SPOILER ALERT: the following article contains massive spoilers, including the ending. If you have not yet seen the movie, proceed at your own risk, or better, come back to this article later!
Walter and his neglected wife lure a young stranger into their Victorian home to escape from a hurricane. When the man is charged with murder by Detective Jones, he must reveal the couple’s wicked secrets to save himself.
SPOILERS AHEAD
Grand Isle Plot Summary and Synopsis
A woman buys cookies from two Girl Scouts and makes one of the girls uncomfortable. Later that night a noise awakens the other house’s occupant, who quickly grabs a robe, slippers and a gun before going downstairs where it appears someone is stealing from them. The intruder attempts to flee out the front door and appears to be unable to open the locked door, jumps out of a window into the porch and is shot from the window and crashes into the fence. The next morning the body is gone.
A young man, Buddy (Luke Benward), with cuts and blood on his face and arms in police custody, handcuffed and being questioned by Detective Jones (Kelsey Grammer) about a murder and the events beforehand.
In a local diner, the day before, Buddy is seen trying to entice an uninterested investor. Buddy walks over to the booth with his wife, Lisa (Emily Marie Palmer) who has their 6-month-old baby in a stroller. They discuss their financial and sexual concerns. He tells her he was requested by name to fix someone’s fence and that he will try to get an advance. She declines his proposition for sex, possibly because of stress and/or postpartum hormone changes. He reluctantly agrees to give her more time.
Buddy drives over to the house from the beginning of the movie which is owned by Walter (Nicolas Cage), a disheveled veteran. His wife, Fancy (KaDee Strickland) was the woman who bought the cookies earlier. Tension is high between the two of them for more than one reason, one reason being that Walter forgot that that day is their 15 year anniversary. Both are physically abusive towards one another.
Fancy watches as Buddy fixes the fence (who seems to not notice the blood on a fence post), holding a handmade doll while the local news reports on a missing 16-year-old boy. She goes out to flirt with Buddy and denigrates her husband while doing so. This leads to Walter firing several shots at Buddy from the widow’s walk on the roof under the thin disguise of target practice.
The tension only grows when Walter refuses to pay Buddy as much as previously agreed upon, due to the fence not being finished at the agreed-upon time because of the weather. Fancy invites Buddy for dinner while Walter sullenly looks on. Buddy declines on account of his family and the storm, unknowingly setting up a way for Fancy to insult Walter in front of him. Unable to start or fix his truck, he turns to go inside.
As he reaches for the doorknob the scene shifts to Buddy being questioned by Detective Jones who recounts Buddy’s juvenile record while a woman, Detective Newton (Zulay Henao), looks on. Jones asks him if he is the kind of guy who secretly likes to hurt people, to which Buddy says he is not.
Buddy asks to use Walter’s car, while leaving his equipment and truck, to check on his family. Buddy calls Lisa who becomes upset with him and hangs up. Fancy stirs something in a pot, seemingly in a trance. After a distinctly awkward dinner, Fancy gives Buddy a tour of the house while Walter is seemingly passed out, the local news is on about the 4th teenage boy missing. They pass a door with many locks that Buddy queries Fancy about, she jokes with him then claims it’s storage and tells him to come upstairs.
In Fancy and Walter’s bedroom, her favorite room, she changes behind a cloth screen and bids Buddy to sit on the bed. Buddy observes VooDoo figures on a mantel. Fancy confides that she has always wanted children, but says she is medically unable to. She begins to seduce Buddy with a series of questions about affairs and fantasies only to share one of her “young boy” fantasies with Buddy. Buddy becomes uncomfortable as Fancy touches him, though he initially gave tacit consent, and gets up to leave the bedroom but trips, awakening Walter downstairs.
Upon hearing the noise, Walter gathers his thoughts and noisily makes his way upstairs, Buddy remains prone on the ground while Fancy calmly walks over and places her golden heeled foot upon his chest, moving it down his stomach. As we hear, and intermittently see, Walter made his way to the bedroom, Fancy uses her shoe’s high heel to flick off the button on Buddy’s fly. The button lands just under the door. Walter leans his ear against the door, listening only to walk away without opening the door. Buddy quietly tells Fancy she is crazy.
