Fair Play is one of the latest movies to land on Netflix, and it’s safe to say that this was most definitely an interesting ride. There were moments when I was on the edge of my seat, moments where I felt like I had to look away, and there was the overarching theme of inferiority among couples. And also the balance of where one puts work and the progression in one’s career when compared to one’s relationships and love.
That ending scene was one that I thought was articulated and delivered so beautifully. Having Luke finished with the way that he was acting and feeling as though he could just up and leave without apologizing after trying to throw Emily and everything that she had worked for under the bus showed how little he thought of the situation.
I’ll be breaking down the key themes, doing a Fair Play Ending Explanation, talking about what the ending meant, and I’ll also give my thoughts on the movie.
The Meaning Of Fair Play Movie
Fair Play was definitely an interesting one. It was one that was focused on old-fashioned traditional beliefs when it came to marriage and relationship dynamics, but in the modern day.
This is the viewpoint that the man should be the breadwinner, and if the woman earns more, then there’s a sense of inferiority that lies within the man. This is something that we saw was present between the happy couple that we first laid eyes on, Luke and Emily.
The opening scene was something that was on the verge of foreshadowing the ending with the blood on the dress. And personally, I thought that she was going to end up murdering him, but in the end, she didn’t.
Throughout this movie, we saw the dynamic of the couple take a downward trajectory as we saw that Luke was somebody who couldn’t handle not earning as much money as his partner and also not being in as high of a position at the company that they both worked for.
Luke wanted to be on top in many different ways, especially with getting the PM job, and because he wasn’t, and because Emily got the job, he couldn’t handle it. So much so that he started treating her in terrible ways, manipulating her from an emotional perspective and trying to make out like she didn’t deserve the job that she worked so hard for.
The job that he believed was his, even though he was terrible at his job, cost the company millions of dollars, and he was only there for a favor for the boss, Campbell’s friend.
Luke’s Inferiority Complex
As the movie went on, we saw that the only sense of power that Luke had in his inferior state was that he knew that he had the power to potentially ruin Emily’s Career. This was by revealing their relationship due to it going against the company policy, and he ended up resorting to that when he went to work in an intoxicated state and announced to the boardroom that they’d been together for the past couple of years.
This was something that humiliated her in front of her peers and also showed that Luke was past the point of caring for her and wanting the best for her. He was jealous to the point where he didn’t care about what happened to her. He was just bitter and inside of his own head.
Throughout all of this up until that point, she stood by him, absorbed all of the hateful and hurtful comments that had so carelessly thrown her way out of spade, and she was still willing to be there for him and help him, but that was the final straw.
Luke Trying To Destroy Emily
At the end of Fair Play, we saw that at their engagement party, the couple had an argument, one which went to heights that we hadn’t previously seen. And there was a really hard scene to watch where Luke ended up assaulting Emily. They were intimate with one another, but when she told him to stop, he carried on and ignored her, hurting her in the process.
The sad reality of this scene was that this was him asserting that superiority that he felt he deserved and should have had. And it came at the expense and suffering of the person he was supposed to care the most about.
We saw earlier on in the movie that he wasn’t able to perform when they were intimate after she got the promotion, something that he could have done before. This was due to feeling as though he was below his partner and that he wasn’t the dominant one. So, in this hard-to-watch scene, this was him feeling as though he had the power, and it was disgusting.
The aftermath of this scene was a really sad one, too. We saw the uncomfortableness that was present and the feeling that something horrific had just happened.
During the next day, when Emily goes to Campbell and tries to save her job, we see him accept what she said, where she lied about being in a relationship with Luke, and it was implied as if he knew that she was lying about Luke being a stalker. I feel that he thought that they were actually in a relationship together. But in that specific moment, he valued her work over the trouble that was caused.
However, we know that with that job comes walking on eggshells and being on a tightrope. The moment her performance slips, she will end up like Rory.
Fair Play Ending Explained
In the final moments of the Fair Play, we saw that Luke returned to the apartment, and he said how he was going to be leaving to go to San Francisco to stay with his brother and set up his own company. At this moment, we saw that he wasn’t regretful of what he did.
Then, we saw a sight of Emily that one never could have predicted. She picked up a knife and was going at him with it, saying that she wanted him to beg, to cry, and to admit that he was nothing. The very thing that he didn’t want to be and was masking himself with by shunning Emily with all of the negative comments and treatment throughout the movie.
Once he was on the floor crying and had said that he was worthless, we heard the knife drop. He had to clean the blood up, and then she said that he could leave, and the movie cut to black, an abrupt way for the movie to end. But it’s most definitely the perfect way for it to end.
Luke would say that Emily was weak, but in reality, he was the weak one, the weak one at work and the weak one in the relationship. Not because he didn’t earn as much money but because he was insecure and felt as though he needed to mask his insecurities by hurting the person he was supposed to care about most.
Emily won. She heard him admit that he was nothing, the very thing that he made her feel like during their time together. And with that, she was ready to move on.
Inferiority And Standing Up For One’s Self
The argument when they are in the kitchen is symbolic of the entire movie. The inferiority that he kept within and felt was vocalized by Emily. And it was incredible to witness when she stood up for herself for the first time, and he couldn’t face it.
The scream that she admitted being blended with the train tracks as it reverberated around my ears was something that was sprinting blindly, chilling.
It was quite a hard ending to watch because all I could think about was how happy this couple was at the start of the movie and the love that they once had for one another. It showed that there was a crack in their relationship and that Luke couldn’t handle not being the breadwinner, and once not on equal levels, he couldn’t hack it.
I have to give it to the makers because they really made something. It was really a great movie filled with thrill that I watched for a long time on Netflix. After seeing the trailer, I wasn’t that sure about this movie, but I’d really recommend you watch it if you haven’t yet.
