Taking Miami by storm for a wild spring break, four friends’ dream vacation curdles into a nightmare when one of them vanishes without a trace in the new Tubi thriller, “What Happens in Miami” by director Tim Cruz. Paradise turns dark as the search for their missing friend takes a chilling turn with the discovery of her body. The finger of suspicion quickly jabs at the remaining trio, making them the prime targets for a media frenzy and a relentless police investigation. With the weight of accusations crashing down, the friends must scramble to clear their names and expose the truth. But a nagging question lingers – are they truly innocent, or is there something more they’re hiding?
Spoilers Ahead
What Happens in Miami (2024) Plot Summary & Movie Synopsis:
The film opens with Zion, who is an experienced lawyer, trying to convince his daughter, Maika, to take something seriously. If not, she will be placed behind bars as a prime suspect in her friend Autumn’s disappearance. Later, we see that four friends have come to Miami to spend their holidays before going back to college. They later start taking pictures while roaming around the beach when Autumn notices that some random boys are trying to force Taylor, one of the four friends, into talking. Autumn steps up and saves Taylor from the boys and she is very furious at them as well.
Soon after we see Autumn speaking to Taylor about a woman who is checking her out. Taylor is lesbian, but she has not shared this with anyone apart from Autumn. Autumn has around 1 million followers on social media. She is an influencer, and Taylor, along with Shay, loves to be around her. However, it is different for Maika as she and Autumn have always been good friends long before Autumn became an influencer. Shay copies Autumn’s style as she is an aspiring influencer herself, while Taylor feels comfortable around her.
What do the Girls learn about Cameron?
One of these days, while the girls are hanging around on the beach, a drug dealer named Cameron sees Autumn from afar. He takes an interest in meeting her. Later that night, the girls come to Cameron themselves and Autumn initiates the talk as they want to have a piece of what he is selling. Soon, Cameron and Autumn become very close, and they start hanging out together, hooking up in public places. Maika, Shay, and Taylor just watch the lovebirds from a distance. One day, the girls are invited to party with Cameron in his house where Autumn shows them the numerous cameras around his house.
Cameron has this habit of recording everything. He has been doing it for almost many years now. Looking at the number of cameras placed around the house, one can easily guess that Cameron is quite passionate about it. Later, Autumn and Cameron start to sniff the cocaine while a man comes to the door. Cameron goes to the man while holding his gun. Seeing that, the girls quickly get out of the house while Cameron decides to stay. Their relationship turns serious very soon, which leads to different kinds of problems for the whole gang.
Why do the Police Arrest Maika?
It has been two weeks since Autumn has gone missing. All of a sudden, her body is found near the beach. The police investigation takes a whole different level as they start to interrogate Maika, Shay, Taylor, and Cameron. While all the girls blame Cameron, Cameron himself says his relationship with Autumn was never serious, as they were just hooking up for a while. Maika tells the detective to check the CCTV footage of Cameron’s house as on the night of Autumn’s disappearance, she went to his house.
The detective goes through the footage and finds nothing. However, later, they find a vape near the poolside with Maika’s fingerprints all over it. On the basis of this circumstantial evidence, the police acted quickly and arrested Maika. Zion comes to the rescue as they successfully prove that during the time of the incident, Maika was with Julian, a boy she met during that time in Miami, and they were spending a private moment together. In the meantime, a fake account continuously blames the three girls in different comment sections.
The account even reveals a private talk between the girls, suggesting that they are hiding some crucial details from that night. Anyway, Jess, the reporter of a certain channel, calls Julian on TV to confirm that Maika was with her at that moment. Therefore, she clears her name from the suspect list. However, Maika’s real boyfriend, Brandon, with whom she was not happy because of the long-distance relationship, finally breaks up with her. But, in Maika’s defense, that same night, Brandon had called her and told her about taking a break from their relationship, which led to the later events with Julian.
Why are Maika, Shay and Taylor Angry with Autumn?
On the night of the discussion, Autumn, like many times before, does some series of events that frustrate Maika, Shay, and Taylor. With Shay, she has always been harsh with her words since she always tries to copy her style and everything. Autumn humiliates her very badly, saying that Shay does not have any potential and only copies everything from her. When Maika goes to console Shay, she says that whatever Autumn is saying is basically the truth. However, she can not help but be around her because it feels special whenever Autumn approves of something.
Later, Taylor tries to kiss Autumn, and she insults her pretty hard. She discloses in front of Maika and Shay about the incident which humiliates Taylor very much as she has begged Autumn not to mention it. Autumn even insults Maika for being unfaithful to Brandon as she has seen her kissing Julian. Maika tries to make her understand that she pushed Julian away when he tried to kiss her. But since Autumn had clicked the picture from a different angle, it looks like they are kissing. So, basically, in one go, Autumn humiliates all three of her friends and goes to Cameron’s place to spend the rest of the night.
What Happens in Miami (2024) Movie Ending Explained:
What Exactly Happened on the Night When Autumn Disappeared?
On the night before the brawl between the friends took place, Autumn had invited Julian and his friend Sebastian to join them for the in-house party. However, nobody knows Autumn only wants to make Cameron jealous by being close to Sebastian. She sends pictures of her and Sebastian to Cameron, and he comes to meet her. Cameron invites her, along with Maika, Shay, and Taylor, to come to his house and carry on with their party. Autumn comes back and asks the girls about this while mentioning that Julian and Sebastian cannot come with them.
Sebastian does not like this as he breaks out in anger while Julian takes him outside. Later, the brawl between the friends takes place. Autumn leaves for Cameron’s place. The friends decide to confront Autumn once and for all and end their relationship with her permanently because they feel like she has always been harsh with them. Autumn, indeed, never respected anyone else’s opinion. So, they go to Cameron’s house, but they fail to find anyone until they reach the poolside. There, they see Autumn struggling but still talking rubbish about them.
Shay punches her in the face, and a fight breaks out. Suddenly, when Autumn tries to choke Maika, Taylor pushes her away, and during that time, Autumn gets an injury on the back of her head and dies on the spot. Knowing how Zion has sorted his cases throughout the years, Maika comes up with a plan. She makes sure that no CCTV footage shows their faces from that night. Later, she goes to spend the night with Julian, which later turns out to be her alibi.
How Does Maika Frame Cameron for Autumn’s Murder?
Before the police can get to the footage of the night, the girls break into Cameron’s house and find the footage where Cameron pushes Autumn during an argument, and her head is hit against a table. She goes unconscious when Cameron leaves her on the poolside. The poolside does not have any cameras, so the police cannot know that Autumn was still alive and later died because of Taylor’s push. Until now, the video footage clearly suggests that Autumn had died because of Cameron’s push.
Maika sends the clip to Jess. It is broadcast throughout the internet, proving Cameron is the killer of Autumn. The clip also removes Maika, Shay, and Taylor from the suspect list once and for all. The funny thing is that even Cameron does not know the real truth, as he also thinks that his push took Autumn’s life. Anyway, the three friends keep the secret hidden within themselves. At the end of the film, we see that Jess is the one behind the fake account and has been blaming them since the beginning. A dark side of the media has been shown very subtly by the makers.
