A surprising hostage situation, a visually stunning final course,
and one chef's legacy literally going up in smoke. The ending of "The Menu"
continues to delight viewers for so many reasons.
One of the biggest mysteries in "The Menu" is Chef Slowiksince it seems like he's really
going through a full-on breakdown throughout the night. He makes a creepy early impression with
a disturbing tale of childhood trauma, made all the more chilling by Ralph Fiennes's incredible
performance. Plus, he's somehow been able to convince his staff to follow him to the end,
literally. He's ready to end it all, and he's planning to take his guests, his staff,
and himself out in a ball of fire. So, why is Chef Slowik suddenly ready to end everything?
The accomplished chef explains that after years of cooking overly artsy food for
unworthy and disrespectful clients, he's completely lost his passion for cooking.
He now looks to end his suffering by dishing out some cold revenge.
Chef Slowik's latest menu is simply him punishing those that have brought him into
this life and embody everything he's grown to hate about the avant-garde food world,
including petty food critics, narcissistic businessmen, and pretentious foodies. This
growing disdain perfectly explains Chef Slowik's generally cold presence. In fact, his existence
has become so bad that he would rather die than have to cook another meal ever again.
“I’ve been fooled into trying to satisfy people who can never be satisfied.”
Chef Slowik gradually reveals why he is ready to end it all,
and get some cold revenge on his guests. However,
it's more difficult to figure out why his staff is so willing to follow him into the abyss.
Most of them are young and could have some promising cooking careers ahead of them thanks
to the impeccable dishes they serve. So, why are they willing to go down in flames and never even
think about fighting back? Sadly, the answer is that there's no place they'd rather be.
It would be easy to say that Chef Slowik simply brainwashes the cooks to follow
his order because of how in sync they are with him at every turn. Truthfully,
everyone's more than willing to be there just so they can work for Chef Slowik.
Slowik's staff represents the allure of desperately wanting to make it in a
tough industry and the willingness to do just about anything to attain accolades
and respect. They might know that this will be the last meal they cook, but if
they're working on Chef Slowik's masterpiece then it's an opportunity they can't pass up.
It's basically the same reason that people don't quit after Gordon Ramsay
screams and yells at them during service. Their staying mentality
embodies their views of their art being more valued alongside Chef Slowik, even in death.
Throughout the film, there's a silver door in the restaurant that catches the attention
of Anya Taylor-Joy's Margot, which adds another mystery to the whole ordeal. Once
Margot is able to go into Chef Slowik's house while running an errand for him,
she discovers what's behind an identical door in his house.
What she finds could be easily considered Chef Slowik's planning and motivation room
since there are newspaper clippings on the walls of some of his reviews
and photos that embody his rise to prominence.
However, Margot makes a more important discovery that inspires her fight for
survival. In his secret room, she sees a photo of Chef Slowik working as a chef at a
local burger joint. He's smiling, and it looks as though he truly has a passion for cooking.
It might look unimportant to most, but Margot sees it as a symbol of
Chef Slowik's love for food and a reminder of the simpler life he had before becoming
a world-famous culinary auteur. As well as giving Margot the opportunity
to survive Chef Slowik's final meal, it delves deep into the chef's psyche.
“Yes, what?”
“Yes chef.”
Chef Slowik tells Margot that his guests are being punished
for destroying his love of food. He reveals that they also embody a world
of cooking that's devoid of any real passion, but he views her as different.
Unlike the other guests, he respects her and believes that she is much more real
than anyone else sitting in the dining room. Despite this respect, Chef Slowik doesn't
plan on letting Margot go, so she's forced to figure out a way to leave on her own.
Inspired by the photo of Chef Slowik cooking burgers in his youth, Margot challenges him
to make her a simple cheeseburger and fries. In this moment, there's a legitimate power shift,
and Margot even does Chef Slowik's signature hand clap to get everyone's attention.
With confidence, she looks totally in control as she's served a mouth-watering
burger with fries. By touching on the chef's long-buried desire to
make simple food with love, Margot finds a way to escape from his revenge menu.
Margot's discovery of Chef Slowik's past as a burger chef is a major turning point
in the film and heavily inspires her to order a cheeseburger in order to possibly save herself.
Her request is granted, and Chef Slowik makes one hell of a plate
of cheeseburger and fries that makes you want to rip it off the screen and
eat it yourself. But there's more to this cheeseburger than meets the eye.
“I’ll make you feel as though you’re eating the first cheeseburger you ever ate.”
Not only does this cheeseburger connect to a
former part of Chef Slowik's life as a chef who genuinely loved to cook,
but it symbolizes a part of cooking that's lost on most of the people in the room.
It represents that brand of easy cooking that's timeless and never needs to be flashy in order to
establish a connection with people. It's innocent and has real flavor to it, not because of special
spices but because the love and touch of the person cooking it is present in every bite.
“When I eat your food, it tastes like it was made with no love.”
Chef Slowik doesn't even prepare a fancy cheeseburger and fries. Instead,
it's just a nice simple burger sitting on top of a paper plate that easily puts a
smile on a person's face. It certainly puts a smile on Chef Slowik's face
and reignites his radiating love of food that had been gone for so long.
