Aahana Swrup
The Paramount+ drama thriller film ‘Finestkind’ is a story about two half-brothers with different upbringings who learn that they have more in common than they thought after spending a summer together as fishermen. At 22, Charlie seeks out his older brother, Tom, and tags along as his fishing crew for a job. However, one bad decision results in trouble when the ship, Finestkind, belonging to Tom’s sick father, gets seized. As a result, the brothers find themselves involved in shady businesses to repay their debt and get hold of their vessel.
While the film begins as a family drama, the plot quickly spirals into a criminal storyline, drastically changing the film’s tone and endangering the characters’ lives by the end. SPOILERS AHEAD!
Finestkind Plot Synopsis
When Charlie first shows up at the harbor to convince his older brother to let him be his dockhand, Tom is a bit reluctant. Still, Charlie persuades the other man with his bright-eyed curiosity for the world of fishing. While the young man enjoys his first time among other sailors, his voyage ends in a disaster after an engine room malfunction destroys the vessel. Still, the men manage to escape in a lifeboat and are saved by the Coast Guard in time.
While the men go out to celebrate their survival, Charlie’s father, Gary, arrives to talk his son into giving up on his sudden infatuation with fishing and returning to his original plan of attending Law School. Simultaneously, Tom’s future also takes a bleak turn since his company refuses to take responsibility for his vessel’s destruction. Nonetheless, a new opportunity knocks on his door when his father, Ray, asks him to take his ship for a fishing trip.
Even though Tom has a contentious relationship with his father, he agrees to his wishes and gathers his crew, including Charlie. A day before the trip, Charlie hits it off with a young woman, Mabel, who has a tense family background. Still, despite her family’s hardships and neglect, Mabel remains fiercely independent and wants to make it on her own. Thus, regardless of their differences, Mabel and Charlie form a bond and fall into a tentative relationship within a day.
Afterward, Charlie joins his brother and crew on the Finestkind to sail into the ocean. However, things take a turn when Tom decides to venture into Canadian waters to increase their haul. Although their trip goes well for a while, the Canadian Coast Guard soon finds them infringing on foreign waters and breaking the commercial fishing rules. As a result, upon re-entering their harbor, the authorities take away the Finestkind.
Worse yet, when Tom and Charlie attempt to visit Ray to break the news to them, they discover he’s in the hospital due to a late-stage cancer diagnosis. Therefore, despite their taut relationship, Tom realizes he can’t let his father die without his ship. Still, there’s a hundred thousand fine that needs to be paid before the authorities will return Finestkind to the family.
With no other solution left to turn to, Charlie comes up with a dangerous idea. Through her mother, Mabel is able to get Tom and Charlie in contact with a drug dealer, Weeks, who needs a crew to move his heroin. Thus, despite Tom’s reservations, the crew ends up sailing out into the middle of the ocean to collect the drugs and deliver them to Weeks. Nevertheless, everything goes south when, on their way to a meet-up with drugs, Tom and Charlie’s car gets robbed. As a result, the crew must figure out a way to escape Weeks’ violent anger.
Finestkind Ending: Who Is The Snitch?
Even though smuggling heroin into the country through the sea was an incredibly risky plan, it was the only option available to Tom and his crew to make easy big money. However, everything goes right on the actual trip, and the group manages to secure a big case of drugs. Still, trouble strikes when Tom and Charlie leave to deliver the haul to Weeks. Several men in fake police uniforms pull the duo over and steal the heroin bricks from their car in the chaos. Due to the strategic nature of the operation, it remains obvious that whoever targeted them was privy to their dealings.
Therefore, Tom concludes that there must be a snitch among their ranks. Naturally, his suspicions immediately go to Mabel, who’s virtually a stranger to him. As such, she remains his prime suspect even after the woman vehemently declines the accusation. Yet, after a deadly confrontation with Weeks, Tom learns that the criminal has already interrogated Mabel and concluded she isn’t the snitch.
