Diksha Sundriyal
Directed by John Patton Ford, ‘How to Make a Killing‘ stars Glenn Powell as a man named Becket, who has to turn to bloodshed to change the course of his life. The fast-paced film takes many twists and turns, especially in the second half, as we watch Becket embark on a journey that forces him to push his boundaries in the most unexpected ways. At the beginning of the movie, he warns his audience that this story ends in tragedy, but not the kind anyone could have imagined. A final twist of fate lands him in a completely different place than he had hoped for. SPOILERS AHEAD.
How to Make a Killing Plot Synopsis
Becket Redfellow is on death row. The date of his execution has arrived, and he will be put to death in a few hours. So, a priest is sent to his cell to help him make his peace in his final moments. Becket uses this time to tell the priest his story. He talks about his mother, Mary, who came from an ultra-rich family called the Redfellows, but was ousted after she slept with and became pregnant with the baby of a man of no financial means. Instead of giving up the baby, Mary decided to leave the family. On the day Becket was born, his father died, so his mother raised him on her own.
While they may have been living without money, Mary raised Becket in the way she was raised. She told him about the Redfellow inheritance and how he was the eighth in line to get it. When Becket was still a child, his mother died due to an incurable disease. For the next few years, Becket focused simply on surviving and forgot about the inheritance. Until one day, Julia, his childhood crush, walks into his workplace and reminds him of it. Before leaving, she comments on him killing the ones before him in line, which sparks an idea in his head. He decided to kill the others until he was the only Redfellow left to get the inheritance.
He drowns one cousin, orchestrates an explosion in another’s house, and poisons the third one’s drink. One of them he kills by poisoning her while she is in the spa, and the other dies after Becket gives him a sedative, making him sleep while he is flying a plane. The next in line is his uncle, Warren, but Becket respects him too much and cannot bring himself to kill the guy. This leaves the last person, his grandfather, Whitelaw, who banished Mary from the family. In between all this, he is regularly visited by Julia, who seems to have caught on to his plans and spins a plan of her own.
Who Killed Lyle?
In an ironic turn of events, after killing six Redfellows and getting away with it, Becket is arrested for a murder he never committed. After killing Whitelaw in self-defense, he gets the inheritance that he had been dreaming of his entire life. As he and Ruth are welcomed into the socialite circles, everything seems perfect for one moment. But then, the FBI arrives and arrests him for the murder of Lyle, Julia’s husband. There are two pieces of evidence against him. The first is the CCTV footage of him barging into Lyle’s office, which did happen. About an hour ago, Julia had blackmailed him to write a big, fat check to her husband in return for her not going to the cops with the evidence she had collected against him.
The realisation that he hadn’t been as careful as he thought, and that his whole work has been unravelled in one fell swoop, makes him angry, but he also needs to save himself. So he does exactly as asked and rushes into Lyle’s office. Of course, he cannot share that with the cops, who, thanks to Julia’s testimony, believe he went to Lyle’s office because he was in love with Julia. The second piece of evidence is the murder weapon: the letter opener with his fingerprints on it. When Becket entered Lyle’s office, he held the letter opener and threatened the guy with it for a second, but he never actually used it. And yet, soon after he walked out of the office, Lyle was found dead.
Julia’s false testimony about her and Becket being in love sends Lyle to prison and on death row, but she keeps another important piece of evidence from the cops. It turns out that when she walked into her husband’s office, she found a note on his desk. This suicide note explained why he killed himself, which is what he most likely did because he was broken apart at the idea of Julia taking the money Becket had just handed him and walking out of their marriage. At this point, he had already lost his family fortune, and with Julia leaving him, too, there was nothing left in his life. So, he decided to end things then and there. He wrote it all down in the letter, but Julia found an opportunity in the circumstances and hid that letter, leading to Becket’s conviction for murder.
Does Becket Die? Does He Get Out of Prison?
At the beginning of the movie, we meet Becket in his prison cell, where he meets a priest as the hour of his execution draws near. The priest wonders why he is calm and composed, knowing he is going to die soon. It is after telling the whole story that Becket reveals Julia’s blackmail. In return for giving Lyle’s suicide note to the cops and acquitting Becket, she asks for the Redfellow inheritance. The money is nothing in exchange for his life, so Becket signs it over, even if with a heavy heart, and waits for Julia to hold up her end of the deal. When the priest arrives, Becket is confident, but by the time the story ends, much time has passed, and he begins to wonder whether Julia will do as she promised.
Due to Julia’s volatile and somewhat psychopathic nature, Becket has no idea whether she can be relied upon. However, he knows that apart from the money, she also wants him and doesn’t really want him to die. Still, with each passing minute, his hope begins to waver, and he wonders if this is the last joke she played on him. Julia takes her time, knowing full well how much this wait will torture him, but she honors the deal. Soon, the letter’s existence becomes public, and Becket is allowed to walk out of the prison alive and well. However, this is not the end of the story.
Does Becket Get the Redfellow Fortune? Do Becket and Julia End Up Together?
The whole film centers on Becket’s tireless efforts to secure the inheritance his mother had told him about when he was young. Getting the fortune didn’t just mean being rich; it also meant honoring his mother’s last wish to live the life she raised him for. After killing six of his relatives and watching one of them die a natural death, Becket finally has it all. Or at least, he does for a moment. On his deathbed, Uncle Warren, whom Becket had grown to love so much that he decided to end his killing spree and be content with the life he had now. Because of the kindness Warren had shown him, Becket couldn’t fathom killing him, and he convinced himself that the fortune was not worth murdering the man he actually loved and respected.
But then, Warren had a heart attack, and on his deathbed, he told Becket that being loved was more important than having money. Of course, this didn’t shake off Becket’s desire to lead a wealthy life, but it did make him appreciate love more. He’d fallen in love with Ruth, and once he had his hands on the Redfellow inheritance, she was the one he wanted to share it with. He almost had it after Whitelaw’s death, but then Julia messed up everything. She twisted the events so that Becket had to sign over his inheritance to her. So, when he walks out of prison, he has no money, but when he sees Ruth waiting for him, he grows optimistic that at least he has her. By now, however, she has become tired of his lies. So, she hands him his mother’s locket and drives away.
Becket is heartbroken by this because the one person that he loved has left him. And then, he sees Julia waiting for him. He figures that if he doesn’t have love, he can, at least, have the money, so he decides to join Julia. They drive off together to the Redfellow estate, and Becket seems to be on the verge of tears. These, however, don’t seem to be happy tears. Yes, he wanted the inheritance, but he also wanted what he had with Ruth. Instead, he has the money, but it isn’t exactly his. It will be given to him by Julia, which means he is tied to her forever and cannot leave her. Had it been before he met Ruth and fell in love, ending up with Julia wouldn’t have been so bad. By now, however, he has come to know exactly how psychotic she can be.
More importantly, he isn’t in love with her. In fact, for all that she put him through, he most likely loathes her. But he has no other choice. It is either this or return to a life of poverty and nothingness, and he cannot do that anymore. So, he has to accept his fate and be with Julia. Of course, he can always try to kill her and get back his inheritance, but she is not like the other Redfellows. She is not unsuspecting of him. Instead, she is two steps ahead of him, and before he gets to her, she will more likely get to him first. In this context, his getting teary-eyed in the end shows that he knows he is doomed, but there is nothing he can do about it.
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