David Fincher delivers yet another thriller with The Killer, and here’s our ending breakdown featuring spoilers. Find out what happened with the Client and who died in the movie.
Why does The Killer spare Claybourne at the end?
The Killer spares the client, Claybourne, because he had already got his revenge on the ones responsible for attacking his girlfriend, Magdala.
The Killer constantly sticks to his rules, which he iterates throughout the movie:
“Stick to your plan. Anticipate, don’t improvise. Trust no one. Never yield an advantage. Fight only the battle you’re paid to fight.”
However, we do see him break these rules on multiple occasions, and that’s what happens with Claybourne as well. After finding out that Claybourne was the Client responsible for Magdala being put into the hospital, the Killer reached his home.
But Michael Fassbender’s protagonist decided not to kill Claybourne because he convinced him that he didn’t have a direct hand in the attack on Magdala. To cover up for the botched-up assassination attempt at the beginning, Claybourne was just offered a way to tie up all loose ends by Hodges for a bit of extra money. Not knowing the consequences of that, he just took that option.
Despite having a predefined rule to trust no one, the Killer believed that Claybourne didn’t have anything against him and wasn’t a threat to him. So, he decided to spare his life. After all, he had already taken his revenge from everyone that harmed his girlfriend. But, the Killer did leave Claybourne with a warning and retired to live the rest of his life as a common man.
Who dies in The Killer?
After accidentally killing the dominatrix, the Killer takes down Hodges and his secretary Dolores, the brute, the expert, and Leo, the cab driver.
The Killer’s handler, Hodges, offered Claybourne to take down the killer, so he was directly responsible for the attack on Magdala. In a botched-up attempt to torture him for some information, the Killer ended up taking his life. Then, after extracting the intel out of Dolores, he showed a bit of empathy by making her death look like an accident so her family could claim her insurance money.
3 others who were directly responsible for Magdala’s death were the two assassins (the Brute & the Expert) and Leo the Taxi Driver, who were all taken down as well.
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