Let’s Revisit “50 Shades of Grey”: One of the Greatest Surprise Movie Endings
“50 Shades Darker” is upon us and I’m wondering if it will also showcase one of the great surprise moving endings of all time like it’s predecessor, “50 Shades of Grey”. Yup, you heard that right. “50 Shades of Grey” has one of the greatest surprise movie endings of all time.
I’m a sucker for great plot twists that make you question everything you’ve been watching for 90+ minutes. Give me your “Usual Suspects”, your “The Sixth Senses” your “Fight Clubs”.
And I’ll never forget the suprise plot twist at the end of “50 Shades of Grey” that made me stand and shout, “whoa, I did not see that coming!”.
For all you folks that wish to see this seductive plot twist film but haven’t made the time — SPOILER ALERT — I’m going to ruin it (no, that’s redundant), I mean, give away the ending, so come back later.
As a plot refresher, 21 year old Anastasia “Ana” Steele (played by the fetching Dakota Johnson) is a really smart and beautiful college senior at Washington State University. How do we know she’s really smart? Because she’s an English Lit major and she is overwhelmed in appreciation when Christian Grey, (the smoldering and hunky 27 year old billionaire — basically the couture version of Mark Zuckerberg) buys her a couple of old, rare books. Did I mention the books are leather bound? And to boot, she writes for her school paper. Yeah…that’s how smart she is. Capiche?!
Christian says to Ana, “hey, I wanna date you.” To which Ana says, “Okay.”
Then Christian says, “oh, one more thing. I’m into S&M, so I’ll only date you if I can tie you up, poor hot wax all over you and whip you before we have sex.” To which Ana blushes, then says, “Oh, let me think about that, I’m not sure. Can you be more specific?”
To which Christian replies, “I’m glad you asked. Here’s a 10 page S&M contract outlining everything I want to do to you. Exhibit A in the back lists all the equipment I’ll use to sexually dominate you. And I’ll let you stay in my swanky apartment and buy you anything you want for your troubles.”
Ana reviews the document and says, “I’m gonna have to redline the big poker up my ass if you don’t mind”, to which Christian replies, “Sure. I understand.”
And you gotta hand it to Christian, cause that’s contracts 101. Throw in something you know you’ll never get on the deal, knowing she’ll take that out but all the other stuff has a better chance of making it in. So Christian tosses out the big hot poker and Ana considers the contract.
And for the next hour we watch them have sex as Christian tantalizes Ana with soft leather whips and ropes during their Fabio sexcapades and they helicopter up and down the west coast.
Now for the plot twist.
The last scene. Ana still hasn’t signed the S&M contract but she’s considering it seriously because she doesn’t want to lose Christian, so she asks him to demonstrate the punishment.
Christian obliges and says to Ana: “Great. Just strip naked and kindly bend over the desk so I can whip your ass six times with this here belt”. So she strips and he whips her.
Ana gets seriously upset, tears pouring from her eyes and says: “Oh my god, Christian! Where’s all this coming from? It’s like I don’t know you anymore!”
That’s when Christian says, “Um…we hammered out the deal together, remember? We kept in all the ropes and whips, and you made me take out the hot poker up your ass. See?” (Christian points to the Exhibit on page 10 as he looks at her, like, ‘here it is, in black and white. what the fuck’s going on here?’)
That’s when Ana gets dressed and sprints to the elevator, says “Goodbye Christian”, the doors close, and…..FADE OUT …as in….SURPRISE!…
ANA REALLY ISN’T THAT SMART AFTER ALL. AS A MATTER OF FACT, SHE’S KINDA STUPID!
I had to watch the movie all over again (not because of why you’re thinking, although that was gravy) because I figured I missed all the clues to Ana’s idiocy. I thought to myself, “when I got up to get popcorn, there must of been that scene where we find out Ana’s failing her Business Contracts class.” Or, “she’s cheating off her hot roommate in English Lit and she’s not that great a student after all.” But those scenes aren’t in the film. Which made me think….
…“whoa, I did not see that coming! That really surprised me!”
