Co-written by Tricia Cook and director Ethan Coen, the ending of Drive-Away Dolls (2024) is a little too funny to be written off as straightforward. As far as the film is concerned, the razor-sharp editing feels a little too on the nose, and the horny subtext about sex and queerness often doesn’t land with the same intensity as it wishes to. However, this new crossroad for one of the Coen’s is a breezy, fun caper that will remind you of the likes of ‘The Big Lebowski‘ and ‘Burn After Reading.’
In the following article, we will take a look at all the important plot points in Drive-Away Dolls and how all of them lead to that ending. If you still haven’t seen the film, it is advised to proceed with caution because this is going to be full of spoilers.
Drive-Away Dolls (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
Set in 1999, Philadelphia, just on the onset of the Y2K, the prologue features a worried man (named Penis Collector in the credits and played by Pedro Pascal) sitting in a bar with a briefcase, scared of what lies ahead. He seems to be waiting for someone, but the person doesn’t show up. He leaves the bar only to be chased down a dark alley by the same waiter who was serving him. He is killed, and his briefcase is taken away from him.
The film then introduces us to the two protagonists, Jamie (Margaret Qualley) and Marian (Geraldine Vishwanathan), who are friends with polar opposite personalities. Jamie is sexually proactive with a string of affairs with multiple women in the city. She can’t seem to put a stop to her mouth – both literally and sexually. On the other hand, Marian is an uptight introvert whose love for Henry James is greater than the idea of going out and getting laid. Jamie’s life choices are often dangerous, and when her current partner Sukie (Beanie Feldstein) dumps her on finding out that she is cheating on her, she decides to tag along with Marian for an impromptu trip to Tallahassee, Florida.
Frustrated with her white-collar job, Marian plans to meet her Aunt Elis and, despite her inhibitions, decides to let Jamie take over the trip. The two women decide to rent a drive-away service, which basically allows customers to deliver cars from one place to another. Unaware of the dodgy scheme that the drive-away service named Curlie’s runs on the side, they rent a Dodge Aries that the owner mistakenly assigns them. Additionally, while they have to reach their destination the next day, Jamie decides to hit a few popular lesbian bars on the way to loosen Marian up.
What do the women find in the trunk of the car, and what’s in the case?
On their trip, we see Jamie casually having sex with women while Marian is reclusive about the idea of getting laid with just anyone. Their merry time, however, gets punctured as soon as they enter Florida (a smart jab at the regressive, republican nature of the state). The two of them discover something truly odd in the trunk of their car.
When they see smoke coming out of one of the boxes, they curiously open it to find a severed head of a man (Penis Collector from the prologue) on ice. They also find a briefcase that they reluctantly open, only to find four plaster penises of different sizes. Discovering penises instead of drugs or money is extremely funny for the women, and Jamie even goes ahead and pleasures herself with one of them.
Subsequently, we discover that the penises are of utmost importance for a group of thugs who stole it from the collector and were supposed to receive in the trunk of Dodge Aries. The whole plan was to be carried off by The Chief (Colman Domingo) and his two associates – Arliss and Flint (played by Joey Slotnick and C. J. Wilson).
Along with witnessing Jamie and Marian’s road trip, we also see the two thugs trying to capture them but failing at each attempt. In actuality, the Dodge Aries was supposed to be driven by these two, but Marian and Jamie just happen to have the same destination and became a part of the entire mishap.
Drive-Away Dolls (2023) Movie Ending Explained:
Who do the plastered penises belong to?
The reason why the Penis Collector was killed is directly linked with the right-wing senator from the state of Florida named Gary Channel (Matt Damon). When Gary was young, he had a strange high experience with a woman named Tiffany Plaster Caster (Miley Cyrus), who coaxed him to make a plaster cast of his penis.
While this was a very simple experience, the sex toy later went on to go from dealer to dealer, and since the senator, with all his conservative propaganda, cannot be involved in anything that involves sex, getting it back became extremely important. Since even a glimpse of his colorful past life might cause him the election or a possible political scandal, he was adamant about getting things right for him.
Anyway, Arliss and Flint, after many detours, are finally able to capture Jamie and Marian. However, in their mindless bickering, they forget Senator Channel’s plaster penis at the hotel itself.
For the first time, Jamie and Marian are a little scared when interrogated by The Chief.
Things take a u-turn when Flint, who has had enough of Arliss’ making a mockery out of his straightforward albeit odd character, shoots him. Impulsively, he also shoots The Chief and runs away from the scene, leaving Jamie and Marian to fend for themselves.
The two women manage to escape and later decide to use the situation to earn themselves some easy cash. They decide to blackmail Senator Channel and call him up, demanding a million dollars for it.
What happens at the exchange?
Meanwhile, Sukie, who is also a cop, traces Jamie’s credit card statements and ends up at the lesbian bar where they are supposed to have an exchange with the senator. The senator does show up and takes the briefcase full of plaster penises in exchange for money. However, he returns to shoot the women only to be saved by Sukie, who shoots him instead.
The senator is imprisoned, and the entire penis scandal comes out in public, completely tarnishing his image.
The ending of Drive-Away Dolls shows Jamie and Marian uniting with Aunt Alice with a plan of making their now romantic connection into possible marital bliss. It is also revealed that Jamie has made more copies of plaster casting of the senator’s penis (the one both of them really enjoyed). However, they accidentally leave it at the hotel, leaving the scandal hanging again.
Now, assuming that the senator, who is supposed to be a stand-in for Donald Trump, wishes to run for the president, his goals might not come to fruition because his castings are still on the loose.
As far as Jamie and Marian’s relationship is concerned, it’s possible that the two women would leave their hopping life behind and choose a more serious path to marriage. This is a major step forward for Jamie, as the end shows the couple getting into a car with Aunt Alice and deciding to drive to Massachusetts—the only place that legalized gay marriage at that time.
Is Miley Cyrus’s character in Drive-Away Dolls (2024) based on a true story?
After you are done with the ending of Drive-Away Dolls, you might think of the sequences throughout. The entire film is intercut with hallucinatory sequences that feature Miley Cyrus portraying a young woman named Tiffany Plastercaster, engaging in conversations with an unseen individual while advocating for something.
In reality, Tiffany’s character is inspired by Cynthia Plaster Caster, a notable figure renowned for creating plaster casts of celebrities’ reproductive organs, often while under the influence of drugs.
Cynthia gained fame for amassing a collection of over 50 celebrity phalluses, later expanding to include casts of female breasts. In the film, Miley Cyrus embodies the role of Tiffany, the creator of these phallic artworks, reflecting the real-life exploits of Cynthia Plaster Caster within the ’60s and ’70s rock scene.
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