The Mike Gan directed and written movie titled ‘Burn’, which was released in 2019, is a dark comedy revolving around a gas station robbery planned by a helpless man who desperately needs money and sees robbing a station as his last attempt. While trying to intimidate the gas station employee into emptying the money cabinet and giving it all to him, we see how the employee also decides to take this opportunity to prove to other gas station employees that she is more than just a pushover.
The thriller comedy stars actress Tilda Cobham-Hervey in the main role of Melinda, Josh Hutcherson as Billy, Suki Waterhouse as Sheila, Harry Shum Jr. as Officer Liu, and Shiloh Fernandez as Perry. In brief words, the plot of the movie can be explained as a desperate attempt at committing a crime that ends up going wrong horribly.
The barely managed to cover its production cost and barely managed to cross the twenty-five thousand dollars mark with its earnings. It remained unpopular not just among the viewers but also the critics who claimed that writer and director of the film, Mike Gan, got so busy with the two tasks that he tanked them both.
The plot of the film is far from intriguing and lacks direction, though the fact that it is shot mostly in just that one gas station managed to make many feel physically awkward and suffocated, in a good way. The movie remains weird, and that is the one good thing about it. If you want to read more about the end of the movie Burn, you can continue reading till the end.
Burn’s Ending Explained
Right off the bat, the story brings to us two of our main characters, Melinda and Sheila. Sheila is the mean co-worker who deliberately does all that she can to overshadow Melinda and put her down. Melinda, on the other hand, is an overly nice employee who tries to push back and stand up to Sheila and her tactics but fails every time.
But even at the start, it is obvious that there is more to Melinda’s character than just her superficial meek nature. There is a creepy sense of eccentricity hidden under her mask of sweetness, which just becomes more and more apt as the film continues. The first few scenes of the film set the course of the relationship between the two characters.
Sheila, the meanie, makes Melinda do all of the work for her and also manages to bully her into dancing for her while she films the latter doing so, much to her disgust. Throughout these scenes, the eerieness of her behavior makes it seem like Melinda is standing at the edge of the cliff and could lose her cool at any given moment.
Customers come and go, including an old guy that creeps the life out of Sheila, and Melinda, in classic-Melinda style, tries to be as nice as she can to the man. As the night goes on, Billy, a strange guy, parks his car, which we find is not his and is actually stolen, and moves into the store with a small gun hidden under his clothes.
But before he can do anything threatening, a police officer called Liu, the one that Melinda secretly obsesses over, also enters the station and strikes up a dry conversation with Sheila, while all Melinda can do is stand in a corner, completely ignored, clicking pictures of the officers. Sheila notices her stalkerish ways and demands to see the pictures she clicked, and in the process, Melinda breaks her phone.
Billy, The Robber
Melinda takes a quick break to go for a relaxing smoke and, upon her return, finds that the harmless-looking guy, Billy, was cheerfully threatening Sheila to give him all of the money that was in the drawer. But considering it is a small gas station, there is not much money in the drawer, which is disappointing for Billy, who has his gun pointing all over the place dangerously.
Something clicks in Melinda’s mind, and she offers to bring him money from a hidden safe deep inside the gas station, to which Billy agrees. But when she returns with a big bag full of money from the safe, she refuses to give it to him unless he promises to take her away with him. Sheila takes this as her cue to start cussing the robber out, which angers Billy, who asks Melinda to lock herself in the bathroom while he deals with her.
Melinda does not comply and instead pours hot coffee on the man from behind, which somehow causes him to fire his gun and kill Sheila on the spot. Melinda hits the back of Billy’s head, causing him to faint, giving Melinda the time to tie the man up. The fact that Melinda is not normal and is actually psychopathic becomes as clear as day when she tries to rape a tied-up Billy.
Thankfully, he manages to let himself free enough to throw her off of himself and try to go after her, but because she cunningly had taped both his eyes and his mouth, Billy manages to get hit in the head once again, causing him to faint once more.
Melinda’s Escape
Melinda is ready with the gun and the money to leave the place while Billy is still unconscious, but she gets stopped by a rude customer, who she threatens with the gun in her hand. But when the customer leaves, a guy named Perry pulls. Turns out he was Sheila’s boyfriend who was there to pick her up. Melinda barely manages to lie about the latter’s whereabouts to get Perry to leave the gas station alone. Right after Perry, a few strange biker guys pop in search of Billy, and Melinda’s patience is tested once again.
Knowing that the cameras at the station must have captured the entire ordeal between Melinda and Billy, the former tries to get rid of the data but realizes she lacks access to them, and in one last desperate effort, she starts throwing gasoline all over the containers. But before she can light everything up, Liu, the police officer, comes back, finding Billy’s car that he stole.
He also attempts to look at the cameras to see if they recorded something and calls the manager to get access to them. He searches the entire area alone and does not find anything suspicious and agrees to leave, much to Melinda’s relief. Right after he leaves, Melinda gets back to what she was doing and starts pouring gasoline all over.
Billy, who had escaped when Liu entered the station the second time, rounds back for blind revenge and cuts all power, locking all doors of the station. But before he could even get his hands on Melinda or even try to find her, Perry, Sheila’s strangely observant boyfriend, also decides to come back to check one last time if she is actually in there.
Billy decides to take care of Perry and get him out of his way and ends up strangling him unconscious. Melinda takes this as an opportunity and calls Liu back for help, telling him that Billy has taken over Perry’s car and is continuously slamming it into the doors, breaking glass into pieces.
The Final Showdown
Melinda had a plan, but it did not work; in fact, it failed badly, and in the end, she was left begging Billy to just take the bag of money and leave her alone. But Billy is drowned in a blind rage, not realizing that the mad woman has poured gasoline all over the shop. Billy fires his gun and sets himself on fire.
Melinda’s quick thinking helps her as she grabs the fire extinguisher and, using the same paves the way out for herself. Just as she barely managed to run out and save herself, Liu and his officers also seemed to be parking their cars. With no idea of all that happened throughout the night, Liu consoles Melinda while carrying her to his car and making sure she feels comfortable.
The camera pans onto Melinda’s face, which looks like, after all, that happened, she still found peace in the arms of the man she secretly admired. The film seemed to have done with Melinda’s character arc, which, as she commits more and more mistakes, turns more and more sure of herself.
Though the premise of the movie sounds promising, the bad execution and direction take away from it heavily, especially the climax of the movie, which feels extremely predictable, lacking the impact it should have had.
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