Welcome back to Movie Recaps. Today I will show you a mystery,
thriller film from 2014, titled The Loft. Spoilers ahead! Watch out and take care.
On a rainy night in the big city, a body falls from a fancy building onto a car while a person
watches from the balcony as the police arrive. A moment later, at the station, two detectives
are interrogating Vincent Stevens, who swears he didn't do anything and it was all a setup, but the
detectives just ask him to tell the story from the beginning. Early in the morning, Luke Seacord was
taking some groceries to the loft he shared with Vincent and three other friends and found a dead
woman handcuffed to the bed. Panicking, he called Vincent for help, and as soon as he arrived,
he told Luke not to call the police until all five of them were there. Luke explained the door was
locked and the alarm switched off when he arrived, which meant only one of them could've done it.
Dr. Chris Vanowen arrived shortly afterward and accidentally mentioned his half-brother's
name when he saw the body, which Vincent thought indicated he was suspecting him. As Marty Landry
also arrived, Chris moved the woman a bit to look at her face, but nobody recognized her,
and they all swore they had nothing to do with her. Luke, Chris, and Marty are also being
interrogated by the police, pretending they don't know anything about the loft, which is a lie.
A year ago, Vincent invited his friends and their wives to the grand opening of the latest apartment
building he designed. Chris was approached by Ann Morris , who worked as an assistant for
city councilman Joel Kotkin and they had a little chitchat before parting ways. However, Ann left
quite an impression on him and continued to look at him across the room whenever she could. In the
middle of the party, Vincent gathered his friends and showed them one of the lofts in the building,
which would be perfect to use as their private oasis to get away from their wives with no trace.
He wanted to get together this place with his friends, but Chris and Luke said they didn't do
that kind of thing. Meanwhile, Vincent continues to tell the story of what happened earlier in the
morning. The friends were sharing a drink when suddenly, Marty freaked out when he found a knife
under the covers and a message written with blood behind the pillow: "fatum nos iungebit", which is
Latin for "fate will link us". Chris translated it because he knew Latin, but he also pointed
out there was a grammar mistake. It was then that the last friend and Chris' half-brother, Philip
Williams, finally arrived and Luke immediately jumped on him, calling him a sadist, but the other
men quickly separated them. Philip was with his in-laws last night so it couldn't have been him,
but Vincent had no alibi because his wife took the kids on a trip. Chris was in trouble too when the
others discovered he didn't have his key with him while they did, but Chris reminded them the alarm
was off, so this wasn't the work of an outsider. Those five keys are the only ones in existence,
and how they obtained them triggers another flashback. During Philip's wedding party,
Vincent told his friends that he finally finished furbishing the loft and gave each of them a key,
although Chris didn't take his. Marty quickly started looking around the party to see which
girl he could take to the loft first and chose a young woman that turned out to be Zoe Trauner,
Philip's sister, who was all grown up now. Philip grabbed Marty for his inappropriate comments and
threatened him with worse if he ever come close to her. Meanwhile, Chris got to meet Ann again
and told her he guessed she was Joe's mistress. After she flirted with him, Chris accepted taking
her out for coffee and went to ask Vincent for the loft key, clarifying he wouldn't use it for
what Vincent thought. Back to the morning story, Chris insisted someone in the group was hiding
something, so Vincent remembered a peculiar incident some months ago. The friends and
their wives had a dinner party at Chris' house. As always, Marty had too much to drink, and while the
group discussed the subject of polyamory, he almost told everyone about the loft, but Luke
stopped him just in time by discreetly pushing his chair to make it look like a drunk accident.
Afterward, Luke took his diabetic wife to the bathroom to help her with her insulin shot and
found Philip getting high, but he said he was just taking something for his upset stomach.
