The truth is locked: the meaning of the thriller “Inheritance” (2020): film plot summary, description, meaning of the ending, similar movies.
Country: USA
Genre: thriller, drama, detective
Year of production: 2020
Director: Vaughn Stein
Actors: Lily Collins, Simon Pegg, Connie Nielsen
Slogan: “The truth cannot be locked away”
The atmospheric, intriguing plot of the film “Inheritance” is able to hook the viewer with its gloom and oppression of hopelessness. This is less a detective story and more a thriller about skeletons in the closet. Watching this film is interesting, although very difficult.
What is the movie about
Brief description of the contents of the picture. The plot centers on a young woman named Lauren Monroe. She works as a district attorney, defends the rights of low-income families, and her career is developing very successfully. Suddenly, grief befalls her: her father, Archer, a large businessman and banker, who has always been an idol for her, dies of a heart attack.
The Monroes are not only an exemplary family, but also a real dynasty. All its members try to support each other in everything, which becomes especially relevant after Archer’s death. In particular, with Lauren’s help, her brother William becomes a state congressman. The young woman herself can always count on the support of her mother and husband.
After the funeral of the head of the family, Archer’s attorney Harold appears at the house. He reads his will to the household: Lauren’s mother gets the estate and a vote on the board of directors. William receives $20 million, and Lauren – only $1 million. This surprises both herself and the others – she was Archer’s favorite…
When those present leave, the attorney gives Lauren the envelope secretly bequeathed to her by Archer. There she discovers a key and a flash drive with a recorded video message. In the video, the father asks Lauren to find a hiding place in the forest – supposedly after this everything will be clear to her.
Intrigued, convinced that there is some hidden meaning in her father’s message, the young woman eventually finds the entrance to an underground bunker in the forest. Going down there, Lauren, to her horror, discovers an overgrown man tied to the wall.
Having come to her senses a little, Lauren decides to contact the rescue service, but at the last moment she remembers that she is not only a lawyer, but also Monroe: in their family there is “one for all and all for one” – if the father hid a person in the bunker, that means , there was a reason for that. Wanting to find out the answer to the prisoner, Lauren decides to figure it out on her own. Or at least try.
Having gained courage, the girl returns to the bunker. The man is sleeping quietly and Lauren decides to take his fingerprints to establish his identity. She sends the material to a detective she knows and asks him to collect as much information as possible about the mysterious man. Soon Lauren is going to visit the prisoner again and then the idea comes to her mind to wear a mask. However, this only amuses him – after all, he knows absolutely everything about her and the other Monroes.
Lauren demands that the man tell him who he is and why he is in the bunker. To this he asks that his request be respected: he wants to have a delicious dinner, drink a sip of whiskey and smoke a cigarette. After hesitating, Lauren brings him everything he asked for.
Morgan (that’s the man’s name) tells her that he has been in captivity for 30 years. He was Archer’s friend, but everything changed after one tragic accident: late one evening they hit a man to death. Knowing full well that the hit-and-run threatened to ruin his career and lead to prison, Archer refused to call the police. Afraid that Morgan would spill the beans, he imprisoned him in a bunker.
Shocked, Lauren refuses to take Morgan’s word for it: in her opinion, there was some other meaning to what happened. However, the prisoner brings down an avalanche of facts on her, and Lauren has no choice but to believe that her father was really capable of such a terrible act.
Knowing full well that Lauren, endowed with an inquisitive mind, will continue to analyze his “case,” the prisoner gives the address of Archer’s mistress, whom he regularly visited. This is how the girl meets Sofia, who was, in fact, the second wife of her beloved dad. Archer also had an illegitimate son, Alex.
Lauren’s head is spinning. She can’t think about anything else but her father’s terrible secrets. Returning to the bunker, she asks Morgan to tell her where the place where she and Archer hid the body of a murdered pedestrian 30 years ago is located. He only agrees to show her this place in person and the girl, after hesitating, agrees. Having learned that Morgan was right here too, she decides to hide the terrible discovery and returns the prisoner to the bunker. He asks her to let him go, but she is afraid that this will destroy her family.
In the morning, Lauren goes to a new court hearing. In the documents that were provided to her to accuse one of the parties, she discovers the name of the front organization. The company involved in the case is called “Gypsy Rose”. According to Morgan, this is what Archer called Sophia. Suddenly, Lauren realizes that her impeccable father had a direct connection to the company against which she will have to build an accusation. She also understands that her father had many dark secrets, which means that Morgan’s words really make sense.