Consequently, with the lives of their family and loved ones at stake, Tom takes grave measures and confronts each of his crewmates. After intimidating Nunes with a gun and believing his innocence, Tom arrives at Skeemo’s house to confront the man. Skeemo has previously had addiction issues with drugs. For the same reason, Tom isn’t surprised when he arrives at his place to find him high. However, the fact that the man seems to be in possession of a considerable amount of expensive drugs tips Tom off.
Following Skeemo’s own admission, Tom realizes that the other man sold his friends out for some money to feed his addiction. Tom has known his crew for years and has the utmost trust in them. Therefore, Skeemo’s betrayal remained that much more bitter. Although the revelation almost pushes Tom to pull the trigger on Skeemo, Charlie manages to arrive in the knick of time and talk his brother off of an action he will come to regret.
What Happens to Weeks?
Near the end, Weeks remains an ever-present looming threat to Tom, Charlie, and their friends. The man has already threatened the crew’s family by giving Costa a gunshot wound during his wife’s delivery and beating Mabel up for information she didn’t have. Therefore, both brothers know better than to cross the other man. Yet, they have no solution to the problem at hand. The stolen heroin is likely in the wind now with no means to procure it back.
Furthermore, considering financial problems had landed the crew in this mess in the first place, it isn’t as if they can pay Weeks off. As such, they well and truly hit a dead-end. Tom’s father, Ray, notices his son’s distress even if he seems unwilling to talk to him about his problems. Ray’s relationship with Tom has always been complicated. Although the narrative fails to explore the specifics of their issues, the palpable tension between the duo confirms Tom’s less-than-favorable perspective of his father.
Even though Tom wants to return his father’s boat to him despite their sour relationship, he’s reluctant to be transparent with the other man. Consequently, Ray has to find answers elsewhere, specifically his son’s half-brother, Charlie. Once Charlie explains the situation to Ray, the older man realizes he must make bold choices to get his son out of the intense trouble he’s gotten into.
As a result, Ray meets up with Weeks the following day to try and talk him out of targeting his son. The man even offers the drug lord whatever money he can muster but to no avail. Thus, when no other avenue remains open, Ray pulls out his gun and shoots Weeks and his men dead.
Ray already knows that he’s a dead man on borrowed time due to his cancer diagnosis. Therefore, he doesn’t think twice about signing whatever is left of his life away if it can give his son the opportunity to be free and happy. Ultimately, by killing Weeks, Ray takes a bullet for Tom. Even though his actions will result in a lifetime imprisonment for Ray, whose illness will definitely make prison that much worse, the older man can die happy knowing he saved his son.
What Happens To The Ship Finestkind?
While Ray’s sacrifice ties up the Weeks chapter in Tom and Charlie’s lives, it does little to help the brothers solve their initial problem: freeing up the Finestkind. Since the court has good proof against Tom and his crew, there’s no way they can get out of this bind without paying off the fine. Yet, at the same time, since they have no vessel, they can’t possibly return to the ocean and continue their livelihood to make the money required to pay off the debt.
Furthermore, considering Tom resorts to drug trafficking, it’s safe to say the group remains fresh out of options. Still, Charlie has one last trick up his sleeve. Charlie’s father has been persistently against him continuing his life as a fisherman. As a lawyer himself, Gary wants his son to attend law school, which will open numerous doors for the boy. Nevertheless, Charlie’s heart lies in the ocean, surrounded by his crew, a ship, and his older brother, Tom. Therefore, while Charlie continues to postpone a discussion with his father throughout the film, he finally confronts the topic.
Charlie tells his father that being a fisherman is his true calling since he enjoys the work, which gives him a new sense of self. As such, he asks his father for the money Tom needs to pay off the fine. Even though Gary is reluctant to allow his son to commit to such a life, he also understands that as an adult, Charlie needs to make his own choices and find his own passion.
As a result, Gary agrees to help them with the legal work and lend the brothers a hundred thousand dollars. However, instead of a gift or a loan, Gary treats the money as an investment and buys into Tom and Charlie’s family business as a partner. In the end, the brothers are able to save Finestkind and sail it across the ocean just in time to give Ray a farewell as he’s carried away in police vans. Thus, the familial love between the brothers and their respective fathers allows Tom and Charlie to arrive at a happy ending.
Read More: Is Finestkind Based on a True Story?