Because of the knife and the Latin phrase, Vincent was sure someone was trying to set them up,
which meant someone had revealed the secret to a person outside their group,
and he wanted to know who was in trouble. Chris started having a trip of his own down memory lane
then. He had begun taking Ann to the loft, to do exactly what he said he wouldn't. One evening,
he confessed his love to Ann, saying he was sick of keeping their relationship secret and that
he was willing to divorce his wife to be with her. Ann didn't take this well, pointing out he
only knew her superficially, and confessed she was actually a call girl before leaving the apartment.
In the meantime, the detectives ask Marty about why he and his wife aren't together anymore,
so he tells them about the day he cheated on her some months ago. Vincent got two extra VIP
tickets for a commercial real estate convention in San Diego, so he invited Luke and Marty to go
with him. While they were at the bar, they were approached by Philip's father-in-law, Hiram Fry,
who was there with a woman that wasn't his wife. To gain the men's silence, he told Vincent to
call him after the trip to discuss some business opportunities together, and he also paid for their
drinks before going back to his table. The friends were surprised to see that Ann and Joe were also
there with Hiram and it is shown Ann kept ignoring Chris' calls. Afterward, they were approached by
two women, Dana and Sarah Deakins, who drank with them for a while before they all decided to move
somewhere private. Dana and Marty found a private spot for themselves while Vincent and Sarah got
together in the pool, not caring that Luke was still in the room. For a couple of seconds,
Luke watched them with jealousy in his eyes, but eventually, it became too much and he left.
Vincent is also telling the detectives about San Diego, but he also mentions he's already broken
up with Sarah, then he continues his story about the morning of the crime. While the others argued,
Vincent grabbed an open bottle of wine that was lying around and went to throw it in the trash,
but Luke stopped him, realizing he was doing it because he was there last night and he
was getting rid of the evidence. Luke wanted Vincent to tell the others, but at that moment,
they were interrupted by the doorbell. Chris asked who it is through the intercom and found
out it was a realtor coming to see the loft, which apparently was up for sale, and the person that
called her was Sarah. After Chris told her it was a mistake in order to send her way,
Vincent admitted Sarah was the dead woman on the bed, who Luke and Marty didn't recognize because
they were drunk that night in San Diego. Vincent also admitted he and Sarah had been seeing each
other for a while and were together in the loft last night, but after she asked for more than
just a fling, he broke up with her, and he swore she was still alive when he left. It still didn't
explain why someone listed the loft, and Chris began remembering another important incident then.
One afternoon, he followed Ann into a store, wanting to convince her to get back together.
He promised he hadn't taken any other women to the loft and never will, so to prove it, he gave her
his key. After hearing Vincent's confession, Philip got very angry and grabbed the knife
from the bed, intending to attack Vincent, but the other men kept them apart so Philip just threw the
knife at him. Vincent caught it and put it back on the bed as he asked Marty if they were going to
leave him hanging, which caused Marty to remember some things of his own. Some weeks before,
Marty showed up at the loft while Vincent was busy with a woman to tell him Miriam had left him after
Dana showed at his house to ask for more than just a fling. Marty was devastated and asked Vincent to
help him get Miriam back, so Vincent promised he'd talk to her. Vincent wanted to move the body away,
and Phillip called him out for speaking of Sarah like an inconvenience. Vincent thought that was
golden coming from Phillip and reminded him of his own incident from a few weeks ago. Chris and
Vincent were rushing into the loft because they heard about an emergency. They found a very stoned
and violent Philip completely losing his mind and a woman handcuffed to the bed, crying and saying
Philip hit her and took advantage of her. Philip yelled at her that callgirls couldn't be taken
advantage of and Chris pushed him against the wall for that, saying he wasn't any better than
his drunk abusive father. This angered Philip even more and he told Chris he'd never understand
what he and Zoe had to go through, but Chris told him back then he didn't know what kind of man his
mother had married, otherwise he would've helped his half-siblings escape. After freeing the girl
from the handcuffs, Chris gave her all the money he had and begged her not to go to the police.