Returning to the bunker, she frees him in exchange for a promise to disappear from the family’s life. He also agrees not to tell anyone about Archer Monroe’s dark past. Towards the end of the film, Lauren brings Morgan to the airfield, from where he will fly to the Caribbean islands. After giving him new documents and money, she asks for forgiveness for what Archer did.
When Morgan flies away, Lauren returns to the bunker to destroy any trace of him there. Suddenly she finds a syringe and medicine, but does not attach much importance to it. Soon the detective who was involved in the Morgan case appears on the scene. He sends the collected facts to her home, but the envelope ends up in the hands of the girl’s mother.
When Lauren returns, her shocked mother tells her the terrible truth. It turns out that Morgan’s name is actually Carson Thomas, and he is not a victim, but a dangerous criminal.
The girl quickly goes to the airfield, but discovers several dead bodies there. Lauren calls her mother to warn her about the danger, but she doesn’t pick up…
Returning home, Lauren doesn’t find her mother, but sees light coming from the bunker and runs there. There she finds her mother lying unconscious on the floor. Meanwhile, a former prisoner appears in the bunker. After turning off the lights, he begins playing cat and mouse with Lauren before knocking her out and tying her to a radiator.
Inheritance Ending Explained
Explanation of the ending of the picture Inheritance. Feeling his power, the criminal promises the girl that he will deal with all the Monroes. He is going to starve them and their mother to death in this very bunker. Moreover, he admits to Lauren that Archer’s death was not accidental – he managed to inject his enemy with serious medicine, which ultimately led to a heart attack.
Enjoying Lauren’s helpless position, Morgan also talks about that tragic accident, but it was not Archer who was driving, but himself. He ended up in the bunker after he raped his friend’s wife, resulting in the birth of Lauren…
While pronouncing his fiery monologue, the criminal does not notice that the girl’s mother managed to come to her senses and arm herself with a pistol. Morgan-Carson’s speech is interrupted by a gunshot and he falls dead.
Once freed, the women douse the bunker with gasoline and set it on fire, and the point of Inheritance ending is that the sinister secret surrounding this man will never come to light. However, whether members of a once friendly family will be able to treat each other the same way as before and keep a common secret is a big question. In addition, the police will probably be interested in the bodies at the airfield, which means that the ending of this dark story should still be considered open.
The meaning of the film Inheritance
Films in which it is difficult to identify the antagonist are always interesting to watch. Inheritance refers precisely to such paintings. In the end, we are left with only one correct interpretation: the main villain is still Carson-Morgan, because he raped Lauren’s mother, for which he ultimately paid. From the very beginning, he manipulated Lauren, giving her the truth and half-truths, forcing her to suffer and not find peace. He achieved his goal: the girl believed him and looked at her father with completely different eyes. However, he is not the only “Glavgad” in this story.
Archer Monroe, frightened by the consequences of a fatal accident (although he was not driving, he would have had a hard time too), tried to get rid of the evidence. Then he committed another crime – essentially kidnapping a man and hiding him in a bunker for 30 years. In addition, Archer cheated on his wife and constantly pressed the right buttons so that Lauren and William would achieve heights: he in politics, she (for a large bribe) in law.
William, who calls himself an honest politician, did not disdain to “buy dead souls” – to take advantage of the votes acquired for 50 million, which could help him in the elections to Congress.
Lauren herself is not a saint either. She could report the prisoner immediately after finding him. In addition, she could (indeed, was obliged) to talk about the discovered remains of a pedestrian who was hit 30 years ago. However, the rotten “family honor” was much more important to her than justice. She had the opportunity to break the circle of evil and vice, and yet she did not do it…
Alas, the path to the top is paved exclusively with crimes, and power and wealth corrupt everyone. No matter how hard a person tries to break the chains of the “dark heritage,” they are too strong. This is exactly the essence of the film.
Similar films
Here are several films that are somewhat similar to the film Inheritance in meaning and plot:
- “Locked Up” (USA, Canada, 2020). Chloe is disabled and confined to a wheelchair. One day she begins to realize that something is wrong with her overprotective mother…
- “In the arms of lies” (USA, Ireland, 2018). Francis meets Greta and dotes on her. But one day she accidentally reveals the secret of her new friend…
- “Room of Wishes” (France, Belgium, Luxembourg, 2019). Kate and Matt move to a new house and soon discover a bricked-up room there.
- “Defender” (USA, 2015). The young man is accused of killing his own father. The lawyer defending him gradually becomes immersed in the family’s dark secrets.