Coming downstairs Buddy views the local news on a TV stating the governor has declared a state of emergency and the National Guard is being called in. Buddy turns off the tv and lays down on a couch in the room. Later Buddy awakens in a start, then notices Walter is seated in a chair who is holding a revolver. Walter invites Buddy into the attic for a drink.
Walter shares about his brief time as a Marine in 1970 and seems overcome with survivor’s guilt. Buddy is haunted by a memory in which he let a soldier die during an accident. Walter begins a tirade about the government using the youth to line their pockets. He shows Buddy a small duffel bag that looks to be full of cash. Buddy asks him why he’d show him that. Walter then asks him to kill Fancy and even provides him with some cyanide, explaining that she has incurable blood cancer. Buddy seems unsure but goes off to find Fancy. He watches her signing in the bathtub. She invites him in and they speak of their childhoods. She pulls him in for a kiss which he returns.
Detective Jones questions Buddy’s story and morals. Buddy replied he had been feeling sexually frustrated before and that emotional vulnerability, Fancy’s appeal, and his taste for danger was to blame. Along with his sense of her emptiness. Detective Jones implores Buddy to confess.
Buddy and Fancy have sex in the bathroom after which Buddy hurriedly dresses and Fancy finds the cyanide. He says Walter told him she was sick and asked Buddy to kill her. Fancy thanks him for telling her and says she won’t tell him Buddy told her.
Walter is boarding up the windows from the inside of what Fancy says is his favorite room when he sees her walk by. She brings him a drink and says they should work on their resentment for one another with forgiveness. She then stabs him in the hand.
Walter knocks her out then points a gun at Buddy and blames him. Walter tells him to finish it with the cyanide. Buddy attacks Walter and ties him to the staircase railing. As Fancy asks Buddy to take her with him and run away with her, Walter tells Buddy how sadistic Fancy is. She tries to convince Buddy to have sex with her in front of Walter who laughs. Walter threatens Buddy and his family.
As Fancy and Buddy leave, Walter tells Buddy to look in the basement while laughing. At the basement door with the keys Walter gives him, Fancy tries to convince him not to go down. As he takes a lock-off Fancy begins shooting at him to Walter’s delight. Buddy escapes to another room where he finds a drugged boy imprisoned by the couple who asks for help and says there are others. Buddy takes a piece of cloth from his hand.
Fancy frees Walter, together they chase Buddy. Walter and Buddy fight and as Buddy struggles with the front door, Fancy knocks him unconscious. The pair leave Buddy in his truck, along with the now-dead boy. Buddy wakes as the police find him.
Detective Jones doesn’t believe Buddy’s story. Lisa comes to see him and is shown into the interrogation room. Detective Newton tells Jones she remembers a missing girl was seen wearing a dress of the same material Buddy saw a boy holding at the house. Led by Detective Newton, the police execute a search warrant on the house. They find several hostages and arrest Fancy, but Walter escapes. The police release Buddy who finds Lisa is heartbroken to learn of his infidelity from Detective Newton, she leaves him and moves in with her sister.
Sometime later, Buddy is enjoying breakfast in a diner when Walter, now clean-shaven and wearing a military dress uniform, is holding Buddy’s wife and child hostage outside. Buddy reveals he didn’t try to help his friend and Walter calls him a coward. Buddy switches places with his wife as the police arrive to negotiate as Walter wants Fancy’s release. Walter claims his actions represent a sacrifice against the government for its poor treatment of veterans. During the ensuing shootout, Walter is shot and Buddy is wounded.
As Buddy recovers in the hospital, his wife forgives him for his actions and he holds his daughter. The couple resolves to repair their relationship.
Grand Isle Ending
A news reporter states that Walter and Fancy were holding teenage hostages in their basement and forcing them to have babies. The two Girl Scouts from earlier are found there as well, in an emaciated state. As crime scene photos of children’s things are shown on the news, the reporter notes that nobody truly knows their neighbors.
Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).