The girl left saying she won't but only because her testimony would be useless if they didn't
back her up. Marty hadn't known about this incident because they wanted to protect Phillip,
and since everyone was airing their secrets, Luke felt it was his turn as well. He admitted that a
long time ago, he installed hidden cameras in the loft. The cameras weren't recording 24/7,
though, only at certain times, so Luke didn't have anything from last night because Vincent
had broken his own rules and told nobody that he'd be using the loft. It was not the first time he
broke the rules, and Vincent was now worried about his secrets being on tape, but Luke promised he'd
never betray his best friend. He also said that when people got hurt they ended up finding each
other, and this made Vincent remember the day they went to a casino night for a charity event.
They all brought their wives with them except for Marty, who ended up bumping into her anyway. When
he tried to apologize to her again, she wouldn't hear it and even told him perhaps she had already
taken revenge by sleeping with one of his friends. Hiram and Joe were also there, and Vincent went
to talk to them since Hiram never called him for that job he promised in exchange for his silence.
He mentioned San Diego on purpose in front of their wives as a threat before leaving,
and when he saw Zoe also came to the event, he nodded at her, which was noticed by Philip. He
got furious because his sister wasn't supposed to be there and argued with his wife for giving her
a ticket, this fight ended up with them agreeing on getting a divorce. In the meantime, Ann also
arrived and sent a message to Chris to meet her in the girl's bathroom, but he didn't find her.
The one he did see is Sarah, who quickly left when she saw Joe entering the bathroom as well.
He asked Chris to make Vincent stop playing dangerous games with his hidden threats,
and Chris in return asked him to stop seeing Ann. Joe says he loved her as well, and when
Chris pointed out at least he didn't pay her, Joe replies that no, he wasn't the one that paid her.
Ann came out from the stalls then and told Joe to leave, and after he was gone, Chris asked Ann what
he meant with those words. Ann told him someone paid her for the first time she was with him,
but all the other times were real. Chris wanted to know more details, but Ann left as well,
and when he followed her out, he found a commotion in the main hall: Philip was beating up a guy for
getting too close to his sister. The men were separated and Hiram told Philip he didn't want
to see him around ever again while Vincent hugged Zoe to comfort her. This was seen by Sarah,
who approached Vincent when he was alone and asked him how many women he had in his life.
She wanted him to choose one already, but Vincent didn't want to have this conversation now when his
wife was around, so Sarah decided to go to her and tell her the truth. Luckily for Vincent,
Luke cut in just in time and convinced her not to make a scene. Remembering all the times their
wives have given them knowing looks and asked weird questions, Vincent reaches a conclusion:
their wives have always known about the loft and this was their revenge. As he tried to
tell his friends this, he began feeling dizzy, and the other men surrounded him when he fell to
the floor. They told him it was not their wives that found out the truth, but his friends did,
and that was why they put something in the drink some moments ago. As they began to take his
clothes off, they started telling him the whole story. When Luke came earlier with the groceries,
it was actually his second time in the apartment that morning. He had come even earlier and found
Sarah dead from having taken too many sleeping pills, but there wasn't blood or handcuffs yet,
just a letter saying goodbye to Vincent. He called Chris, Philip, and Marty, who started arguing over
if calling the police or helping Vincent, so Luke told them about the cameras so they could make an
informed decision. He showed them the recordings of all the women Vincent took to the apartment,
revealing his real nature: he had been betraying his friends all along.
Vincent had slept with Marty's wife the night after Marty asked him to talk to her, with Zoe
multiple times since Philip's wedding, and once with Ann as well - Vincent paid her to get Chris'
attention and make him accept the key. They agreed to set up a trap for him as revenge, so Marty,
Chris, and Luke went out to be seen in public in order to have an alibi while Philip stayed in the
loft to make a messier crime scene by getting stoned then handcuffing Sarah, cutting her up,
and using her bloody hand to write the message on the headboard. Now that they had Vincent, they
could finish setting up the scene. They forced him to swallow some alcohol and sleeping pills
before putting him on the bed and handcuffing him to Sarah as he began to lose consciousness,
leaving him there for the police to find. Back in the present, the detectives don't
believe such a crazy conspiracy story. The only fingerprints on the loft are his and Sarah's,
the DVD collection they found next to him only has recordings of Vincent but not the others,
and Philip was with Hiram all morning so he couldn't have been in the loft.
