Promising Young Woman Ending Explained [SPOILER!]

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!

A young woman, traumatized by a tragic event in her past, seeks out vengeance against those who crossed her path.

SPOILERS AHEAD

Promising Young Woman Video Summary

Promising Young Woman Plot Summary and Synopsis

Cassie Thomas is a 30-year-old woman who lives with her parents. Years earlier, she was in medical school with her lifelong best friend, Nina Fisher. However, after Nina was raped by one of their classmates and both the school and legal system failed her, Cassie dropped out to take care of her; it alludes that Nina eventually died by suicide. Cassie now has a job at a coffee shop. By night, she goes to clubs and pretends to be drunk in an effort to get a guy to take her home. She waits for them to attempt to take advantage of her apparent intoxication and then turns the tables on them, scaring or perhaps hurting them into changing the error of their ways.

At work, Cassie encounters a classmate from medical school, Ryan Cooper. He asks her out and casually mentions during their first date that another classmate, Al Monroe, is getting married; Al is Nina’s rapist. Upon hearing this, Cassie begins a plan to exact revenge on those she holds responsible for Nina’s rape and death. She invites an old friend, Madison McPhee, who dismissed Nina’s accusation, to lunch and intentionally gets her drunk, then has a man she hired take Madison to a hotel room. After the incident, Cassie ignores all her calls.

Next, Cassie targets Elizabeth Walker, the medical school dean to whom Nina reported her rape but did nothing about it. She pretends to be a makeup artist for a band Walker’s teenage daughter, Amber, is a fan of and coerces Amber into getting into her car and giving Cassie her phone. Later, Cassie has a meeting with Walker in her office and questions her about the events that led to Nina’s dropout and subsequent suicide. When Walker explains away what she did, Cassie tells her she dropped her daughter off at a dorm room with drunk male students.

After a frightened Walker apologizes for her inaction over Nina’s rape, Cassie confesses Amber is actually safe at a local diner. Meanwhile, Cassie enters into a relationship with Ryan, though he almost stops seeing her after running into her during one of her club visits and misunderstanding the situation. She then visits the home of the lawyer who defended Al and harangued Nina into dropping charges, Jordan Green, but Cassie is shocked that he remembers Nina and is tortured with guilt for what he did, on leave from practicing law. She forgives him. After talking with Nina’s mom, who urges her to move on, Cassie abandons her revenge plans.

One day, Cassie encounters Madison waiting outside her house, desperate to know what happened after they had lunch. Cassie apologizes for not returning her calls and tells her nothing happened beyond her sleeping in the hotel room. In response, Madison gives Cassie a phone containing a video that was passed around of Nina’s rape. As she watches the video, Cassie is shocked to see Ryan among the bystanders. She confronts Ryan and threatens to release the video if he doesn’t tell her where Al’s bachelor party is being held. Ryan tells her and begs for her forgiveness, but Cassie refuses it.

Cassie arrives at Al’s bachelor party pretending to be a stripper, successfully intoxicating Al’s friends and taking Al himself upstairs. She handcuffs him to a bed and eventually confesses who she is and why she’s there, but as she tries to carve Nina’s name into Al’s stomach, he breaks free and suffocates her to death.

The next morning, Al’s friend Joe finds him and, upon realizing what has happened, helps Al cover up the murder by burning Cassie’s body. Cassie’s parents file a missing person report, and the police begin to investigate.

The Ending

During Al’s wedding reception, Ryan receives the first of a few scheduled texts from Cassie. It’s revealed that before the bachelor party, she told Jordan Green who would be responsible if she went missing. Police arrest Al while Joe runs off and Ryan receives a final scheduled text from Cassie, signed with her and Nina’s names.

Ending Explained

The movie ends with a clear note that every doing has its consequences. They may be delayed in time, but after all, are inevitable. This doesn’t mean a fairy tale type of happy ending though, as real life is always way more complex.

Cooncel Rating

Source: Wikipedia (CC BY-SA 3.0).