found at the crime scene. Later, Derrick admits that he went to confront them and left his ring there, suggesting to Tracie that their marriage is over. Derrick is not taken to jail due to the lack of evidence, but he remains the prime suspect in the murders of Rafe and Tracie.
Fatale (2020) Movie Ending Explained:
Who Killed Rafe and Tracie?
Derrick has now figured out that Val is the one behind everything that is going on. Val made him feel bad about the crimes he had done in the past. One was a major crime of breaking and entering that happened right before he started playing basketball. But Derrick could keep playing hoops because his cousin Tyrin took responsibility for the crime. When Tyrin offers his help again, everything is getting out of hand.
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Tyrin and one of his friends go to Val’s house. They want to know why Val put Derrick in the spot for killing Rafe and Tracie. They hit her and dropped her to the ground. Val, on the other hand, is a very good cop and kills them both. She calls Derrick and asks him what the end goal is, which tells her why everything is happening. She asks him to kill Carter so she can get to her daughter. Derrick says no, but she uses the idea that the cops will find the murder weapon and put him in jail as a form of blackmail.
Derrick has no choice but to kill Carter. He tries to tell him what’s going on, but Carter panics because he knows Derrick has come to kill him, and he ends up dying by accident. When Derrick goes back to Val, she tells him to get the murder weapon and live on his own. Val tries to shoot Derrick as soon as he picks up the gun and turns around. Derrick also shoots at her. In the end, Val is killed by Derrick, who is badly hurt. Before all of this happens, he is able to record Val’s statement, in which she says she will kill more people to get to her daughter.
Derrick is no longer a suspect in the murders of Rafe and Tracie. He is free and has a business that is doing well. No one knows if the person who broke in that night followed Tracie’s orders or Val’s. Even though the “Femme Fatale” style used to create Val’s character will help prove that the intruder that night is the same person who killed Rafe and Tracie, he was just doing what Val told him to do.
But why didn’t she let him also kill Carter? That might have brought her into the questioning, which is why she picked Derrick in the first place. No matter what it is, ‘Fatale’ is a movie that’s largely forgettable.
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