Vincent replies that there are perfectly good explanations for this: his friends
probably cleaned off the loft to get rid of their fingerprints and they were wearing gloves anyway,
Luke must've destroyed the recordings that didn't include him, and Philip is probably blackmailing
Hiram using the information Vincent gave him about San Diego, so Hiram is covering up for
him. This makes the story even more complicated and weird, so the cops still won't believe him.
A few hours later, one of the detectives tells Chris he's allowed to go, but first,
she comments on a detail that still baffles her: she doesn't understand why Vincent keeps on trying
to accuse his friends, so maybe he's still hiding something else, like the fact he murdered Sarah.
Chris is confused by this since the other officer had told him Sarah committed suicide, but the
detective replies the results of the autopsy have arrived and they show some confusing details:
the pills didn't kill Sarah, she was still alive when the cuts happened, and because of the angle
of those cuts, she couldn't have done them herself. There was also no farewell letter,
but they did find Vincent's fingerprints on the knife. As Marty and Phillip also leave the
station, Chris is visibly upset by these details and can't help to keep on thinking about them.
If Sarah hadn't been dead when they found them, that means their plan, and particularly Philip,
killed her. It's also strange that they didn't find a farewell letter because he's sure they left
it on the crime scene with the DVDs and the knife. When he finally puts two and two together, he
calls Luke and tells him to meet him at the loft. Once there, Chris reveals he contacted the real
estate agency to find out who had put up the loft for sale and they gave him a number that he calls
right now on his phone, which causes Luke's to ring in his pocket. He also shows him the letter,
which he found in the trash, and he guesses Luke had thrown it away because he had written it,
not Sarah. Finding himself cornered, Luke finally tells him the truth: he was in love with Sarah,
and he even confessed to her his feelings the night of the charity event, but she turned him
down. All this time he's suffered watching the recordings of her and Vincent together,
so when he heard Vincent's family was away on a trip, he came to the loft, knowing Vincent
would bring Sarah. He waited until he left before going to see her and, pretending to comfort her,
he put the pills in her wine as a misdirection, then injected her with some of his wife's insulin,
which leaves no trace, in order to give her an overdose. Then it was just a matter of writing the
letter and calling the other three in the morning to get the plan rolling. Luke says he did it out
of love, he just wants to ruin Vincent's life as revenge for how he used every person in his life.
But Chris points out that his trick didn't work and Sarah was still alive when Philip killed her,
so the police will charge Vincent with murder, which is more than the ruining of his reputation
that Luke had been going for. When Chris tells him he's already called the cops and told them
everything, Luke panics and grabs a knife, using it to threaten Chris and make him walk out to the
balcony, where he wants him to jump off. Chris takes out the farewell note from his pocket,
saying he'll jump with it, so Luke jumps on him to try to steal it. The two men get in a
fight and for a moment, Luke has Chris against the balcony railing with this hands around his neck,
but Chris manages to punch him and get him off him as the knife falls to the floor.
Chris picks it up and tells him it's all over, so finding himself cornered again, Luke asks Chris to
tell his wife and kids that he really loves them before he jumps off the balcony, landing on top
of a car and dying. One year later, a now divorced Chris is at a bar hanging out with Marty and his
wife, who got back together because they had both been cheaters so they're even now. When it's time
to go home, Chris goes to the parking lot to get his car and is surprisingly approached by Ann, who
tells him she still hasn't given him back his key. Chris tells her it's not necessary because the
loft is now Vincent's home since that's the only thing his wife allowed him to keep in the divorce.
After she asks him about Philip, whose case is still undergoing trial, she tells him
she's quit her job and broken up with Joe, so she'd love to have coffee with him sometime.