“Now that is a cheeseburger.”
After getting Chef Slowik to fill her request for a cheeseburger, there's a tense moment in which
everyone wonders if he'll actually let Margot go. Even in her request to have the rest of the meal
to go, viewers can't help but question if her ruse will actually work, but surprisingly, it does.
Chef Slowik wraps up all her food in a paper bag, gives her a party favor bag,
and tells his staff to let her walk out the door and leave. But why does
he have a change of heart when it comes to Margot?
“This menu, this guest list, this entire evening has been painstakingly planned,
and you were not a part of that plan.”
Throughout "The Menu," Chef Slowik constantly tells Margot that she's different from the other
guests because she seems more genuine and real, and isn't meant to be there in the first place.
By ordering a cheeseburger, Margot proves that she's not like anyone
else in the room as she can appreciate a simple home-cooked meal. Chef Slowik
likely lets her go because she doesn't deserve to die with the rest of the room,
or because he respects how clever she is when she makes that to-go request.
Either way, Margot uses Chef Slowik's original love of food
to make a last-ditch effort to survive, and it totally works.
Once Margot is allowed to leave, everyone wonders if Chef Slowik
will have a change of heart and end the bloodshed that's consumed the night.
After all, Chef Slowik has been reminded of his love of food and cooked a meal that brings some
genuine warmth to the character for the first time in the film. However, once Margot leaves,
he reverts back to his old form as the final course is ready to be served. So,
why doesn't Margot's cheeseburger request change anything for Chef Slowik?
Chef Slowik doesn't have a real change of heart at any point, and he's still committed
to his final menu. Just because Margot showed that she isn't like the others in the room,
doesn't mean that it changes anything for any of the other diners, or Chef Slowik.
He always felt that Margot was different and once she's out of the line of fire,
there's nothing stopping him from completing his masterpiece. Frankly,
even the other guests seem to accept their fate, as no one tries to stop Chef
Slowik in the final moments. In fact, Judith Light's Anne even waves for Margot to leave,
showing that the remaining guests are already resigned to their fate.
Although Margot is able to escape, the other guests are basically trapped for
the final course. Chef Slowik suggests that the diners could fight back,
and he even allows the men to run and hide on the island during the "Men's
Folly" course. But in all seriousness, could anyone else actually escape if they tried?
“To our male diners, we now offer you the chance to escape.”
The answer is likely no. The Hawthorne staff are plenty
fit to fight off any physical advances made by the guests,
and no one is able to effectively hide during their terrifying rendition of hide-and-seek.
Even if other diners tried to play on Chef Slowik's humanity in the way that Margot did,
he would probably see their attempts as insincere and keep them captive anyway.
Throughout the film, the guests are told there's no escape for them,
and that seems like the case right up to the bitter end.
After all of the many horrors seen throughout the night,
everyone's left wondering what Chef Slowik has up his sleeve for the final course,
especially as it's likely going to be the last meal anyone has.
Like any classic auteur chef, he can't do something simple
and goes for an avant-garde take on s'mores. As for why he chooses this particular dish,
Chef Slowik talks about s'mores being the staple of any innocent childhood,
curling up around the fire with family and friends roasting marshmallows.
This final course seemingly represents the innocence that was lost by Chef
Slowik himself throughout his career. Instead of roasting marshmallows,
the plan is to roast everyone inside Hawthorne.
It's a visually stunning dish, prepared in a typically theatrical fashion. Everything
and everyone going up in flames is a horrifying sight to behold,
especially as all of the guests are covered in marshmallows. It's
a fiery final course with some solid symbolism and horrifying conclusions.
With Chef Slowik's menu finally coming together and his final course in action, there's only one
way for things to end, and that's in flames. Just after saying his goodbyes and giving his
final words to the guests, Chef Slowik lights the room ablaze and puts an end to this night of
horrors. Meanwhile, Margot's escape is not quite going to plan since the boat breaks down on the
water. From her POV, we see the final results of Chef Slowik's menu and what's left of Hawthorne.
As Margot looks back at Hawthorne, she sees flames bursting out of windows and
the entire building starting to burn down. The restaurant,
and possibly the entire island, will simply turn to ash before anyone can save it.
Chef Slowik's vision has been fully realized. The final course also presents the perfect
backdrop for Margot to simply keep eating her cheeseburger in peace, knowing that she survived.
While a sequel to "The Menu" hasn't been announced, fans are wondering whether
Chef Slowick might return to torment a new set of guests in the future.
However, the movie ends pretty definitively, with the completion of the chef's menu literally going
up in smoke. As Chef Slowick is last seen inside the restaurant with the guests and his staff,
it seems unlikely that he has any plans to escape the fiery mess of his own making.
“You represent the ruin of my art and my life.”
At the end of "The Menu," Hawthorne is burned to the ground. Margot is the sole
survivor. Chef Slowik's legacy is destroyed by his own masterpiece,
with no real successor mentioned or hinted at. As a result, it seems likely that "The Menu" is
a superb one-off horror story full of decadent food, sharp comedy, and disturbing moments.